Greenville Rezoning
In response to the OpEd piece, “Conservation groups wield too much power,” by Tom McCormick of Greenville (BDN, March 10). Concerning the current iteration of the LURC rezoning proposal of Plum Creek lands in the Moosehead Lake region, McCormick, while acknowledging the value of the 400,000 acre “open-access” conservation offer, proposes a convoluted conspiracy theory in which opposition to the Plum Creek proposal is part of a larger scheme to discourage progress in northern Maine so conservation groups can purchase these lands to provide a “primitive playground” for their members.
Born and raised in Greenville, I have spent most of my adult life here. I know how important the timberlands are to the northern Maine economy and am aware of the significance of the tourist industry to Maine’s future. Both of these interests could have been well served without the need to ask LURC for rezoning of the North Woods. McCormick attempts to invert reality by suggesting the real issue is this imagined land-grab by conservationists, not the actual rezoning which would further the process of shutting the public out of tens of thousands of acres of land currently open to the public for recreational and industrial forest usage.
The Plum Creek plan does seem like the next logical and inevitable step in a process that has been steadily degrading the quality of forests and shores while maximizing money coming into the region. While I realize my feelings are not shared by many Maine residents, I welcome the effort of conservation groups to slow down the rate of deterioration of Maine’s natural resources and force as much land as possible into truly sustainable use through conservation and restoration.
The desire of a landowner to maximize profits and the tendency of a region’s population toward a vision of shortsighted economics are understandable. This political tirade that McCormick introduces into the mix isn’t.
Bill Walden
Greenville
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