Moosehead Lake: Once it's gone, it's gone forever

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There is no place else like Moosehead Lake: It lies in the heart of the nation’s largest remaining undeveloped forest east of the Mississippi.
Moosehead is beautiful, peaceful and quiet – a rarity in today’s world.
The Moosehead region is home to beloved wildlife, including moose, deer, loons, lynx and brook trout.
The area offers unique recreational opportunities for residents and visitors, which also attract customers to nature tourism businesses.
Moosehead is central to the tradition and history of the state, the nation, and of many Maine families.
Now the Moosehead Lake region is being threatened by Plum Creek, a Seattle-based real estate investment company that is proposing to build a massive development around Moosehead -- the largest development ever proposed in Maine.
The company’s proposal for 2,300 dwellings and a series of commercial developments would destroy Moosehead’s unique character and make it more like everywhere else.
Imagine resorts, golf courses, gas stations, cellphone towers, condominiums, subdivisions, docks, jetskis and more littering the landscape.
Plum Creek bought this land in 1998 for less than $200 per acre, knowing that it was zoned for forestry uses.
Now Plum Creek is asking Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) to change the zoning to allow this development.
Plum Creek has proven time and again that it cannot be trusted to look out for Maine’s interests.
A Republican congressman from Washington State once called Plum Creek “Darth Vader,” because of its aggressive logging practices, but the company has claimed that it has improved its forestry practices since that time.
The company has chopped down the forests that deer need for shelter to survive Maine's harsh winters.
The company received the largest fine in Maine history - $57,000 - for violating Maine’s timber harvesting laws.
Plum Creek pays no state or federal income taxes. The company’s goal is simply to maximize profits for their shareholders.
Maine has one chance to get it right.
There is a way to manage these lands to protect Moosehead and its wildlife and bring prosperity to the region.
By designing a plan to focus development in and near towns; to size it at a scale appropriate to existing communities; and to design it in a way that supports locally-owned businesses and Maine traditions.
By designing a plan to conserve the forestland, wildlife and shorelines for future generations to enjoy as we have.
Once it’s gone it’s gone forever.
Urge LURC to reject this proposal and urge Plum Creek to come back with a proposal that gets it right.
Write to LURC and pledge to attend a hearing at www.nrcm.org/issue_plumcreek.asp
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