Statement by Brownie Carson, NRCM Executive Director
Welcome Director Catherine Carroll, Commissioner McGowan (others present) and members of the Maine media.
I am honored to be here today to deliver to LURC comments from more than 5,000 (actually 5003) people are formally registering their opposition to Seattle-based Plum Creek Real Estate Corporation’s massive development plan for Maine’s Moosehead Lake Region.
This is the largest outpouring ever seen on any issue before Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission – more than twice as many comments as any other issue ever before them.
The fact that this many people are registering their concerns is an indication of how important the Moosehead Lake region with its sparkling waters, beautiful mountains, green forests and abundant wildlife are to people all over Maine.
We are delivering these comments today because Plum Creek has said they have gone ‘back-to-the-drawing board,’ to revamp their original oversized, poorly-sited development proposal that lacked permanent large-scale forest conservation.
In any new proposal they may put forth we urge Plum Creek to take to heart the comments that we are delivering today from citizens from across the state who love the Moosehead Lake Region.
(Read a few comments – see attached.)
Also today the Natural Resources Council of Maine is releasing nine 2-3 minute videotaped interviews with Moosehead Lake area residents sharing their concerns about the Plum Creek development proposal.
In the video interviews, citizens speak to the impact the proposed development would have on the future of the North Woods and Moosehead Lake Region, the economy of surrounding towns, and the preservation of the nation’s largest remaining undeveloped forest in the East.
NRCM shares the perspective of those in the Moosehead Lake region who believe that permanently protecting public access, large tracts of undeveloped forest and the remote character of the Moosehead region is essential to its future.
NRCM also shares their opinion that future development in the region should be located in or near existing communities in the region, not scattered across the landscape.
