Senator Edgecomb, Representative Hickman, and members of the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee. My name is Eliza Donoghue. I am here today to speak on behalf of the Natural Resources Council of Maine and our 16,000 members and supporters in support of LD 1629, An Act To Implement the Recommendations of the Commission To Study Read More
Public Reserved Lands
Maine has approximately 600,000 acres of Public Reserved Lands in more than 30 separate parcels located across Maine. These lands are enjoyed for their outstanding hiking, camping, birding, fishing, and hunting opportunities. They include the Bigelow Preserve, Kennebec Highlands, Tumbledown, Cutler’s Bold Coast, Donnell Pond, and more. Maine’s Public Reserved Lands are managed by the Bureau of Parks and Lands (BPL) for multiple uses, including wildlife habitat, outdoor recreation, and sustainable timber harvesting. For the past 40 years, BPL has harvested timber from these forests in a sustainable, even exemplary manner, improving both the quality and the quantity of timber on those lands.
Nahmakanta Dreams
I first explored the Nahmakanta Public Reserved Land Unit, located southwest of Baxter State Park, while guiding a 10-day wilderness canoe and work experience for disadvantaged youth about 20 years ago. Together, four guides and eight kids spent a little less than a week constructing trails throughout the Nahmakanta Unit and then paddled the St. Read More
Trailblazing Maine Environmental Reporter Bob Cummings Dies at 86
A 1972 story by the longtime writer for the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram resulted in 400,000 acres of Maine forestland being returned to the people of the state. By Edward D. Murphy and Beth Quimby, Staff Writers Portland Press Herald news story Bob Cummings, whose trailblazing journalism for the Portland Press Herald and Maine Read More
2015 NRCM Accomplishments
With the help, support, and engagement of people who love Maine, NRCM played a vital role in delivering big victories for our environment in 2015. Because of you, we can celebrate progress in many areas.
It’s Time for Debate Over LePage’s Timber-for-heat Plan to End Once and For All
By The BDN Editorial Board Gov. Paul LePage has insisted for more than a year that contractors cut more timber from state-owned forests and that the state use the additional revenue to fund heating upgrades for low-income, rural households. Fortunately, reason has repeatedly prevailed in the face of a proposal that has lacked a sound Read More
How One Man Helped Maine Win Back Public Land from Private Companies
By Stephanie Bouchard, Island Institute Bangor Daily News news story Editor’s note: This story first appeared in The Working Waterfront, published by the Island Institute, and appears here with permission. The story that would become reporter Bob Cummings’ legacy didn’t set his world on fire when White Nichols walked into the Bath Times office in Read More
Task Force Balks at LePage Plan to Divert State Timber Revenues for Home Heating
Citing constitutional restrictions, the commission spurns the governor’s idea to fund the home heating program with income from expanded logging on public lands. By Kevin Miller, Staff Writer Portland Press Herald news story AUGUSTA — A task force has recommended against using revenues from logging on state-owned lands to help low-income Mainers heat their homes, Read More
Legislature’s Public Lands Commission Slams Forest Door on Governor’s Demands
By George Smith Bangor Daily News column A special Commission organized by the legislature to respond to Governor Paul LePage’s demands that money be diverted from the Public Lands Bureau to fund heating assistance has unanimously rejected those demands, effectively shutting the forest door on the Governor. But the Commission did vote to divert some surplus Read More
Keeping Our Perspective
by Lisa Pohlmann, NRCM Executive Director I have been speaking with many of NRCM’s longtime members these past few months. They remember with pride how NRCM helped restore the Kennebec from a stinking industrial dump to a vibrant river that supports the largest alewife run east of the Mississippi. They remember when we helped ban Read More
