ELECTION SPECIAL — 2007
Protecting Maine's true
wealth - the state's natural resources
By Rep. Herb Adams
The best reason to VOTE YES on
Question 4 awaits outside your window - autumn leaves bright in the breeze, the lake down
at the town landing, the bay glittering beyond the docks, the mountains blue beyond the
city's edge.
Maine has what the world wants,
and has thrown away, sold off, or used up. Our clean air, ocean vistas, mountain ranges,
and farm fields have value now to a tired world, and that world is willing, more than
ever, to pay whatever it costs to take them from us for their own. Does Maine have what it
takes to hold onto our heritage?
Fortunately, Maine people have
always answered YES - so far. The Land for Maine's Future ( LMF ) program, of which
Question 4 this fall is the latest installment, has proved to be the most popular bond
question ever placed on any Maine ballot at any time in Maine history. Across two decades
Mainers have overwhelmingly approved LMF bonds - in 1987 ($35 million), 1999 ($50
million), 2005 ($12 million) - by margins of up to 69 percent of the total vote cast.
This year marks the 20th
anniversary of the first LMF bond, sponsored in 1987 by young State Rep. Patrick MacGowan
of Caanan, Maine. In 2007, Question 4's request for $17 million pales in purchasing power
beside the first bond passed in 1987. Sadly, it also pales in the face of the pent-up need
for preservation of the best of Maine against the world rushing in to pay whatever it
takes to own their own private piece of heaven Down East - and lock it up from the rest of
us.
In 1987, Maine was the first
state in the U.S. to invent the LMF idea of public ownership of public land, obtained from
willing sellers, to be held forever as a public trust for hunting, fishing, trekking,
trapping, rafting, tenting, and photographing.
In 1987, most of Maine was owned by giant American paper companies that traditionally
allowed access to most of their lands. Coastal Maine braved the last efforts of Big Oil to
buy prime seacoast for refineries. No one had ever heard of "kingdom lots,"
tracts of North Woods containing entire lake chains and mountain ranges bought by one
person for a private principality, with mega-mansions to be enjoyed only by one person.
Maine was soon to find out.
The concept behind LMF in 1987
was simple and remains simple - and more important than ever - today. Lands that have
exceptional natural or recreational value warrant permanent protection. With spreading
development and pressures on land use, Maine is at risk of losing forever many of the
natural landscapes we all cherish and are precious to our heritage and economic wellbeing.
The LMF program seeks to preserve and conserve these important Maine places.
In 2007, the "Big
Seven" paper companies are long gone. Multinational brokerage firms move entire
townships of Maine land as commodities on foreign markets, owned by trusts and traded by
dealers who will never see a single white pine or walk one foot of Maine lakeshore.
In 2007, barely 25 miles of
working waterfront remain along Maine's 5,300 miles of rugged coast. Condos fill the old
sail lofts; gated estates line the saltwater shores.
In 2007, vast tracts of western
Maine actually appear for bid on e-Bay.
What can worried Mainers do to
hold our heritage for our children?
Take heart! The risk is real,
but so is the success story spelled out by LMF across its 20 years. Over 440,000 acres of
Maine's best lands, from the bold coast Down East to the blueberry plains of Kennebunk, to
Quaggy Joe Mountain in Aroostook are preserved for public access in the LMF catalog. Over
247,000 acres are in conservation easement, including farmlands and mountaintops, wildlife
habitat and shoreline access. Recent refinements to the LMF program include specified
funds for archeological preservation and the first-ever significant working waterfront
sites, such as those now preserved in Machiasport, Boothbay, and the famous Holbrook's
Wharf in Harpswell.
More waits to be done. The
pressure from outside Maine is constant, and examples of what might be lost are plentiful
and sometimes painful. The total LMF funds from 1987 to 2007 (some $97 million) are less
than the value of the real estate encompassed in the proposed Plum Creek development on
the shores of Moosehead Lake - a pristine piece of Maine for which the LMF program was
outbid, incidentally, by the current owner.
And still the need grows. In
1997, the state Land Acquisition Priorities Committee year-long study concluded that Maine
should double its public land holdings to one million acres by the year 2020 or face
"tragic loss of habitat, heritage and our character." Ten years closer to that
date, the goal is still elusive and the risk is still real. In 2007, our various natural
resource advocates estimated the immediate need was an infusion of $75 to $100 million
into the LMF program now, just to combat the rising tide of out-of-state development money
- and a regular infusion of $50 Million every two years to stay atop the wave.
LD 1531, the LMF bond request I
sponsored, for example, one of five filed with the 123rd Legislature, was for $70 million.
In common with the other bills, it was hammered down to the current $17 million, and all
sponsors, with a sigh, were grateful for even that in our challenging times. (I proudly
note that my own LMF bond was enthusiastically cosponsored by almost every freshman
legislator in the 123rd, of both parties and both houses, a sure investment of our own in
Maine's future.
Thrifty voters in 2007 should
know that this fall's Question 4 is a bundle that will also bring $22 million in matching
funds from federal, public, and private sources. Of the total $35 million package on the
ballot, $3 million is earmarked for working waterfront purchases, $5 million for
riverfront community development, and $7.5 million for long-overdue improvements at state
parks and historic sites. Mainers know how to leverage a nickel.
That view from your window
could, sadly, change overnight. So much of Maine's best, past and future, waits upon the
auction block.
Tonight, winds sigh through
Maine pines, waves break on Maine beaches. Will they be Maine's still when your children
wake tomorrow?
So much depends on Question 4
this fall. Do you have your YES pen ready?
Visit www.maine.gov/spo/lmf
and ww.nrcm.org/legislature
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