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Who Should Oversee Maine's Public Lands? Critics Take Aim at Gov's Plan

Mal Leary
/
MPBN
Maine Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Commissioner Walter Whitcomb, left, with Gov. Paul LePage at the state agricultural trade show in January.

AUGUSTA, Maine - How the state should manage more than 600,000 acres of public lands is an issue that is under intense scrutiny at the State House, where conservationists are expected to mount an offensive against proposed changes by the LePage administration.

The governor wants to transfer public lands jurisdiction from the Conservation Department to the forestry service and reduce the number of state forest rangers. Critics of the plan say the governor would rather harvest the state's forests than protect them.

State Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Commissioner Walter Whitcomb spent more than two hours last week trying to convince lawmakers that the administration's proposed forest oversight changes will improve the health of the state's public lands.

But at Maine Audubon, Jenn Gray says Democrats and Republicans on the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee are viewing the proposal with suspicion.

Gray plans to be on hand Tuesday when the committee takes up the plan in detail.

"And I expect that there will be a number of us with concerns there," Gray said. "We've also been talking to individual committee members and our sense is that they're skeptical. So it will be an interesting conversation."

The state has been merging the departments of Agriculture, Forestry and Conservation over the past four years in an attempt to streamline, reduce costs and create greater efficiencies. This year, as part of the state budget, Gov. Paul LePage has transferred oversight of the state's public lands from the Conservation Department to the forest service.

Some of the administration's critics say LePage places a higher priority on the public lands' commercial value than on its preservation, but Commissioner Whitcomb says that's not the case.

"This administration - starting at the top - because of years of working in that industry, wants the focus to be on the health of the forest," Whitcomb said, "so it is very consistent with that thought process that you have the public lands under the direction of the state forester, which is what this is about. That's the discussion that we've put in front of you, and that's the proposal we've put in front of you."

During a recent joint public hearing on the budget before the Appropriations and ACF committees, Rep. Robert Saucier, a Presque Isle Democrat, pressed Whitcomb on what Saucier fears the impact would be of higher timber harvests on public lands.

"Public lands are managed very differently than a commercial forest," said Saucier. "I have a feeling that what's going to happen is our public lands are going to be managed like a commercial forest - and, in fact, we're not going to have the beauty of our forests that are going to have the big trees and people can enjoy for recreating and to enjoy hiking through a forest.  We're going to be looking at twigs, instead of trees."

Additionally, the administration proposes reducing the number of forest rangers and redirecting those officers to focus more on monitoring the health of the forest than on law enforcement.  The new proposed role change follows an earlier failed effort by some of those officers to be equipped with side arms. That plan was opposed by the LePage administration, which prompted Rep. John Martin, an Eagle Lake Democrat, to ask: "Is this revenge?"

Commissioner Whitcomb denied that the administration was trying to punish the rangers. But Sen. Peter Edgecomb, a Caribou Republican and the committee's Senate chair, says the administration's plans need to be studied further to explore all of the possible consequences.

"We all hear the same thing and we all have the same concerns, so it will be interesting to see how this all turns out," Edgecomb said.

Edgecomb's Democratic counterpart, House Chair Craig Hickman, of Winthrop, says bipartisan opposition to the administration's forestry plans is already solidifying. "I do not believe we will allow the Maine Forest Service to be gutted," Hickman said. "There is a lot of support in the Legislature already for the Maine Forest Service and the dedicated forest rangers, who do such a great job."

Members of the committee will explore what portions of the governor's budget they can support during ongoing meetings this week.