The Future of the Northern Maine Woods... (Greenville, Allagash: mattresses, homes)
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Acadia's attendance numbers rose by over 276,000, totaling 2.5 million visitors. (BTW Acadia is currently Americas tenth most popular NP). I would think that a good deal of NP enthusiasts visiting Acadia anyway would want to check out a New NP in the same state, relatively, not to far away.
Federal land is subject to political change. There is no guarantee hunting, fishing and trapping will be allowed in perpetuity. The feds treat us like children in the backseat of the car they pulled out of the ditch and are now driving off the cliff. Natl park or Natl forest and where the money came from to but the land parcels that make up those legal reserves and preserves determine its ultimate disposition swirling in the vortex of global unification. Best to have state control the land.
"USSA Submits Comments to Protect Conservation on National Forest Lands
Changes Needed to Protect Sportsmen
4/8/11 Recently, the U.S. Forest Service proposed a new set of National Forest System Land Management Planning Rules, the interpretation of which could severely impact sportsmen. In response, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA) submitted comments to the Forest Service requesting changes be made to protect sportsmen. Click here to read USSA’s comments. Last October, USSA and nineteen other leading conservation groups sent a letter to the Forest Service requesting that it fix language in its upcoming planning rules that were used as the basis for an anti-hunting court ruling on the Huron-Manistee National Forest. In the decision, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Forest Service’s planning rules required that it consider banning hunting with firearms on some Forest lands. Click here to read more about the Huron-Manistee case. Although the recently proposed rules may be a step in the right direction, they do not go far enough to eliminate the threat of another anti-hunting lawsuit like the Huron-Manistee ruling. Additionally, the proposed rules seem to reject traditional conservation principles like those put forth by President Teddy Roosevelt. The rules use new terms like “social sustainability,” “aesthetic values,” and “spiritual, education, and cultural sustenance” instead of traditional conservation....................."
Kracer,
I like hunting and fishing and snowmobiling too... a lot. I am definately not advocating for the abolishment of these things. Quimby's 70,000 acres is already off limits though (I was glad to hear that she wants to put up a different parcel of 20,000 acres for sportsmen's recreation, even if this was just a symbolic gesture).
Well.... I'm 62 years old. My kids moved out long ago and its just me. However, I used to camp with a small stationwagon and two kids in a tent all over the east coast. I loaded a family of four(husband, me, two kids, small dog) into the equivalent of a focus back in the 80's and early 90's, and every summer did EXACTLY WHAT YOU SAY WOULD BE "difficult at best". And we all had a wonderful time. And back then, when we did that, we didn't have any money for renting a house. We stayed in campgrounds, preferably state campgrounds.
Of course, that all ended with the divorce. So I think it can be done. I'd love to do it again, if I could find somebody to go with me.
I said it would be difficult at best and I stand by that. In fact, I think it would be an awful trip with just two children and all of the necessary "stuff" not limited to sleeping bags, tent, clothing, cooking equipment, food etal. It may be danndy at a KOA on Cape Cod but, for those coming from out of State it would be a six to eight hour drive to northern Maine. By the time our DD and her family get HERE, they're all exhausted just from the trip and they don't have to pack a bunch of "stuff" as we keep everything stocked here for them. That long a trip with kids strapped in car seats is "difficult at best". Now add in the current price of fuel, wear and tear on a vehicle, (it's not all that easy a road off of the highway). I really don't think another NP in northern Maine would have that much of a draw.
You have your opinion, I have mine.
We camped before and after the kids were born. Both of our sons camped at the ages of 7 months and yearly until they were grown and gone. We camped last summer. Those boys went down the Allagash at the ages of 6 and 8. It was a 110 mile trip on the river and if you didn't bring it, you don't have it. Everything was in the canoe and later in two canoes.
I'm not sure that fuel prices will really impact the cost unless the person is driving in a Chevy tahoe getting 10 miles per gallon. My Ford Focus gets 35 mpg, end even driving 650 miles to BH/MDI I'm only looking at two tank fulls which is only $70. I budget for that. Even when gas gets to $10 a gallon the cost for the fuel for the vacation will still only be $140 one way, and by then anyone who travels will be doing so in cars that get at least 35 mpg or maybe closer to 50.
I think the bigger problem with a North Woods Park is that there won't be a lot to do. Tourists need things to do, beaches to lay around in, stores to shop in, etc. These things take a good long time to develop. And again, when its not cheaper to buy something in Mexico or Japan and ship it, we're going to need the resources or the north woods again.
One thing to consider with regard to fuel prices is how much those prices impact basic living expenses. Everything else goes up with the cost of fuel. Food alone is already headed up, up, up.
I think that one of the first things to go when the budget's on the chopping block is vacations which require a long drive, and especially ones that feature little but trees.
Ok, I have camped up there... with kids. I have camped lots of places, with kids. But let me tell you something~ there is NOT enough money to pay ME to drive down a dusty, filthy, bumpy, DIRT road, a good portion of which you WILL yield to logging trucks, in the heat of the summer, packed like sardines, headed to a place where there is no drinkable water, no toilets, perhaps no lake for swimming to rinse off, and I'll tell you what~think of how great your favorite meal tastes like when you're very hungry, and that's EXACTLY how you look to all those black flies, deer flies, moose flies, who rarely, if EVER have seen people.... with *kids*, IN AN ECONOMY CAR, or station wagon!!! People, seriously, if you have not been up there you really have to take our word for it!! This is *not* venturing out an hour from your local gas station that we're talking about here!
(I will, however, do it in a Jeep, and I venture to guess that when NMLM has done it he wasn't in some low slung vehicle either. )
in 1984, I took a '77 pinto wagon (not trying to brag) to lily bay campground on moosehead and we attempted to ride the tote roads,, not a bright idea (the narragansetts didnt help),thank god it was the 4th of july and many folks were in the woods, we got stuck many times
I also have a ford focus with 228,000 miles, gas prices are always a factor when going anywhere-just ask the folks in greenville this year and up in the county- most will tell you its been a slow snowmobile season,,,, due to high gas prices
and the further north you go, the higher the gas prices
as to the op
here is a group that tries to defend the land and the people, when it comes to northern national parks
they are folks and groups that actually live in the area, not speculating from states away...not the tree-huggers or the tree-criers
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