President Barack Obama is assigning over 87,000 acres of Maine’s North Woods as a new national monument.
Today, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, President Obama designated the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument encompassing awe-inspiring mountains, forests, and waters of north-central Maine. Building on the Administration’s commitment to protecting our land, water and wildlife for future generations, this designation will permanently protect significant natural, scientific, and historic and cultural resources, wildlife habitat, and one of the most pristine watersheds in the northeast, ensuring that present and future generations are able to enjoy these lands.
The new national monument – which will be managed by the National Park Service – will protect approximately 87,500 acres, including the stunning East Branch of the Penobscot River and a portion of the Maine Woods that is rich in biodiversity and known for its outstanding opportunities to hike, canoe, hunt, fish, snowmobile, snowshoe and cross-country ski. In addition to protecting spectacular geology, significant biodiversity and recreational opportunities, the new monument will help support climate resiliency in the region. The protected area – together with the neighboring Baxter State Park to the west – will ensure that this large landscape remains intact, bolstering the forest’s resilience against the impacts of climate change.
As always, the White House made sure to remind people that protecting our national environmental heritage is good for the economy and more fiscally conservative than selling it off to the highest person named Koch.
Studies have shown that every dollar we invest in our national parks generates $10 for the national economy, most of which stays in the local communities, and our national parks, forests and other public lands attract visitors from all over the world, fueling local economies and supporting an estimated $646 billion national outdoor economy. Maine’s biggest national park, Acadia, which began as a national monument designated in 1916 by President Wilson with lands donated to the Federal Government, was the nation’s ninth most visited national park last year. In 2015, Acadia National Park attracted close to 3 million visitors, who spent an estimated $247.9 million in local communities. In addition to continuing to support traditional recreational activities such as snowmobiling and hunting, the new national monument will increase public access, help generate local and regional economic activity, and complement additional economic development efforts in the region.
Of course, some Republicans are unhappy with yet another over-reach by our gun-hungry-Kenyan overlord.
Still, some Republicans criticized Obama’s decision to protect the area without waiting for congressional approval, which is required to designate a national park. Maine Gov. Paul R. LePage (R) said it “demonstrates that rich, out-of-state liberals can force their unpopular agenda on the Maine people against their will.”
That’s pretty rich coming from a Republican Party that couldn’t get a hot knife passed through butter without finding out if we could privatize the butter and give the knife a tax break.
This is a long time coming.
The designation of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument marks the culmination of a long, bitter struggle over the land’s fate. For more than a decade, Roxanne Quimby — the wealthy, polarizing co-founder of Burt’s Bees — tried to give away the area to the government to create a new national park.
[...]
By donating land worth $60 million, along with the facilities her family foundation has already built, an endowment of $20 million for operations and maintenance and a pledge to raise another $20 million, Quimby is effectively providing the government with a $100 million gift.
Damn handouts!