In Maine, project offers hope
After mills close down, backers see monument as engine for new jobs
MILLINOCKET, Maine — Among the empty storefronts on once-bustling Penobscot Avenue, longtime resident Jean McLean stood in her art gallery, the sole employee left at a business that once had three.
“Right now, it’s pretty dead,” McLean said, looking at the sunlit mountains of northern Maine. “All the young people left to find work.”
This rural region is long on natural beauty and short on jobs after the back-toback closings of paper mills that decimated the economy, sending young people fleeing, creating sky-high unemployment and shrinking property values.
Yet many residents have opposed a significant proposal aimed at helping: the new Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, created this week by President Barack Obama. Supporters have said the project could bring 450 jobs in a sparsely populated region where unemployment has been as high as 20 percent in recent years.
McLean and other supporters hope that steadfast critics, who warn federal government intrusion will threaten the economy and a heritage built on free recreational access to land, come around. Local politicians worry the monument could mean more regulations to dissuade manufacturers from coming to town.
But the paper mills and $30-an-hour jobs, McLean said, are never coming back. The Millinocket paper mill was demolished last year, and the East Millinocket mill closed in 2014 following $40 million in taxpayerbacked financing.
“We have to make what’s left of our surroundings and put them to use, make them desirable,” McLean said. “Once they see what happens with it, they’ll accept it.”
New national park sites and opposition go hand in hand. While national parks require congressional approval, presidents can issue proclamations for national monuments, like the new one in Maine.
Frustrations were stoked in 1996 when President Bill Clinton created the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah and gave the governor and congressional delegation only 24 hours’ notice. More recently, opponents to Nevada’s new Basin and Range National Monument said Obama didn’t communicate enough with local groups before setting aside 700,000 acres.
Over time, and with the money visitors bring in, opposition tends to die down. The National Park Service reported that in 2014, visitors spent $15.7 billion in local communities within 60 miles of parks.
This weekend, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell will see the new monument for the first time and attend a celebration. The National Park Service is operating an office on Penobscot Avenue, where several banners announce an upcoming New England Outdoor Center and “timberchic” business.
Paul Renaud, who runs the nearby Appalachian Trail Lodge, shook his head at critics like Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who have said the monument’s 87,500 acres are swampy and full of black flies.
“It’s beautiful, and it’s been a well-kept secret for so long,” Renaud said, noting its sweeping views of Mount Katahdin, the state’s highest peak and the northern end of the Appalachian Trail, which lies within neighboring Baxter State Park.