EXCLUSIVE: Snowmobilers make new push for trail grooming in Baxter State Park Gov. Percival Baxter, who donated the original lands in Baxter State Park, wanted the park to be managed primarily for wildlife and primitive recreation. While he agreed to allow limited snowmobile use for administrative purposes, he did not favor public snowmobiling. Snowmobiles "should be prohibited in the Park," except for administrative use, Baxter wrote as early as 1965. "I feel strongly about this for they will frighten away the wild animals." Despite this, for decades there has been pressure by snowmobilers to be able to use the park. In the 1980s, a compromise was struck to allow public snowmobiling on the Perimeter Road with the understanding that it would not become a groomed trail to discourage speeding. The Perimeter Road, which is now called the Tote Road, is the only road that crosses the entire park north-south. With a governor and legislators who are hostile to wilderness in control of the executive and legislative branches for the first time in decades, the snowmobile lobby is again pushing for grooming of the Tote Road in Baxter State Park. Last fall, State Rep. Ricky Long (R-Sherman) proposed "An Act to Provide for Grooming of the Perimeter Road at Baxter State Park," which would have required the Baxter State Park Authority to allow grooming for snowmobiles of the Tote Road. His bill was rejected by the Legislative Council for the 2012 Second Regular Session. So Long took his case to the governor's office. Gov. Paul LePage or his staff suggested that Long make his request directly to the Baxter State Park Authority. According to the Maine Snowmobile Association website, at the February MSA directors meeting, Rep. Long presented his plan and gained the unanimous support of the MSA board. Long's request is expected to be presented to the Baxter State Park Authority at their meeting in March 2012. Allowing snowmobile grooming of the Tote Road in Baxter State Park would violate Gov. Baxter's explicit wishes. However, equally troubling is the precedent of political interference in management decisions by the Park Authority, which is supposed to be independent. Pressure from a legislator, abetted by the governor's office, is precisely the sort of political meddling that Gov. Baxter warned against. Advocates of snowmobile grooming in the park argue that they want an alternative route in case landowner Roxanne Quimby closes snowmobile trails on her land east of Baxter State Park. However, Quimby has been working for years with the Maine Snowmobile Association and local clubs to create a long-term solution to the desire for a north-south groomed snowmobile connection between Millinocket and Matagamon. In December 2010, Quimby gave permission for snowmobilers to use a trail on her property for the winter while they tried to find a permanent alternative route. She also contributed supplies for the construction of a bridge needed for the trail. In March 2011, Quimby sold land and easements to the State to accommodate the desire for multiple use areas near Baxter State Park, including for snowmobile trails connecting the Katahdin and Aroostook regions. In August 2011, Quimby confirmed that snowmobilers could again use trails crossing her lands for the 2011-2012 winter season. Notwithstanding these efforts to accommodate snowmobiling in the Katahdin region, lobbyists for the snowmobile industry and property rights advocates have continued to criticize Quimby for trying to restore motorized trails on her lands to a natural condition, and they have forcefully opposed her conservation efforts. Bob Meyers is executive director of the Maine Snowmobile Association. He claims that Quimby is "threatening the livelihoods of dozens of small family-owned businesses." The MSA has ferociously opposed Quimby's offer to donate some of her lands east of Baxter State Park for a new national park. Gene Conlogue is town manager in Millinocket and an officer of a group called the Maine Woods Coalition, which has fought every major conservation initiative in northern Maine in recent years. He too opposes Quimby's efforts to give her lands for a public park. It remains to be seen whether the Baxter State Park Authority will uphold Gov. Baxter's intent, or whether they will buckle to political pressure on this issue and violate the long-standing compromise that has allowed snowmobilers to use the Tote Road through Baxter Park for the past thirty years. They may win the skirmish, but lose the war. If grooming is allowed, it will greatly increase pressure to ban snowmobiles from the park.
Posted on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 (Archive on Tuesday, March 13, 2012) Posted by Jym St. Pierre   Contributed by Jym St. Pierre
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