Time to put our differences aside and make the best of the new national monument

East Branch Penobscot RiverOn May 16, I testified in favor of the designation of a national monument on land owned by Elliotsville Plantation, at a public hearing hosted by U.S. Senator Angus King and the Director of the National Park Service. Now that the President has designated that area as a national monument, I think my remarks are even more relevant, particularly the last sentence. Here is what I said that night.

             I’m the guy who distributed the Ban Roxanne bumper sticker. And for several years, when I was executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, I was a principle opponent of Roxanne’s. But she reached out to several of us and started a series of meetings in which – surprise! – I found that I liked her. And when her son Lucas St.Clair took over, I was even more impressed.

Lucas brought his national consultants – all of whom hunt and fish, as he does – to my home in Mount Vernon, got out the maps, and let me tell them what I wanted on each of the parcels that they own in the North Woods. And they’ve done everything I asked. So I am now compelled to be a supporter of their ideas and initiatives.

I focus much of my interest on the East Branch of the Penobscot River. I’ve fished on rivers in Alaska, Montana, Labrador, and Quebec, and I’m telling you the East Branch is a world class river that could be a major destination for anglers and paddlers.

Linda and I own a camp on the other side of Mount Katahdin, and over the last two decades, I’ve seen the awful collapse of the area’s economy, and I know they need help – lots of help.

Linda and I spent 3 weeks in April in Arizona and Texas – including Big Bend National Park – on a birding adventure, and we met lots of people who had visited Maine. At least 75 percent of them had come to see Acadia National Park. Yes, national parks, monuments, forests, and wildlife reserves are places of great interest to all of us.

We have some awesome national wildlife refuges right here in Maine, and my favorite state park, Cobscook, is actually on federal land. It is possible to work together, to protect our best places and build a sustainable economy.

I am sad that this project, and so many other issues, have divided us Mainers. We need to regroup, end the dysfunction and disappointment in our political and governing systems, and create a great future for our children and grandchildren.

If and when the President designates this place as a national monument, then we need to put our aggravations and differences aside, and make the best of it.

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.