From: cberlet@igc.apc.org (NLG Civil Liberties Committee)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: Re: Wise Use in Northeast (anti-Green)
Date: 13 Dec 92 22:24:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #R:cdp:1425500034:cdp:1425500038:000:5657
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!cberlet    Dec 13 14:24:00 1992


/* Written  2:14 pm  Dec 13, 1992 by cberlet in igc:publiceye */
The Scent of Opportunity:
A Survey of the Wise Use/Property Rights 
Movement in New England 

by William Kevin Burke

December 12, 1992

The Big North 


 Regionally, the New England Wise Use/property 
rights movement has been most active and vocal on 
issues surrounding the forested lands known as 
the Big North. And the fate of the Big North, 30 
million acres of woods that stretch across four 
states, will determine the economic future of 
northern New England. Covering most of Maine, the 
Northern portions of Vermont and New Hampshire, 
and the top third of New York, the mixed 
woodlands of the Big North have been managed 
according to a tradition of cooperation between 
industrial and public uses. Large acreages of 
Maine woods have been clearcut, but the 
willingness of forest products companies, which 
own one-third of the Big North outright, to leave 
their lands open for public use has helped 
sustain the state's tourist industries. This 
balance between public and private land use has 
been maintained despite the relative paucity of 
governmental land purchases. A few national and 
state parks dot the region, but Yankee 
independence (Governor Percival Baxter had to 
purchase the land for Maine's first state park 
with his own funds, then donate the land to the 
state) and forest industry noblesse oblige 
created a compromise system that met the region's 
economic needs and left the Big North relatively intact.

Until recently, that is. In 1982 Sir James 
Goldsmith, a British corporate raider, bought 
Diamond International, makers of safety matches 
and owners of over one million acres of Big North 
forest land. Goldsmith made over 200 percent 
profit on his investment by breaking up Diamond 
and selling off the company's assets. Federal and 
state money obtained by Senator Rudman of New 
Hampshire allowed that state to purchase about 
forty-five thousand acres of former Diamond 
lands, but only after Goldsmith had first sold 
the land to a developer, who made a large profit 
by outbidding the state initially, then raising 
the price and reselling part of his acquisition 
to the state.

Most of the Diamond lands were purchased by other 
forest products companies. But this experience 
showed the governments of the four Big North 
states that unless they organized to plan for 
future changes in land ownership, the Big North, 
which lies within a day's drive of 40 million 
Canadians and Americans, would gradually be 
subdivided into resort communities. This would 
mean more no trespassing signs and septic tanks 
surrounding woodland lakes, fewer forest products 
jobs, and more low-wage jobs for chambermaids and 
gas station attendants. 

The governors of the Big North states appointed a 
study group to investigate the possibilities for 
planning the future development and management of 
the Big North. This led to the formation of the 
Northern Forest Lands Council, a National Forest 
Service advisory body composed of 
environmentalists, forest industry 
representatives, and state and federal 
representatives, to continue this planning 
process. In the summer of 1991, New Hampshire, 
Vermont, and Maine held hearings on proposals to 
make the Council an independent body. It still 
would not have power to condemn or purchase 
private lands, but the new status would have 
meant the Council would no longer be dependent on 
the Forest Service for its existence.

Those hearings marked the emergence of the Wise 
Use/property rights movement in upper New 
England. Activists from the Adirondacks and other 
areas arrived to speak against the Council in New 
England. The John Birch Society distributed 
flyers warning, "Land Takeover Threatens NY, VT, 
NH and ME." Environmentalists were surprised and 
somewhat overwhelmed by this opposition to a 
council painstakingly assembled so as to contain 
representatives of all points of view.

In Maine, the Bangor City Hall, site of what had 
been expected to be a relatively 
non-controversial hearing, was cleared by 
authorities when about two hundred Wise Use 
activists disrupted the proceedings with chants. 
New hearings were scheduled a few months later 
for a larger hall. "Northern Forest Council 
Puke!" was the property rights activists' 
signature slogan displayed on signs at those 
hearings. Maine Governor Jack McKernan and later 
Senators Mitchell and Cohen, withdrew their 
support for upgrading the status of the Northern 
Forest Lands Council.

Wise Use activists had employed misinformation, 
talking of land grabs and government plans to 
muzzle activist ministers, to orchestrate public 
fear and anger. Their antics damaged a program 
meant in no small part to allow dialogue between 
the forest products industry and the 
environmental community. Such dialogue is 
considered especially important by those 
concerned for the future of the region's forests 
as economic pressures cause an increase in 
clearcutting in the region.

Environmentalists in both Maine and Vermont 
commented that since those hearings, their 
traditionally cooperative relationships with 
forest products companies have grown more 
distant. There is a perception that the forest 
industry, which could profit greatly by selling 
off select portions of the Big North for 
development and relying more on their southern 
and western lands for raw materials, has adopted 
a wait and see attitude, sending representatives 
to Wise Use gatherings but not publicly allying 
themselves to the more extreme ideologues who 
warn of creeping socialism and tyranny through 
land use planning.
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive