New York is the only state, so far, that has money on hand in an environmental bond fund to buy wild land. Moderate environmental groups find themselves in the squeamish position of supporting continued ownership of most of the woodlands by timber companies whose environmental records they deplore. Longtime residents of the North Woods are caught in the middle. Jobs in the forest industry are declining and tourism is on the rise, but most people here do not want their communities pickled inside a national or state park. They also dread too much development, particularly on the shores of Moosehead Lake in this still-natural region 70 miles northwest of Bangor.
People come up here for peace of mind and to be happy.
We don't come up here to make lots of money. Fighting for the Forest Rudy Engholm, who has lots of money and a couple of airplanes, is a champion of preserving the North Woods as a national park. In the 1980s, when he was a software executive in Ann Arbor, Mich., builders cut down a giant oak tree behind his house. It was the last straw. He quit his job, moved to Maine and joined Restore, the group that wants logging companies to get out of the state's North Woods and the National Park Service to come in.