page_title: Natural Resources Council of Maine
section_title: Significant issues
hierarchical_section_title: Natural Resources Council of Maine / Significant issues
caption_attribution_description: English: Allagash Waterway, Autumn.
context_page_description: The Natural Resources Council of Maine is a Maine-based, 501 non-profit organization, with offices in Augusta, Maine. Founded in 1959 as a small, volunteer-based environmental advocacy group, NRCM has grown to be Maine's largest environmental advocacy organization, with more than 25,000 supporters and activists and a staff of 30, including science and policy experts.
context_section_description: NRCM has been involved with most of Maine's most important environmental issues.  
   
  1960s
  The major issue that led to the formation of the Natural Resource Council of Maine in 1959 was the increasing risk of deterioration of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.  This almost 100 mile long stretch of streams, lakes, and rivers located in far northern Maine was facing threats from a variety of sources.  Encroachment of roadways, poor timber harvesting practices, and several proposed hydropower projects threatened to irreparably change the wilderness character of the Allagash.  NRCM worked in concert with established national conservation organizations to promote the value of the Allagash as a designated conservation area.  In 1966 the citizens of Maine passed a referendum authorizing the state to issue a $1.5 million bond to purchase the waterway and permanently protect its wilderness character.  In 1970, the waterway became part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
  1970s
  NRCM was a key supporter of the so-called "Bottle Bill" legislation approved by Maine voters in November 1976.  Angus King, then in private practice as an attorney in Brunswick, Maine, acted as NRCM's primary lobbyist on the issue at the Maine Legislature.  The bill, which required beverage manufacturers to charge a bottle redemption fee on bottles and cans, is arguably Maine's oldest and most successful recycling promotion law.  The legislation has come under fire numerous times since its adoption, but NRCM and other product stewardship organizations have worked successfully to preserve it against attempts at repeal several times over the last 40 years.
  In 1977, Governor James B. Longley signed a bill that banned and removed billboards across the state, making Maine the second state in the US to prohibit off-premises billboards. NRCM helped to rally support for this original law and has led opposition against later attempts to weaken it.
  1980s
  Working with several other conservation groups within the state, NRCM opposed and eventually prevented the Great Northern Paper Company's proposed Big A dam project on the West Branch of the Penobscot River.  The proposed dam would have created a lake several miles in length, and flooded out some of the most important stretches of wild water in the Northeast United States.  Specifically, the dam would have submerged the Ripogenus Gorge; a deep gorge along the West Branch of the Penobscot River that had the potential to be designated a Natural National Landmark.  Further, the dam had the potential to disrupt some of the most pristine existing habitats for landlocked salmon spawning.
  In 1987 NRCM was one of the primary supporters of both the legislation and the public referendum that led to the formation of the Land for Maine's Future program.  In response to growing concerns about unchecked development, urban sprawl, real-estate speculation, and the potential for the loss of lands significant to Maine's cultural heritage, the citizens of Maine voted to approve a $35 million bond package intended to finance the state purchase of lands of statewide importance.
  1990s
  Breaching of the Edwards Dam on the Kennebec River When the Edwards Dam's license came up for review in the late 1980s, a coalition of Maine-based conservation groups, led by the Natural Resources Council of Maine, lobbied before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the dam's decertification and deconstruction.  They argued that the economic and ecological value of restoring the river to a more natural state, which included the return of sea-run species of fish, far outweighed the benefit of hydroelectric energy production at the site.  After a long period of debate and consideration, the FERC ultimately agreed with conservation groups and issued a landmark ruling calling for the removal of dam. The dam was removed on July 1, 1999.  The breaching of the Edwards Dam established a useful precedent that was later used to decommission and breach other obsolete dams in other places in the state.
  2000s
  In 2004, NRCM successfully lobbied for passag
caption: Allagash Waterway, Autumn.
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