Study of

celebrity
The first step in creating a new national park in Maine’s North Woods is a feasibility study. That, “Restore: The North Woods” got right. What it got wrong is the makeup of the committee that will consider feasibility.

Christopher Reeve once flew over the North Woods in a private plane, which is why he’s been invited to join this committee pushing to set aside a significant portion of Maine’s vast northern woods in preservation. Other committee members have never seen these woods, but intend to visit in the fall.

In the meantime, Lauren Hutton, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Morgan Freeman are lending their names to leverage foundation funding to set aside this parcel in refuge.

Preservation efforts and establishing national parks to protect significant portions of our country is a good idea. But ignoring the wishes of locals in the process is not good politics.

Restore: The North Woods has assembled a high-power, high-profile cast to staff its committee because it believes these celebrities will turn public opinion, even though most of them will serve on the committee in name only. The people behind this 10-year campaign to establish a park are so sure that celebrity is the ticket to success that some committee members are already calling the targeted land holdings a “park.”

The North Woods isn’t a park. It’s just an idea. An idea worth exploring, certainly, but it is a concept fostered by people who have little idea of the culture in these surroundings.

While mega-stars are valuable in bringing money and attention to this project, in order for this feasibility study to have any credibility at all it must include the not-so-famous. The people who live and work in these woods, Maine-based environmentalists and economists and others who have a stake.

Maine people, including the governor and Maine’s congressional delegation, are on record in opposition to a North Woods national park. That opposition is shared by many Mainers, which makes their inclusion in the study committee more valuable.

If the feasibility committee consists of proponents and opponents in equal measure, whatever final conclusion emerges will be solid. Anything less is a hollow exercise in Hollywood hype.


Picture this
J. Michel Patry, who is seriously ill, is handing over the reins of his beloved Creative Photographic Art Center of Maine to a new director. His commitment to the city of Lewiston, to students of photography and to his fellow veterans must not go unnoticed.

Patry was subjected to heavy public criticism last year when the center’s finances and unpaid debts became an issue. The scrutiny temporarily tarnished the man, but did not diminish his long-term contributions to the community.

Patry, a photographer and teacher, is admired and respected by his students.

Patry is also a former Navy man and has long fought for preservation of veteran services.

He may be retired from the center, but he isn’t a retiring man and he deserves public recognition for the commitment he has shown in developing young artists and championing veterans’ rights.

It would be an appropriate gesture to hold a show at the school, a display of student artwork developed under his tutelage and organized and sponsored by local veterans.

There is a chance, here, to publicly thank a man who deserves thanking.


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