COPLIN PLANTATION – Coplin Plantation residents were granted a reprieve this year after International Paper opted not to spray herbicides on the company’s forests there.

The company decided against spraying prior to hearing about Wednesday’s proposed march on Augusta, IP forester Joel Swanton said. IP made the decision not to spray about 250 acres in Coplin this year to prevent further division within the town. He said the company believes there is a lot of support for the company’s forestry management plan, but there is also a vocal minority who opposes it.

This is the third year the company has delayed spraying in Coplin due to citizen opposition.

Some residents were “outraged” this year when they learned IP planned to spray even though some voters had adopted an ordinance to prohibit the practice two years ago, Coplin Plantation Treasurer John Karchenes said.

But state and plantation officials say that ordinance is not valid, which was why IP considered spraying herbicides on its property. Spraying was supposed to occur between Aug. 14 and Sept. 15.

An IP representative phoned Karchenes Tuesday afternoon to tell him the company decided not to spray this year.

Residents had planned to march on Augusta Wednesday as part of an effort to stop the world’s largest paper company from spraying. They planned to deliver petitions with 75 signatures to IP’s Forest Resources Woodland Division, Gov. John Baldacci and the state’s Board of Pesticide Control.

Karchenes said they planned to ask IP to honor the residents’ vote not to allow the spraying.

In October 2001, plantation residents voted 26-0 to adopt an ordinance prohibiting aerial spraying of herbicides there. However, prior to the special meeting the town’s assessors received a legal opinion that the plantation didn’t have the authority to adopt such an ordinance unless it was mandated by the state, and canceled the town meeting.

Some residents went ahead with the meeting and adopted the ordinance.

A staff member of the state’s Land Use Regulation Commission, which oversees unorganized territories, concurred with the legal opinion assessors had received.

Coplin Plantation residents and others in surrounding towns not only planned the march on Augusta Wednesday, they also planned to camp near targeted spray zones Saturday wearing gas masks.

Swanton said IP still considers herbicide spraying a “very important tool” in the health and productivity and economics of that forest.

The company’s forestry management plan for Coplin called for spraying herbicide on about 250 acres to protect and help grow natural softwood seedlings, now being crowded out by hardwoods and other vegetation.

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