Leaders of an effort to create a national park in Maine’s north woods say they’re ready to take their cause to Congress.

They’ve collected more than 100,000 signatures, drawn visible support from some of Hollywood’s biggest names and are continuing to buy up forest land, lots of it.

One landowner, Burt’s Bees co-founder Roxanne Quimby, has purchased more than 40,000 acres intended for the park. Last month, she bought an entire township adjoining Baxter State Park.

“We’ve been meeting with the congressional delegation and representatives from other states,” said Jym St. Pierre, the Maine director of RESTORE: The North Woods. “They say, ‘Show us that there’s a lot of public interest.’

“I think we’re about there,” St. Pierre said.

His group’s aim is to convince Congress to examine the proposal for a park and preserve and issue its own study, the first step toward the creation of a national park here.

It would be a huge area, covering about 3.2 million acres radiating out from the Baxter State Park region. It would include Moosehead Lake and the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.

As envisioned by St. Pierre and the other members of his group, people would donate or sell property to the park. No one would be forced to sell.

The proposal has its detractors, though. Among them are the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and Gov. John Baldacci, who is creating his own program for the state, called the Maine Woods Legacy.

Unlike the RESTORE proposal, the governor’s concept would work to maintain areas for all-terrain vehicles and other recreation, forestry and more manufacturing. It would also tie development to the use of environmentally friendly practices.

“None of those are bad ideas, but they’re just not up to the task,” St. Pierre said of the governor’s proposal and other protection initiatives.

The RESTORE proposal would limit some uses to new preserves outside the boundaries of the actual park. For instance, hunters would be able to hunt only within the preserves, since the sport is banned in national parks.

The limits have drawn the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and both snowmobile and ATV groups to oppose the proposal.

Still, St. Pierre believes a majority of Mainers are behind him. Support for the measure also goes well beyond Maine’s borders.

Earlier this year, St. Pierre’s group released a pamphlet titled “Americans for a Maine Woods National Park.” Among the signers were actors Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Christopher Reeve and Harrison Ford, musician Don Henley, retired broadcaster Walter Cronkite and astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

“This is a place of national significance,” St. Pierre said. “It’s America’s biggest restoration opportunity.”

It’s also timely because of the way land seems to be changing hands.

Baldacci talked about it during his Maine Woods Legacy speech. In the past six years, more than 5.5 million acres of forestland changed hands, he said.

With the changes, prices are climbing. Parcels that were selling for $100 or $200 per acre a decade ago now are selling at $1,000 per acre, St. Pierre said.

Some trusts and environmental protection groups have bought about 1 million acres of the area earmarked for the park. It could grow rapidly with more money available.

That’s the way national lands in places such as Cape Cod and the Shenandoah Valley grew.

“The process is not unusual at all,” said St. Pierre. “This can happen. I think something like this will happen.”

It could even happen while George W. Bush is in office, a move he compared to Nixon’s visit to China.

“He may need to polish his environmental record,” St. Pierre said. “He could do it by helping us.

“He could name it George Bush National Park,” St. Pierre joked. “That would be OK with me.”

dhartill@sunjournal.com

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