WELD – All was quiet during weekend patrolling of land near the foot of Tumbledown Mountain after the granddaughter of L.L. Bean restricted campers and all-terrain vehicles from the area.
Hikers still passed through as usual, said Maine Forest Service Ranger Jay Bernard.
Last week Linda Bean Folkers, who owns 2,200 acres near trails to the mountain, had a three-wall lean-to that had been used by campers for 60 years destroyed. That left area residents shocked and speechless.
Maine Forest Service rangers warned they would issue citations for anyone using an ATV or starting a fire on the property, and braced themselves for what they thought could be a busy patrolling weekend.
But as of Sunday night, there were no enforcement problems.
“It was very quiet,” Bernard said. He suspects the weather of limited sun, cloudy skies and some rainstorms helped. Bernard and other rangers saw no one illegally using the land. Rangers did see some ATV tracks, “and we saw trucks hauling ATVs driving away. But the deed was already done,” he said.
Other than the ATV tracks, there were cars parked on the town road so they could use the hiking trails. “That’s it. There was no abuses that I could observe,” Bernard said. “This indicates that the transition has begun. That the landowner’s wishes are beginning to be met, and the most difficult part of the transition has happened,” he said.
Folkers had the lean-to removed after 102 residents unanimously voted at a special town meeting to deny her request to gate the town-owned Morgan Road, the access to trails leading up Little Jackson and Tumbledown mountains and the traditional camping area.
She decided to no longer allow campers and ATVs on her land after the property was abused with trash and fires left unattended, Bernard said. Despite public service campaigns, “we still come across some people who think it’s their God-given right to start a rip-roaring fire on someone else’s land,” Bernard said, adding some don’t even extinguish their fires. In addition to stepped-up patrolling, “NO ATVs” and “No Camping” signs were visible throughout the land, Bernard said.
Bernard expects it will take several years before no one tries to camp or ride ATVs through the area, known locally as “Tumbledown Field,” considering how long camping was permitted.
“It’ll be a learning process from the public used to using that area for years and years,” Bernard said.
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