By David Farmer,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Two state lawmakers have re-opened a road within the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, a surprise move that has left the state agency in charge of the area’s management trying to determine if any laws were broken.

According to reports from three Department of Conservation employees, state Sen. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, state Rep. Troy Jackson, D-Fort Kent, and two others used a bulldozer and chain saw to reopen the Old Michaud Farm Road, which had been closed south of a ranger station as part of a 2003 agreement.

Marilyn Tourtelotte, the manager of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, investigated the incident, which occurred on July 4.

That day, Allagash Ranger Eric Hall and Assistant Ranger Mike Hafford responded to a report that a bulldozer had been seen on the Old Michaud Farm Road, which a group of men were working to clear.

Among the four were Martin, Jackson and Jackson’s father, Joe. The fourth man was not identified.

Martin, reached at his home Tuesday, said that he and the others did nothing wrong.

“We had met with the landowners and they said that they wanted it re-opened,” Martin said. “That’s a road, not wilderness.”

Of his actions on the Fourth of July, Martin, a former long-time speaker of Maine’s House of Representatives, said: “I hadn’t really thought about it, but it’s probably a liberation day for the people of northern Maine.”

Martin was first elected to Maine’s House in 1964 at the age of 23. He rose to speaker and served an unprecedented 10 terms – 20 years – as one of the state’s top Democrats. Martin was known for locking horns with former Gov. John McKernan over state spending. One confrontation over the 1991 budget and workers compensation resulted in a lengthy shutdown of state government.

At the Allagash, when the two rangers arrived on the scene they found that ditches meant to impede traffic on the road had been filled in and that four men were working to make the old logging road passable, Hall reported.

In her report, Tourtelotte documented what she described as numerous areas where alders had been cut and bulldozed. She also found evidence that a culvert, which had been washed away, was filled in and that the road had been smoothed in some places.

Photographs included with her report showed mature trees that were downed within view of the river. Jackson described the trees a blow downs, which had to be cut up and moved off the road.

J.D. Irving Land Co. owns the road, which runs to within 50 feet of the Allagash River. Parts of the road are within the restricted zone of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.

“Irving gave permission to fill in the trenches in the road, but they didn’t give permission to cut trees or to grade the road,” said Jim Crocker, a spokesman for the Department of Conservation. “We’re trying to determine if there were violations, what those violations might be and what course of action we should take.”

Neither the Department of Conservation nor its Bureau of Parks and Lands were told before hand that Martin and Jackson intended to reopen the road, Crocker said.

“It was none of their business,” Martin said. “We were opening up that road for fire protection, for fishing and for access to a grave site.”

The road also passes two Allagash Wilderness Area campsites that are operated by the state. Road access to the camping areas was closed as part of the so-called River Drivers Agreement adopted in 2003. Some people in northern Maine have been chaffing over the road closure ever since.

Jackson’s one. He echoed Martin, saying he wasn’t inclined to contact the state ahead of time.

“They’ve fought us on everything with the waterway in the past,” Jackson said. “I didn’t know when the road was closed, they didn’t tell me … so I did the same thing. I think turnabout is fair play.”

The Allagash Wilderness Waterway was established in 1966 by the Maine Legislature to protect, preserve and enhance the river’s natural beauty and protect its wild character. The river is also protected under the federal Wild and Scenic River Act.

“Out of the blue, without telling the state or consulting the state, these people last week went in and reopened the road,” said Jym St. Pierre, the Maine director for RESTORE: The North Woods, a group that advocates for the creation of a Maine Woods National Park. “The state found out about it and started an investigation.”

Controversy has often engulfed the management of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, pitting those who want to maximize the wilderness character of the area against others who want to maintain or increase access to the river.

“There could be violations of the law here, in which case they should be prosecuted,” St. Pierre said. “It’s hard to imagine that this seems so blatant and that elected officials would be so clearly leading this. … There’s no legitimate reason, in my opinion, for this road to be reopened.”

Patrick McGowan, commissioner of the Department of Conservation, said that his office had only received the reports about the incident on Monday and that they had been forwarded to Gov. John Baldacci’s office and to the Office of the Attorney General.

“We’re not rushing to judgment,” McGowan said. “We’re still gathering additional information.”

McGowan pointed to an incident that occurred during the winter as an example of how his department has handled controversy in the past.

Alexandra and Garrett Conover, two Maine guides, were hiking on the river from Allagash to Greenville in January. The mild winter had left open water and the couple had to cut hundreds of trees to make their way over land.

Generally, cutting down trees in the restricted zone is illegal.

“People were calling for their heads,” McGowan said. “They wanted us to hang them.”

In the end, the couple agreed to do volunteer work along the Allagash Wilderness Waterway to make up for the damage they had done.

“We try to give everybody the benefit of the doubt,” McGowan said.

Martin, referred to as the “king of Aroostook County” by some, was steadfast: “I wouldn’t have done it if I thought there was anything wrong.”