PORTLAND – An environmental group battling Plum Creek Timber Co.’s development plan for the Moosehead Lake region detailed Wednesday what it said was the company’s pattern of disregard for Maine’s forestry laws and wildlife habitat protections.

The Natural Resources Council of Maine said Plum Creek’s illegal practices were spelled out in internal documents from state agencies that the group obtained under the state Freedom of Access law.

The NRCM said Plum Creek this year was fined $57,000, the largest such fine in state history, for repeated violations of Maine’s Forest Practices Act that limit timber harvesting.

The group also documented incidents linking Plum Creek to destruction of deer wintering habitat and to polluting streams and developing land without a permit.

“There’s a systematic avoidance of Maine’s environmental laws,” said Cathy Johnson, NRCM’s North Woods project director, who told reporters that Plum Creek’s record shows that it cannot be trusted.

Included in the documents released by NRCM are e-mail messages between state employees. Several messages sent in 2005 by Strong-based Department of Inland Fisheries biologist Chuck Hulsey addressed deer wintering areas.

Deer wintering areas are stands of forest that provide shelter and food sources for deer during the colder winter months. In the messages to DIFW regional management Supervisor Eugene Dumont, Hulsey outlines his concerns about ongoing harvest operations in Lexington Township near Kingfield, between Upper Pierce Pond and the Dead River in northern Somerset County and Indian Stream Township, southwest of Moosehead Lake.

“I asked Plum Creek to defer harvesting in this area until either an agreement was made between MDIFW and Plum Creek, or formally rejected,” Hulsey wrote in a June 2005 memo regarding deer wintering areas near Upper Pierce Pond.

“Plum Creek ignored this request and cut the area so heavily it will not be a functional DWA for another 30 years,” Hulsey wrote.

In an October 2005 message to Dumont, Hulsey again expressed concern and surprise that Plum Creek was continuing to heavily harvest deer wintering areas. He also details meetings he had with Plum Creek where he believed an agreement had been reached to modify the harvest levels but those agreements were not followed.

“This is now the third time that the landowner has gone in and harvested wood, without a plan, contrary to what was agreed upon, and without notifying MDIFW,” Hulsey wrote. “This DWA cannot continually experience this level of poor management and sustain wintering deer now or in the future.”

Jim Lehner, Plum Creek’s general manager for the Northeast, acknowledged that the company has made mistakes but maintained it always works with the appropriate agency to resolve the issue.

“We can always do better. We learn from our mistakes,” he said.

Seattle-based Plum Creek, the nation’s largest private landowner, is seeking a zoning change on 420,000 acres in the Moosehead region as part of a 30-year plan to develop 975 house lots, two resorts and an industrial park. The Land Use Regulation Commission’s review of the proposal is expected to last well into next year.

The NRCM has maintained that the project, which is the largest such development ever proposed in Maine, could have a damaging and irreversible impact on the region that serves as the gateway to the state’s North Woods.

Sun Journal Regional Editor Scott Thistle contributed to this report.

Copy the Story Link