After reading the pro and con articles by George Smith and Brownie Carson on the proposed Plum Creek development plan (Jan. 21), I can only conclude Smith is a paid lobbyist, not only for the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, but for Plum Creek as well.

He says “Plum Creek has done us a favor in presenting a significant concept plan for conservation and development in the Moosehead region.” Somehow, it’s difficult for me to fathom how 58 subdivisions containing 975 house lots, and two large resorts on land zoned for forestry and backwoods recreation, can be construed as doing anyone a favor except Plum Creek and those who can afford $250,000-plus lots.

I doubt if many Maine folk who have hunted, fished and camped up there, and other points north, for years – precisely to get away from such development in southern Maine – would be interested or financially capable of acquiring one of these subdivision lots.

Smith seems to brag about he and his wife getting a “freebie” $7,000 fishing trip at a plush Alaskan fishing lodge, the implication being that we need a bunch of these in Maine’s North Woods. He praises Maine Land Use Regulation Commissioner Steve Wight as a “respected leader of the tourism industry and environmental community who knows the value of development and investment in infrastructure.”

Is this the same Steve Wight that Smith unsuccessfully led a charge against his reappointment as a LURC commissioner just a few years ago, because Wight opposed a new boat ramp being built on Spencer Lake?

I’ve been waiting for Smith to take Plum Creek to task regarding their $57,000 fine for a variety of violations, and especially for ignoring DIFW biologists’ pleas to honor verbal agreements not to cut numerous deer wintering areas.

This all became public via a Natural Resources Council of Maine press release late last year. Yet not one peep out of Mr. Smith. There could be nothing to it.

But if it looks like a duck, it could be a duck.

Clint Cushman, Wilton