KINGFIELD – State land use regulators are being asked to consider a request to reopen the public hearing record for proposed lodging huts on Flagstaff Lake and Dead River along a planned 180-mile recreational trail system through the Western Maine mountains.

Larry Warren, founder of Western Mountains Foundation and initiator of Maine Huts & Trails, has worked with the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to find a way to preserve more than 200 acres for winter deer yards.

Warren requested that the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission reopen the record to submit a letter pertaining to that agreement into the public record. That meeting was scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 2, but was canceled due to Tuesday’s storm.

LURC is considering permit applications for two of 12 huts being proposed along a trail system expected to run from Bethel to Moosehead Lake. Each of the huts in the $12 million project would accommodate up to 42 guests, Warren said Monday.

A public hearing on applications for the huts to be constructed on Flagstaff Lake in Carrying Place Township and along the Dead River in Spring Lake Township, both in Somerset County, was held last year.

Concerns were raised about wintering deer and their habitat during the hearing, Warren said.

Warren said the foundation is in the process of acquiring 500 acres from Plum Creek, and parts of that will be used as a trade for acquisition of lands in other areas of Dead River, and the organization will retain the other half.

Under the agreement a portion of the land around the Grand Falls area on the Dead River will be managed for protection of wildlife and deer yard cover.

LURC’s staff recommends that the public hearing record be reopened based on Western Mountains Foundation’s request. It also recommends reopening the hearing record to allow people to file written statements with the commission regarding the deer wintering area for 12 days, until Monday, Jan. 14, and an additional seven days until Monday, Jan. 21, to allow people to file written statements in rebuttal of statements filed during the previous period.

According to a letter written by an Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Director Ken Elowe to LURC Director Catherine Carroll, progress has been made to minimize the impact of the proposed project on the deer wintering area.

“At this time, although the impacts to the deer yard remain, (IF&W) believes that the impacts to wintering deer are minimized and mitigated by what (Western Mountains Foundation) has agreed to accomplish. If a permit is granted by LURC, (the foundation) has agreed to place a conservation easement in perpetuity on all the lands that it owns or controls that are in the deer yard.”

The foundation has also agreed to use a deer yard management agreement that was developed to guide forestry and other uses with the easement to achieve the conservation intent, Elowe wrote.

“If (the foundation) is required to place the entire lands that they will own within the deer yard under this conservation easement with the management agreement as the guide for forestry and use, then (Inland Fisheries and wildlife) believes that the impact of the proposed project will be minimized and acceptable and the long-term benefit to deer will be realized through the easement management guidelines,” the letter states.

Warren said the project is on target to construct 12 huts but has only sought permits for three, including these two.

Construction of the first hut at Poplar Stream Falls in Carrabassett Valley is nearly complete, Warren said, and reservations will start to be accepted next week.