TURNER – When Jody Goodwin first moved near the banks of the Androscoggin River in the 1970s, it was hardly the main attraction.

It was so polluted and smelled so bad that she didn’t want to go near it.

“There were chunks so big in the river you could walk across on them, quite literally,” said Goodwin, a former selectman in Turner.

Today, it’s a different story. The river, rebounding environmentally, is now an attraction – and so are the 2,600 state-owned acres along its banks in Leeds and Turner.

“We use it all the time,” Goodwin said. “It’s a wonderful resource.”

She is one of a group of local people and organizations that worked to put the land into public ownership. Bought by the state in 1990 as one of the first purchases under the Land for Maine’s Future Program, the land has largely been managed for wildlife. Goodwin said locals were afraid the land would be sold to developers and wanted to retain the traditional recreational uses.

Over the years, the state has worked with local snowmobile and ATV clubs to create and maintain a multiuse, 25-mile trail system. There are also 8 miles of hiking and mountain biking trails, boat launches and day-use picnic areas.

First in 25 years

Officials from the state Bureau of Parks and Lands will turn to the public Wednesday as they take the first steps in crafting a formal plan for the proposed Androscoggin Riverlands State Park, which would be Maine’s third-largest, said Kathy Eickenberg during a tour of the property last week.

It’s the first time in 25 years that the state is moving toward creating a new state park, Eickenberg said.

The type of recreation that will be allowed in the park will depend greatly on what people say they want to do there, Eickenberg said.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to be on the ground floor of creating a new state park,” Eickenberg said. “We want the Riverlands to provide opportunities that local residents want and will use.”

A recent addition to the property in 2007 has park advocates hopeful a vision of connecting the park to the urban areas of Lewiston and Auburn with trails will come to fruition. Advocates hope to get easements for five privately held parcels in Auburn, Goodwin said.

In 2007, the state acquired 326 acres at Turner Cove, also with a Land for Maine’s Future grant, and with help from the Androscoggin Land Trust and the Trust for Public Lands. The acquisition is key to providing a southern access point 2 miles north of the Lewiston-Auburn area, Eickenberg said.

This summer, an AmeriCorps volunteer will work as an on-site educator, helping the state and a landscape architect determine where amenities such as bathrooms should be located and how they should be designed.

The educator will also be a resource for the visiting public as the park is not currently staffed with state workers.

In 2008, planners worked with local officials, the Androscoggin Land Trust, Androscoggin River Alliance, Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments and the Androscoggin River Watershed Council, loosely organized as the “Androscoggin River Coalition,” to create a vision for the Androscoggin corridor in the vicinity of the Riverlands, according to the Department of Conservation.

Goodwin, a member of the Androscoggin Riverlands State Park Master Plan Advisory Committee, said getting people to offer input on hunting, camping, boating and biking will be an important part of the on-going planning process.

Located within an hour’s drive of half of the state’s population, the park will likely become well-used and well-loved, especially as the health of the river continues to improve, Goodwin said.

And if the water quality of the river is updated by the state Board of Environmental Protection, as sought by several environmental groups, the popularity of the Riverlands likely would surge, Goodwin said.

The river is currently rated as a Class C waterway, which means swimming or fish from the water is not recommended. Some believe the water is already at a Class B quality, Goodwin said.

“If it were raised to a B, a whole lot more people would be on the land here and in the water,” she said.