To the Editor:
It’s sad when so many people and organizations who oppose the development of the Hydro-Quebec/CMP’s electricity corridor use so many emotionally-charged, untrue and/or misleading statements to oppose its development from the Quebec/Maine border to the West Forks.
Of the total distance, 53 miles of a 150-300-foot wide, west-to-east corridor is planned through a “pristine wilderness”B/“beautiful undeveloped forest”B to be connected with an already existing (to be expanded) 92-mile passage from the West Forks area to Lewiston.
B=bogus fact. Much of the 53-mile corridor is within a much larger, historical and present-day “working forest” that has reforested and continues to reforest itself (I’ve driven through some of it!)! This region is currently crisscrossed by a very large number of open, improved and unimproved roadways (see The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer). Even if a corridor is constructed, any damage can be diminished by using as much of the existing roadway network as possible.
In addition, in early October. Brad Rogers (WGME-TV and WCSH-TV journalist) conducted an interview with Rep. Jared Golden and U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh on the necessity of expanding Maine’s logging industry and the training of more loggers and other logging-industry personnel for the future of Maine.
If this is so important for Maine, why are so many people opposed to the tree-cutting along the proposed corridor? Instead, maybe the efforts of the corridor opponents should be to replanting the previously decimated forests.
Bill Harmon
Benton
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