Op-Ed

Yes Vote on Question 5 to Protect Maine's Future

Published in the Bangor Daily News Tuesday, October 25, 2005

As a child, I spent hours all summer exploring the land along the Kenduskeag Stream in Bangor, finding herons, sandpipers, salamanders, muskrats and turtles.

As an adult, I've continued that pastime, partly for recreation and partly for my work. That's because, as director of Fields Pond Audubon Center in Holden, I connect people with Maine's nature and use a variety of strategies and sites to help them understand it.

The people we teach are children from families and schools based in and around Bangor and as far as Calais, Lincoln, Millinocket and Skowhegan. It's wonderful to see young people outdoors, exploring the Audubon center's forest, wetland and grassland and learning to love nature, as I did growing up.

Audubon staff and volunteers are teaching Maine's young people why and how to look after the Maine wildlife and land that is their heritage.

In November, we'll all have an opportunity to act on behalf of young people and Maine's future.

Maine voters will have the opportunity Tuesday, Nov. 8, to vote yes on ballot Question 5 to approve a $12 million bond to fund the Land for Maine’s Future program and support Maine's working waterfronts.

A yes vote on Question 5 is a vote for the health of Maine's environment and economy.

Over nearly 20 years, the award-winning Land for Maine's Future program has saved family farms and kept working forests intact. It has protected vulnerable, valuable wildlife habitat and spectacular beaches and mountain summits. It has provided Maine residents and visitors with publicly accessible land for hiking, fishing, hunting and snowmobiling.

The program is Maine's most successful conservation initiative, with a record of success that includes 120 land-conservation projects in all 16 Maine counties and the ability to attract $2.50 in federal and private matching funds for every dollar of state funding. Nearly 300 Maine businesses and organizations have called for its support.

But the program has distributed its last dollar, and planned conservation projects statewide are at a standstill without funds they normally could receive from the program. Among them are projects to conserve scenic waterfront along the Androscoggin River in Turner, working forestland in Hancock County, a popular mountain destination in Rumford, coastal access to Maquoit Bay in Brunswick and productive farmland in York County.

I fear that without the kinds of conservation projects the Land for Maine's Future program makes possible, the Maine outdoors that is so thrilling to explore will slip away.

My neighbors in the Bangor area and people throughout northern Maine worry that unless funds are available for land conservation, changing ownership of Maine's North Woods will result in development that permanently alters Maine's traditional landscape of working farms and forestland dotted with lakes and rivers open for public access.

I see it, voting yes on Question 5 is in keeping with the values and interests of Mainers statewide.

By voting yes, Maine voters will help keep alive Maine's working farms and waterfronts. They will help preserve the Maine tradition of public access to land and water for hunters, anglers and nature lovers. They will help protect wildlife and wildlife habitat from the threat of sprawl and development.

If you, like Maine Audubon's 11,000 members and supporters, love Maine's birds and other wildlife, please vote yes on Question 5.

And if you farm or fish or hunt - or hike, raft, bike, boat, snowmobile, or camp - please vote yes on Question 5.

Vote yes for young people to have the chance to grow up exploring Maine - young people such as the eager group of junior naturalists at Fields Pond. We recently set up an aquarium to so they could observe their most exciting discovery: the biggest leech I have ever seen, about eight inches long!

Children are the land and wildlife stewards of our future. The Land for Maine's Future program is our legacy to them. Please vote yes on Question 5 on Nov. 8.

Judy Kellogg Markowsky is director of Fields Pond Audubon Center in Holden.

Question 5 on the November 8 ballot reads: "Do you favor a $12,000,000 bond issue to purchase land and conservation easements statewide from willing sellers for conservation, water access, wildlife and fish habitat, outdoor recreation, including hunting and fishing, farmland preservation and working waterfront preservation to be matched by at least $7,000,000 in private and public contributions?"

The Maine Land Bond Coalition represents more than 270 businesses, associations and organizations promoting funding to support the Land for Maine’s Future program. www.mainelandbond.org

Maine Audubon works to conserve Maine's wildlife and wildlife habitat by engaging people of all ages in education, conservation, and action. With a 160-year history, Maine Audubon today is affiliated with Audubon’s national organization and has seven local chapters in the state. Support for Maine Audubon comes from 11,000 member households and donors, including individuals, foundations and corporations.

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