Statement by Kevin Carley, Executive Director, Maine Audubon

June 12, 2008

Good morning, and welcome to Gilsland Farm Audubon Center.

My message today is simple: Plum Creek development does not belong on Lily Bay peninsula.

That’s a message Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission has heard from hundreds of Maine people and visitors as it reviews Plum Creek’s rezoning application. . . .

If you look at our display, you’ll see just a small sample of what people have written to LURC.

The commission has heard from people who live year-round in the Moosehead region. . . . and from people who own summer property near Lily Bay or camp at Lily Bay State Park. . . .

LURC has heard from people across Maine and from other states—Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Maryland, even North Carolina.

In fact, more than 2,000 people have taken the time to write to LURC and speak at LURC hearings.

What have hundreds of them said? “Please. Please protect Lily Bay. Please make sure Lily Bay is safe.”

Along with what it has heard, overwhelmingly, from the public, LURC staff and commissioners have read and listened to hours of technical testimony from experts on wildlife, tourism, and natural-resource management.

What the totality of the hearing record makes clear is this: Lily Bay’s unique natural characteristics and importance to wildlife and recreation make this peaceful, forested place inappropriate for any resort, commercial development, or housing subdivisions.

I hope that some of you have had the chance to learn from firsthand experience how abundant Maine wildlife is in Lily Bay.

Perhaps you can envision how development there would damage important wildlife habitat, and forever change the area’s unique natural landscape.

One of the two maps in your press packets shows the many locations where Canada lynx have been seen on and around the Lily Bay peninsula, which is known for lynx sightings.

The area has one of the highest concentrations of these extremely rare cats anywhere in Maine. And Maine is the only state east of the Mississippi where lynx live.

Lily Bay peninsula also harbors an important wetland rich in birdlife.

And the bay’s clear, cold streams are home to some of the last remaining native brook trout populations in the United States.

Building hundreds of housing units at Lily Bay would damage these wildlife habitats, changing them forever.

Traffic connected to development would have an immediate effect: it would cause a dramatic increase in wildlife mortality along the entire east side of Moosehead Lake.

But none of that has to happen. There is a way to save Lily Bay.

LURC cannot approve a plan such as Plum Creek’s unless the combination of development and conservation it contains achieves a balance that benefits the public.

That’s why Maine Audubon and the Natural Resources Council of Maine are suggesting today a way to create a more publicly beneficial balance in Plum Creek’s proposal.

First, eliminate all development proposed for Lily Bay.

In exchange, the plan could reduce the overall amount of conservation land required to balance development.

The map behind me shows the location of the 33,500-acre parcel we have identified as “a trade” for keeping Lily Bay completely off limits to Plum Creek development.

What’s immediately apparent is how much bigger that parcel of land is than Lily Bay peninsula.

Looking again at our map showing high-value plant and animal habitat helps explain why.

It shows that the Lily Bay peninsula is far more ecologically important than the lands proposed for conservation on the west side of the lake.

Lily Bay is a gem. Its scenic attributes, its importance to wildlife, and its significance for recreation make it highly valuable to the people of Maine.

Maine Audubon has earned respect across the state for helping Maine make sensible decisions that minimize harmful impacts to wildlife and natural areas.

This is the time to make another one of those sensible decisions.

The plan we are suggesting today with NRCM is a responsible, science-based solution to help address high-stakes conservation challenges.

Our approach keeps most of the development on the west side of the lake. The result would leave intact an expansive block of forest habitat from Lily Bay State Park to Baxter State Park.

That will become an area so important to Maine people, visitors, and wildlife that it will be celebrated long into the future.

LURC’s staff has worked to improve Plum Creek’s plan and has found some success.

But the commission’s work is unfinished—and its obligation to safeguard Maine’s future is not yet met.

We are calling upon LURC’s commissioners to consider the ideas we are putting forward, as well as tackle other ways there may be to reconfigure and reduce the amount of development in this plan.

It doesn’t make sense for the nation’s largest commercial landowner to maximize profits on Maine forestland it bought for $200 an acre, if Maine’s great natural heritage slips away as part of the bargain.

Today, it’s not too late for Lily Bay or Maine: we can ensure, for ourselves and future generations, that both remain known for their beauty, wonder, and wildlife.

##