“In addition to protecting spectacular geology, significant biodiversity and recreational opportunities, the new monument will help support climate resiliency in the region”, the White House said Wednesday, the day before the Park Service’s 100th anniversary.
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Katahdin Woods and Waters was being readied to welcome its first visitors since President Barack Obama on Wednesday declared it the country’s newest national monument.
The National Park Service is celebrating 100 years Thursday, but not everyone is in a party mood. “I have serious concerns based on my experience with numerous national monument designations in the west – you are wise to be concerned about your future”.
Government officials in ME have been divided in their responses so far to the new, smaller monument. For example, the Penobscot Indian Nation considers the Penobscot River watershed a cultural and spiritual centerpiece and since the early 19th century, logging has been a way of life. Of the United States’ 59 national parks, 36 began as national monuments, so Katahdin could later be “upgraded”.
In the intervening years, philanthropist Roxanne Quimby quietly bought nearly 90,000 acres east of Baxter State Park through her family foundation, with the plan of donating the land to the people of the United States.
The donated land is valued at $60 million, and Quimby’s foundation provided an additional $20 million endowment.
On the other side of the coin, the people who live in the Katahdin region- generally- seem completely opposed to the land transfer and monument designation. The opposition, which also included the governor and Maine’s congressional delegation, was so strong that Obama resorted to using his power under the 1906 Antiquities Act to immediately name the land a national monument rather than a national park, which would require Congressional approval.
“Katahdin Woods and Waters’s daytime scenery is awe-inspiring, from the breadth of its mountain-studded landscape, to the channels of its free-flowing streams with their rapids, falls, and quiet water, to its vantages for viewing the Mount Katahdin massif, the ‘greatest mountain, ‘” Obama said in his proclamation. The land is cherished by Native Americans, and its history includes visits by naturalist Henry David Thoreau and President Theodore Roosevelt. Bypassing Congress and taking this action without the support of the state and the local communities circumvented discussions of alternatives such as the creation of a national recreation area or management by the Forest Service-proposals that might have had broader support than the President unilaterally designating a national monument.
Supporters say the move will create hundreds of jobs in a region hurt by the closing of paper mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket. “Generations of Americans will benefit from her gift”.
The road to designation was not an easy one for the Quimby family and their land, as the idea of making the land into a national monument was met with backlash from many local residents and politicians.
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Katahdin is Obama’s sixth monument designation so far this year. The Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks were also first federally protected as monuments.
