Letter: Standing up to government overreach

To the editor:
On November 29 the Maine Woods Coalition held its annual meeting in Bangor. The business portion of the meeting included the election of steering committee members, as well as the slate of officers for the upcoming year. Treasurer Mitch Duncan, Secretary Benny Lumbra, Vice-President Mark Marston were all returned to their offices while Stuart Kallgren was elected president.
In remarks presented to the group, incoming Chair Kallgren spoke of the recent speculation about undoing President Obama’s national monument designation in the Katahdin region. “It’s interesting to hear legal experts admit that there is no language in the Antiquities Act or any other legislation that says a president can’t reverse a national monument designation. If there is no precedent, then it’s entirely possible one could be set here. We also should keep in mind that there have been eleven monuments eliminated by acts of Congress after it was determined they were of less than national significance,” he said.
Since 2001 the Maine Woods Coalition has led opposition to a national park or monument in Maine’s North Woods. Despite the communities in the Katahdin region voting overwhelmingly to oppose a national park, the paid public relations firms and operatives in Washington ignored those facts, and that along with Roxanne Quimby seated on the National Park Foundation board, all worked to persuade President Obama to authorize the national monument. This kind of overreach by a government action is exactly why support for the Maine Woods Coalition continues to grow.
The Maine Woods Coalition is a non-profit organization made up of businesses, property owners and residents of the counties of Somerset, Piscataquis, Penobscot and Aroostook and their supporters statewide. The mission of the Maine Woods Coalition is to promote Maine’s tradition of private land ownership for public benefit, a tradition which has been the mainstay of the Maine Woods for centuries.
The Maine Woods Coalition works to evaluate proposed public policy changes for the Maine Woods, and advocates at all times the best interests of the stakeholders of this four-county region. For more information visit our web site at www.mainewoodscoalition.org.
Anne Mitchell, former president
Maine Woods Coalition