Fairfield, ME - Volunteers with the Native Forest Network (NFN) staged a mock "Fossil Fool's Day" awards ceremony today at the offices of the Plum Creek Timber Company to draw attention to the potential impacts of the company's Moosehead region development proposal on the regional and global climate. If approved by the Land Use Regulation Commission, the group says, Plum Creek's plan would increase Maine's total carbon emissions by nearly 8%-- a growth in climate-altering pollution that the state's communities and ecosystems cannot afford.

Plum Creek Plan: A Trojan Horse
Devastation Disguised as Conservation

Plum Creek is asking for a 400,000 acre zoning change to allow it to build the largest development in Maine history.


The request is going to the Maine Land Use Regulation Commission, aka LURC.

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LURC has closed the Public Comment period on the Plum Creek Plan, but people are encouraged to spread the word, contact the media, and make their voices heard about how this plan would affect the communities they care for.

LURC is currently revising their Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP). This new CLUP will set the
rules and regulations for the 10 million plus acres in Maine's Unorganized Territory for the next decade or more. One of the objections to Plum Creek's rezoning request is that it would allow a private company to override the new CLUP, which is a plan created with much more Public input and accountability.

Public workshops to present the new CLUP and take
public comments will be held this spring. The
schedule for public workshops is as follows:

* Monday, April 28: Presque Isle Inn & Convention
Schedule

* Tuesday, April 29: Stearns High School
(Millinocket)

* Wednesday, April 30: Greenville High School

* Thursday, May 1: Rangeley Inn

* Monday, May 5: Holiday Inn By The Bay (Portland)

* Wednesday, May 7: Augusta Civic Center

* Thursday, May 8: University of Maine Machias

All meetings are schedule from 6 to 9 p.m.
Reschedule dates, if necessary, will be the week of May 12th.

At the April 2nd regular LURC meeting at the Black Bear Inn in Orono, LURC Commissioners will hear from a panel made up of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, the Maine Snowmobile Association, the Maine Professional Guides Association, the
Maine Woods Coalition and possibly other groups to
get their perspective on the new CLUP. The Public is welcome at this meeting.

LURC is accepting Public comment on the new CLUP throughout this Spring. More info is available at:
www.maine.gov/doc/lurc/reference/CLUP_Overview.shtml

Public Comment can be sent to LURC at:
Land Use Regulation Commission
22 State House Station
August, Maine 04333-0022

People can email comments to: LURC (at) maine.gov
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Native Forest Network has compiled a Post Hearing Brief that documents the problems with the plum creek plan and lays out alternatives. It's a good read. Online at:

maineindymedia.org/media/all/display/2154/index.php
and
maineindymedia.org/media/all/display/2153/index.php

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Did You Know That…

Plum Creek is the Largest Private Landowner in the Country

Plum Creek bought the land for $200 from SAPPI, knowing full well it was zoned for forestry, not resorts, and for the first few years of the ownership, Plum Creek reps said very firmly that they had no plans to liquidate and develop the land. Now the company attempting to essentially rewrite Maine land use policy to allow it to build massive high-end exclusive developments.

Plum Creek’s lawyers, affiliated companies, and consultants have extremely close ties to Governor Baldacci’s Administration.
The Governor appoints the LURC Commissioners who are charged with deciding whether to approve Plum Creek’s rezoning plan.

Plum Creek has a history of suing organizations it disagrees with.
In Montana Plum Creek sued Trout Unlimited for challenging its massive 3-state logging plan that threatened fisheries.
Plum Creek also sued Flathead County, Montana, when the County attempted to have the company help pay for costs of increased road maintenance made necessary by Plum Creek’s new housing development.

Plum Creek owns over 70% of the land in the Moosehead Lake Region. The development plans cover an area of land larger than Portland.

Luxury homes in developments built on Plum Creek lands out west sell for millions of dollars.
Company representatives have confirmed that the development would likely result in an increase in home prices for Piscataquis and Somerset Counties. Plum Creek’s so-called “affordable” housing is expected to be subsidized with tax-payer dollars.
“Affordable” housing would average $150,000. That’s over $40,000 more than average home prices for Somerset and Piscataquis Counties.

According to Plum Creek’s own reports, 76% of the jobs the plan could create won’t provide enough income to afford a home in the area.
Most of the well-paying jobs are not expected to go to people currently living the region.

All of Plum Creek’s Maine timberlands are certified sustainable by the “Sustainable Forestry Initiative” (SFI).
SFI certification allows for 120 acre clearcuts, plantation forestry, and growing genetically engineered trees.

SFI is created, monitored, and enforced by the timber industry. Plum Creek President Rick Holley sits of the SFI Board of Directors.
Reviews of whether a company is following SFI rules are usually done by the company itself, and the reports are kept confidential.

The SFI Board rejected calls to remove Plum Creek’s certification, even after the company received the largest fine in history under the Maine Forest Practices Act for massive clearcuts, destroying deer wintering yards, and water pollution.

Waste from Plum Creek’s developments would triple the amount of trash going to the Lily Bay transfer station.
Plum Creek plans call for trucking thousands of tons of waste to Norridgewock, Old Town, Orrington, Unity, Guilford, Dover-Foxcroft, and/or Plymouth, and could require expanding and building new dumps and sludge facilities in Maine.

According to Plum Creek representatives, “more is better” when it comes to waste. They claim that increased amounts of waste will lead to “economies of scale,” so the thousands of tons of new toxic waste could actually have a “positive impact.”

The "Conservation Easement" allows for 200-acres of septage spreading, gravel pits, road building, commercial water bottling operations, cell phone and wind towers, and the option to alter or close off access to the publicly accessible lands.

Plum Creek is set up as a Real Estate Investment Trust, which allows it to avoid paying most all corporate income tax.

Plum Creek bought the hundreds of thousands of acres of Maine land at about $200 and acre in 1998, and gets away with paying extremely low property taxes thanks to tree growth tax rate subsidies.

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Read "Who Owns Maine" Article on Plum Creek's History:
maineindymedia.org/newswire/display/5795/index.php

Read About Plum Creek's Political and Media Connections:
dlsoucy.blogspot.com/2008/01/plum-creek-and-blethen-connection-maine.html

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Following the lead of Howard Dearborn, a crowd packed onto a small bridge, and with a countdown overturned their bottles of Poland Spring water. They watched gleefully as it poured into a stream to flow back to where it belonged.

In all, about fifty people turned up at Lovewell Pond in Fryeburg, Maine on Saturday in order to draw attention to the impact of large-scale water extraction on the watershed. Folks of all ages, from Fryeburg and the surrounding communities talked about their concerns over the ecosystem and their opposition to Poland Spring's proposed bottling plant in Fryeburg. Two representatives from Poland Spring were also present, in order to present “their side” of the story. Ron Dyer, environmental manager for Poland Spring, claimed “It broke my heart to see water being dumped out.”

The Lewiston City Council, in front of a room of about 200 people, voted a unanimous NO on
sending the Casella plan to a November referendum.

This happened in response to the hard work put in by people from around Lewiston and beyond, who worked to educate their neighbors and to organize to protect their communities. Local Maine community groups such as Lewiston's Don't Dump on ME, Old Town's We the People, and Athens CAPIT worked to support each other, helped eachother out and were successful in stopping the threat from Casella's toxic waste in this round of the work.

Now it's important to keep an eye out on what the next Lewiston City Council does (don't forget, Jim Bennett got his contract renewed for another 5 years, he helped get Casella and GenPower into Westbrook and Old Orchard Beach when he was in office in those towns, and has talked with GenPower about its wanting to get a CDD incinerator in Lewiston.)

And there's plenty more to be done to keep our communities from being destroyed by all this toxic and largely out-of-state waste.
To name a few, there's:
- Plans to expand the State-owned Casella-operated Mount Baldacci (Juniper Ridge) landfill
in Old Town ;
- Plans for a massive new out-of-state CDD landfill in Marion Township in Washington County;
- Plans for Westbrook SAPPI paper mill to start incinerating up to 1.5 million pounds a day
of out-of-state CDD;
- Plans for out-of-state CDD processing plants in Westbrook and/or Lewiston; Continued
problems at the Old Town Red Shield incinerator, the Biddeford Casella/MERC incinerator,
and the Auburn MWAC incinerator;
- Casella/New England Organics importing and spreading out-of-state sludge across the land;
Leaks and toxins and out-of-state waste filling the Norridgewock Waste Management and
Hampden Casella landfills…

the list goes on and on.

But if we work together, we can change this.

People who cared about their communities
stopped the GenPower incinerator in Athens, they stopped the first stage of plans for the
Casella landfill in Lewiston, in the 80's and 90's people stopped plans for a toxic waste
dump in Washington county, a nuclear waste dump in Cornville, and sludge spreading in
Clinton.

We can push for getting local control of these problems and regaining home rule for local
communities.

We can work stop the flow of Public tax dollars to these out-of-state waste companies.

We can work to fight the major influence that waste industry lobbyists currently have on Public Policy Organizations and in Maine government.

We can work to come up with community-based healthy ways to deal with materials so they
don't get dumped and burned and poison our air and water.

And we can keep supporting each other in our work to keep our communities healthy and free of toxic waste.

Information about the national march for peace happening tomorrow.

Last Sunday, two thousand people came out to protest at the meeting of President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, two imperialists ready to get their lounge on in the upper-class vacationland of Kennebunkport, Maine. The diverse group of protestors including antiwar activists, veterans, lawyers, revolutionary communists, civil libertarians, anarchists, labor leaders, women's groups, and one marching band.

The purpose for most was to call for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. Signs read, "Impeachment is the path to peace," and "Democracy breached, time to impeach." Not everyone, of course, felt impeachment was the most important goal. "The priority is getting out of Iraq, not impeachment. We can get them for war crimes later," said Judy, a Maine resident.

A protest and counter-summit is planned for Sunday, July 1st in Kennebunkport, while George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin meet at the Bush family compound at Walker Point.

Press release on the FCC Hearing on localism