Maine Woods Coalition Chair Anne Mitchell and Vice-Chair Gene Conlogue released this statement: “The people of northern Maine won a major victory in the Legislature this year regarding access issues along the Allagash. The purported actions of Martin, Jackson, et al are not out of line with the legal changes and in fact are nothing more than an effort to do some minor repairs to an access road for recreational, fire protection, and logging purposes. They did not cut a new road or widen an existing road – they simply brushed out and smoothed the existing roadbed. Generations of northern Mainers have used this access point to the river and once again can continue to do so.

As a related note, the recent knowledge of the existence of the Maine Backcountry Project is just another example of the on-going pressure from environmental groups who are bent on locking down the Maine woods in the name of preservation. Their attempts to “re-wild” the northern forest from Maine to New York would destroy the northern Maine economy.”

The Maine Woods Coalition was originally organized in 2000 to oppose the creation of a new federally funded national park that would eliminate the forest products industry in most of the State. The group works to promote the economy of northern Maine and to preserve the heritage and culture of the area.