If it weren't for a little land trust in Forest City - a tiny
place on the Canadian border between Calais and Houlton - 3,000
pristine acres on Spednic Lake and the upper St. Croix River might
one day be developed.
On Monday, officials announced that the state of Maine now owns a
500-foot shoreland corridor along 16 miles of the lake and 34 miles
of the river, plus several islands, which will be preserved
forever.
"The lake is a famous fishery and there are about 5,000 people a
summer who actually canoe the river," said Amos Eno, executive
director of the New England Forestry Foundation, a conservation
organization in Yarmouth and in Massachusetts.
Had the $2.5 million purchase not gone through, he said, "it
probably would have been developed into lots."
In a written statement, Gov. John Baldacci said that "this
special area is a treasure. It exemplifies the values we are seeking
to protect through the Land for Maine's Future Program."
Eno's organization helped to raise the money, including $1.43
million from the Land for Maine's Future program and $600,000 from
the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation.
But he said that without the Woodie Wheaton Land Trust, the
project likely wouldn't have gone through.
That trust, which is named for a former Maine guide and is run by
his son, Dale Wheaton, is based in Forest City.
"This is rooted with the people of the community who are guides
and recreators who really wanted to preserve this resource," Eno
said.
Dale Wheaton said the lake and river are vastly important to the
people who live in the area.
"This project, to us, is critical," he said. "I spend my life in
a Grand Lake canoe - it's a guide craft of choice in eastern Maine.
I was born here, I spend my life on these waters and I always have.
To us, the fishing experience is far greater than the fish
themselves."
He said that "day after day of our lives is out there. To watch
this, it's a working landscape, but it's a working landscape which
not only nurtures our wallets, but our spirits. Our ties to that
area reach far beyond the mercenary objectives of trying to earn a
living. I don't think that anyone appreciates it any more than those
of us who spend our lives up here."
Staff Writer Joshua L. Weinstein can be contacted at 791-6368 or
at:
jweinstein@pressherald.com