Today, the House Committee on Natural Resources held an oversight hearing on “Elevating Local Voices and Promoting Transparency for a Potential Monument Designation in Maine.”

The potential monument designation (“Maine North Woods") lacks support from local residents because it will limit recreational opportunities and potentially harm future and existing economic development.

Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) spoke to his personal experience with national monument designations, which he calls an abuse of the Antiquities Act. He pointed to the negative effects of Former President Bill Clinton's designation of Utah's Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.

“I will not sit before you today and pretend that if the President declares the Maine North Woods a National Monument that everything will be okay and life here will be hunky dory. 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,” Chairman Bishop said.  

On May 13, Representative Bruce Poliquin (R-ME) requested this hearing to listen to local voices, the voices of those who will be directly impacted by the designation.

“It's so important that Congress hears our voices loud and clear as the President considers unilaterally designating – with the stroke of a pen – 87,000-plus acres into a national monument which would take it off-line from productive economic use forever,” Rep. Poliquin stated.

Maine State Representative Stephen Stanley testified to the detrimental consequences this monument designation would have on the state economy. 

"The forest products industry is crucial to Maine's economy, and this proposal would do serious harm to the industry. It would take tens of thousands of acres of productive woodland out of play," Stanley stated.

Millinocket Town Councilman Paul Sannicandro recalled his recent canoe trip illustrating that conservation does not require federal control. 

“[It’s] a wilderness journey, with or without a federal designation. It is not for the casual paddler, inexperienced, ill prepared or anyone over zealous of their own paddling prowess. It is wild! It did not take a federal agency to keep it that way, for it's as wild today as it was when our native peoples traveled it prior to this country's European influence,” Sannicandro said.

Other panel members echoed these concerns about public access and the economic impact. Minority members of the Natural Resources Committee were invited to attend this hearing but declined to attend or provide witnesses.

Despite repeated local polls and passed bills in the Maine Legislature disapproving of any unilateral monument designation in the Maine North Woods, a decision is on the horizon. The final decision from Washington will be made outside of the public process and regardless of local impacts and concerns.

Alternatives to a monument designation include the creation of a state park or a hybrid compromise, one that gives local communities more weight in the management and protects existing uses.