What’s New?

Breaking News

Maine Judge Throws Out LURC's Approval of Plum Creek Development, Maine Public Broadcasting Network, April 7, 2011. Get pdf here or access original story here.

Court strikes down Plum Creek plan, Bangor Daily News, April 7, 2011. Get pdf here or access original story here.

Decision on petitions challenging a decision by the Land Use Regulatory Commission (LURC) to approve a rezoning petition and concept plan submitted by Plum Creek Maine Timberlands, LLC and Plum Creek Land Company (“Plum Creek”) for land it owns in the Moosehead Lake region., Thomas E. Humphrey, Chief Justice, Superior Court, April 7, 2011 Get pdf here.

**Vote for Maine Woods National Park!!!**

Along with publishing an Associated Press article about the proposed Maine Woods National Park (see below), the Bangor Daily News has given readers the opportunity to vote in a poll, “Do you favor the creation of a North Woods national park?” Register your “yes” vote here. Hurry, we do not know how long the poll will be open!

Recent News

Burt's Bees Founder Wants To Donate National Park, Associated Press/National Public Radio, March 27, 2011. Get pdf here or access original story here.

OUR OPINION: Quimby donation ensures access to North Woods, Kennebec Journal, March 29, 2011. Get pdf here or access original story here.

**New blog features wolves, coyotes, and cougars**

**Maine Woods National Park Videos
on YouTube**

• "Maine Woods National Park: The Time Has Come"
• "A Talk with RESTORE's Maine Director, Jym St. Pierre: Maine Woods National Park & Preserve"

**RESTORE "What's New?" update,
September 2010**

**RESTORE "What's New?" update,
May 2010**

**RESTORE "What's New?" update,
December 2009**

**RESTORE launches New National Parks Project website**

News Archives

Photographer raises support for a Maine woods national park, NECN, Friday February 12, 2010

Maine Woods National Park: Vision to Reality, University of Maine at Fort Kent, NR10018, February 8, 2010

Editorials: No candidates back North Woods park? That's a shame, Portland Press-Herald, January 30, 2010

Let’s have a feasibility study of a Maine Woods National Park before it’s too late, OPINION by Bob Goldman in Wilderness Matters, Maine Chapter, Appalachian Mountain Club, Volume XXXV, Number 1, Winter 2010

Quimby buys thousands more acres, Bangor Daily News, January 28, 2010

News Release: Canada Lynx Named One of America’s Hottest Species, Dec 1, 2009

Letters: National park still a good idea, Maine Sunday Telegram, November 1, 2009

National Park: Jon’s Up on the Soapbox Again, Jon’s Jottings with Jon Lund, The Maine Sportsman, November 2009

Two groups appeal Plum Creek decision, Bangor Daily News, October 22, 2009

Petition for Judicial Review of Plum Creek decision, Forest Ecology Network and RESTORE: The North Woods vs. Land Use Regulation Commission, October 21, 2009

New parks are necessity, letter to the editor by Jym St. Pierre, Lewiston Sun-Journal, October 19, 2009

Maine needs North Woods National Park: Ken Burns' recent PBS series on the national parks tells many stories that are an inspiration for Maine, by George Neavoll, Maine Sunday Telegram, October 11, 2009

Statement of Jym St. Pierre, Maine Director, Restore: The North Woods, Concerning Plum Creek’s Moosehead Lake Region Concept Plan, September 23, 2009

The Ken Burns PBS documentary, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.

Roxanne Quimby named a "Park Champion" by National Parks Conservation Association for her work to protect lands near Acadia National Park and in the proposed Maine Woods National Park and Preserve.

Historian Douglas Brinkley spoke with CBS Early Show anchor Harry Smith about his new book 'The Wilderness Warrior,' President Theodore Roosevelt's efforts to protect our environment — including a Maine Woods National Park
August 16, 2009

America's Ultimate Parks 2009: Ken Burns' The National Parks
National Geographic Adventure
June/July 2009
Ken Burns is the director of The National Parks: America's Best Idea. The six- part series will air on PBS beginning September 27.

US expands laws protecting Atlantic salmon
The Boston Globe
June 16, 2009
The federal government dramatically extended protection yesterday for the imperiled wild Atlantic salmon in Maine, declaring that the few remaining sportfish in the Penobscot, Kennebec, and Androscoggin rivers and their tributaries are endangered.

Q&A: Filmmaker Ken Burns sees national parks as 'democratic'
Anchorage Daily News
June 8, 2009
The latest project of documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and his longtime colleague Dayton Duncan is "The National Parks: America's Best Idea." The six-part series took six years to create and will air on PBS in the fall. Anchorage Daily News (ADN) reporter Lisa Demer talked on the phone with Burns.

LURC tweaks Plum Creek plan
Bangor Daily News
June 3, 2009
Plum Creek would be obligated to honor aspects of a historic North Woods conservation deal for up to five years should the company decide to walk away from its Moosehead Lake development plan, state regulators said Tuesday.

Predator vs. Predator
Down East
June 2009
Much of Maine’s wildlife goes its way without much notice.  But coyotes can’t stay out of the limelight because their fate is entwined with the whitetailed deer, which is in a class by itself when it comes to human concern and intervention.

Working Out the Details of Guns in National Parks
The New York Times
May 26, 2009
Guns tend to bring out a black-or-white, yes-or- no stridency in American policy debate. The National Parks evoke equally deep emotional feelings — about place. Setting aside specific spots for the celebration of nature, or history, or spirituality, is an old tradition — as old as the Second Amendment. Now those emotions are colliding.

Opinion: Deadly - guns in national parks
The Boston Globe
May 26, 2009
In its cowardice, Congress is extending the same national park protections to guns as it does wildlife.

Hard times legacy
The Boston Globe
May 17, 2009
New Deal projects employed thousands back then, and remain as historical, and sometimes sentimental, landmarks

RESTORE Presentations

To schedule one of these inspiring and informative PowerPoint presentations, contact Jym St. Pierre, RESTORE: The North Woods (207) 626-5635 or jym@restore.org.

The Allagash: Wild or Mild?
Reviews the history of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, current threats to the river, and what is being done to restore the wilderness character of the Allagash. More info (PDF)

Saving the Maine Woods
Explores a range of options for protecting the Maine Woods — including the proposed Maine Woods National Park — to evaluate what has worked, what has not, and where things are headed in the future. More info (pdf)

Lynx, Lies, and the Law
Examines the current status of the endangered Canada lynx, the political maneuvering to influence conservation programs, and efforts to gain stronger protection for the lynx. More info (p;df)

Photography Gone Wild
Looks at the history of landscape photography in Maine, reveals the best places to take nature photos, and showcases the work of contemporary landscape and wildlife photographers in Maine. More info (pdf)

Save Moosehead-Plum Creek Watch

Click here for news and archives on RESTORE's efforts to stop Plum Creek corporation's massive development plan for the heart of the Maine Woods.

RESTORE Reports and Documents

RESTORE 2008 Progress Report - A review of the highlights of the past year (pdf 3.2 MB).

Comments on Proposed Endangered Status and Critical Habitat for the Gulf of Maine (GOM) Distinct Population Segment (DPS) of Atlantic Salmon, December 1, 2008 (pdf 1.1 MB)

Comments on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Revised Critical Habitat for the Contiguous United States Distinct Population Segment of the Canada Lynx. Proposed Rule. 73 Fed. Reg. 62,450, November 20, 2008 (pdf 400 KB)

North Woods News

Lynx wins vast protection
Kennebec Journal
February 25, 2009
Nearly 10,000 square miles of northern Maine forestland will be protected as critical habitat for Canada lynx, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Tuesday. (pdf)

Canadian Lynx to Benefit from Habitat in Maine
MPBN - Maine Public Broadcasting Network
February 24, 2009
Large landowners are disappointed, but Maine environmental groups are applauding a revised decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate 9,400 square miles of northern Maine as critical habitat for the Canada lynx.
Listen to story

Allagash Wilderness Waterway eroding
Jym St. Pierre and Rollin Thurlow
Maine Sunday Telegram
January 4, 2009
Changes in state law have lessened this vital region's protections, but we should recall the AWW's middle name.

Block ‘humbug’ rules that imperil species in Maine
Jym St. Pierre
Bangor Daily News
December 16, 2008
For eight years the Bush administration consistently has demonstrated disdain for our natural heritage. Now comes the latest outrage.

Tracking Thoreau Through Maine’s ‘Grim and Wild’ Land
The New York Times
September 19, 2008
FEW places in the United States can honestly be described as wild, let alone “stern and savage.” But those words, which Henry David Thoreau used to describe the north woods of Maine a century and a half ago, stand as true and tall as evergreens even today. The region remains vast and remote, the “continuousness of the forest,” as Thoreau put it, still “uninterrupted.”

Finger Lakes National Forest Recreation Study