“If and when the park comes into being, it will be as exciting a moment as the creation of Yellowstone, and because of what it means about our desire not just to protect but to restore the wild. Three million acres is big. The Maine Woods National Park is big hope.”
Henry David Thoreau called for a "national preserve" in the Maine Woods 150 years ago. RESTORE has proposed for the creation of a new Maine Woods National Park & Preserve worthy of Thoreau's vision — a 3.2-million-acre wildland larger than Yellowstone and Yosemite combined. In 2016, philanthropist Roxanne Quimby and her family generously donated 87,500 acres of land they owned within the proposed park and President Obama designated them as Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.
Saving Moosehead Lake
In September 2019, the Weyerhaeuser Company pulled the plug on the biggest real estate development plan in Maine history. This project — first proposed in 2005 by Plum Creek Corporation — included resorts, a golf course, and more than 2,000 second homes around Moosehead Lake in the proposed Maine Woods National Park & Preserve. It would have devastated this beautiful region.
When this mammoth development scheme was announced 14 years ago, RESTORE was the first organization to say “NO!” We joined with other grassroots groups to fight against this destructive plan. As a result, these lands are still intact.
This victory can’t be taken for granted. The corporation that owns these lands — or a future owner — may try again for a giant Moosehead Lake development. And Maine recently loosened its zoning rules for Maine’s wildlands. That is why RESTORE continues our campaign for an expanded national park to permanently protect the heart of the Maine Woods.
Here is a chronology of RESTORE’s battle against the ill-conceived Moosehead region development plan.
West Branch Penobscot River
For More Information
Growing Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, by George Wuerthner, June 5, 2024
Revisiting Rewilding in the Allagash, by Jym St. Pierre, June 10, 2022
Testimony of James A. St. Pierre, Maine Director, Restore: The North Woods, In Support of LD 1756, An Act Authorizing The Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry to Convey Certain Land in Aroostook and Penobscot County, January 11, 2022
Testimony of James A. St. Pierre, Maine Director, Restore: The North Woods, in Support of LD 736, An Act to Enhance the Ecological Reserve System
America's Next Great National Park: Preserving Our Maine Woods Legacy (brochure)
The Economic Impact of the Proposed Maine Woods National Park and Preserve (full report)
The Economic Impact of the Proposed Maine Woods National Park and Preserve (summary)
Bill McKibben, “An Explosion of Green,” The Atlantic Monthly April 1995