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Obama Creates New Protected Lands in Maine, Sparking Outrage from Governor

Maine's congressional representatives vowed to implement the new monument despite their opposition to it. But Gov. Paul LePage called the president's move a "unilateral action against the will" of "the citizens of rural Maine."

President Barack Obama signed into law the creation of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument on Wednesday, beginning a new chapter in the history of a region in Maine that had been dominated by the forest products industry for more than a century.

The executive order assigns the 87,563 acres formerly owned by Burt’s Bees entrepreneur Roxanne Quimby to the U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Park Service. It allows “hunting by the public on the parcels east of the East Branch of the Penobscot River” plus snowmobiling in certain areas and orders that a management plan be created, “with full public involvement,” in three years.

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Not everyone was pleased with the announcement. Three leading monument opponents, Republicans U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin and Gov. Paul LePage, had sharply divergent reactions to the executive order. Collins and Poliquin pledged to work with monument officials despite their opposition. LePage was bitter, saying that if “average Mainers don’t realize by now that the political system is rigged against them by wealthy, self-serving liberals from away, this is a serious wake-up call.”

“President Obama is once again taking unilateral action against the will of the people, this time the citizens of rural Maine,” LePage said in a statement. “The Legislature passed a resolution opposing a national monument in the North Woods, members of Maine’s congressional delegation opposed it and local citizens voted against it repeatedly. Despite this lack of support, the Quimby family used high-paid lobbyists in Washington, D.C., to go around the people of Maine and have President Obama use his authority to designate this area a national monument.”

Zach Patton -- Executive Editor. Zach joined GOVERNING as a staff writer in 2004. He received the 2011 Jesse H. Neal Award for Outstanding Journalism
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