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Log inWilderness camp leaseholders Roxanne Quimby Public Enemy #1
Wilderness camp leaseholders Roxanne Quimby Public Enemy #1
by Outspoken on Thu May 22, 2008 5:33 am
For wilderness camp leaseholders Roxanne Quimby is Public Enemy No. 1
By Nick Sambides Jr.
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News
TERRITORY 5, RANGE 8 - A retired Great Northern Paper Co. millwright and pipe fitter, 68-year-old Dennis Ballard has summered in a small camp overlooking the Penobscot River's East Branch since 1969.
The camp itself isn’t perfect. It’s a simple 24-foot by 24-foot building with outdoor plumbing, a wood stove and propane gas heating, but its deck goes right to the edge of the river, and the view, Ballard said, is heavenly.
"It’s very remote, really," Ballard said. "In summertime there’s a few vehicles, but not many. You could snowmobile in wintertime and fish and whatnot. Just the outdoor part of it is great."
But that tradition will come to an end starting July 1 because environmentalist Roxanne Quimby plans to terminate the leases of Ballard and four other camp owners a year from that date, Ballard and the other leaseholders said.
Quimby and Bart DeWolf, the science director of Quimby’s nonprofit land conservation foundation, Elliotsville Plantation, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The leaseholders say the terminations are the final phase of a gradual process that began when she bought the land in 2003. With plans to move out before the end of the year, most of them expect that this summer will be their last by the river.
"I am heartbroken, of course," said Muriel Fortier, 92, of Winthrop, who leases a camp near Ballard’s. "I have been living off the land and alone for the last 15 to 18 years, and it’s been my lifeline up there. I am just this month turning 93, and I am going back up this summer, but that will be it."
Ballard said, "We used to hunt, four-wheel or snowsled up here, but you can’t do any of those things since she has taken over.
"I have a lot of memories there, and had a lot of fun. I just hate walking away and leaving everything," said Ballard, who lives in Hermon.
‘She has hurt so many people’
Quimby purchased the 24,000-acre T5 R8 parcel from J.D. Irving Ltd. in 2003 for about $12 million. The self-made millionaire has been buying forestland for preservation since 2000 and has said she hopes the forests will someday be protected as a national park and preserve.
Quimby’s quest to protect nature from the ravages of man is both laudable and controversial, and her multimillion dollar land purchases — she owns about 45,095 acres in 15 parcels around Baxter State Park, including about 8,171 acres of which she holds 85 percent ownership — attract attention from national publications such as the New York Times and Yankee Magazine.
But it’s the less nationally publicized aspects of her dream that make Quimby Public Enemy No. 1 to many who live in the 3.2 million acres known as the Maine North Woods: the eviction of leaseholders, the denial of "traditional rights" access to sportsmen to the land she owns, and the presumed shrinkage of forest products lands that fuel paper mills and other components of the state’s largest manufacturing industry.
"I wouldn’t dare to tell you what I could call her for it, but I think she has hurt so many people up there," Fortier said. "If she were to treat people decent up there and treat it like [previous owner] Great Northern Paper and Irving did through the years, we wouldn’t have any problems with her."
http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=164689&zoneid=500
(Photos by Bangor Daily News/Kate Collins)
By Nick Sambides Jr.
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News
TERRITORY 5, RANGE 8 - A retired Great Northern Paper Co. millwright and pipe fitter, 68-year-old Dennis Ballard has summered in a small camp overlooking the Penobscot River's East Branch since 1969.
The camp itself isn’t perfect. It’s a simple 24-foot by 24-foot building with outdoor plumbing, a wood stove and propane gas heating, but its deck goes right to the edge of the river, and the view, Ballard said, is heavenly.
"It’s very remote, really," Ballard said. "In summertime there’s a few vehicles, but not many. You could snowmobile in wintertime and fish and whatnot. Just the outdoor part of it is great."
But that tradition will come to an end starting July 1 because environmentalist Roxanne Quimby plans to terminate the leases of Ballard and four other camp owners a year from that date, Ballard and the other leaseholders said.
Quimby and Bart DeWolf, the science director of Quimby’s nonprofit land conservation foundation, Elliotsville Plantation, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The leaseholders say the terminations are the final phase of a gradual process that began when she bought the land in 2003. With plans to move out before the end of the year, most of them expect that this summer will be their last by the river.
"I am heartbroken, of course," said Muriel Fortier, 92, of Winthrop, who leases a camp near Ballard’s. "I have been living off the land and alone for the last 15 to 18 years, and it’s been my lifeline up there. I am just this month turning 93, and I am going back up this summer, but that will be it."
Ballard said, "We used to hunt, four-wheel or snowsled up here, but you can’t do any of those things since she has taken over.
"I have a lot of memories there, and had a lot of fun. I just hate walking away and leaving everything," said Ballard, who lives in Hermon.
‘She has hurt so many people’
Quimby purchased the 24,000-acre T5 R8 parcel from J.D. Irving Ltd. in 2003 for about $12 million. The self-made millionaire has been buying forestland for preservation since 2000 and has said she hopes the forests will someday be protected as a national park and preserve.
Quimby’s quest to protect nature from the ravages of man is both laudable and controversial, and her multimillion dollar land purchases — she owns about 45,095 acres in 15 parcels around Baxter State Park, including about 8,171 acres of which she holds 85 percent ownership — attract attention from national publications such as the New York Times and Yankee Magazine.
But it’s the less nationally publicized aspects of her dream that make Quimby Public Enemy No. 1 to many who live in the 3.2 million acres known as the Maine North Woods: the eviction of leaseholders, the denial of "traditional rights" access to sportsmen to the land she owns, and the presumed shrinkage of forest products lands that fuel paper mills and other components of the state’s largest manufacturing industry.
"I wouldn’t dare to tell you what I could call her for it, but I think she has hurt so many people up there," Fortier said. "If she were to treat people decent up there and treat it like [previous owner] Great Northern Paper and Irving did through the years, we wouldn’t have any problems with her."
http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=164689&zoneid=500
(Photos by Bangor Daily News/Kate Collins)
"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'."
Erma Bombeck (1927-1996)
Erma Bombeck (1927-1996)
