AUGUSTA, Maine — The federal government has paused a plan to turn part of western Maine’s High Peaks region into a National Wildlife Refuge after pushback from residents and lawmakers who viewed the effort as encroaching on local autonomy.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service floated the idea this past spring of using 5,000 to 15,000 acres of the High Peaks region around Rangeley for a new refuge after identifying the area that contains the largest expanse of high elevation in Maine as providing critical habitat for migratory birds and opportunities to research how species adapt to a changing climate.
But a broad group of opponents from loggers, outdoors groups and the Sugarloaf ski resort to Gov. Janet Mills, Maine’s congressional delegation and state lawmakers from the region worried they would lose access to and control of land, especially for ATV and snowmobile use.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has now decided to “pause its planning efforts,” according to letters sent by Shannon Estenoz, the U.S. Interior Department’s assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, to U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat whose 2nd District includes the High Peaks region, earlier this month.
“This pause will provide further opportunity to better understand what role, if any, the Service could play to better support local conservation needs,” Estenoz wrote.
The Fish and Wildlife Service held several public meetings in western Maine since May to discuss the plan with residents and also has received more than 300 letters and emails regarding the proposal, Estenoz noted.
While the agency heard many want to conserve the region to benefit fish, wildlife and recreation, “we also appreciate that there are varied perspectives on the best way to achieve that goal,” Estenoz told King and Golden.
More than 560 National Wildlife Refuge sites cover 95 million acres throughout the U.S., with 11 in Maine. They are generally meant to protect land for certain species and usually permit hunting, fishing, photography, boating, kayaking, snowmobiling and other activities.
A decade ago, the Fish and Wildlife Service shelved a similar refuge plan for the High Peaks area due in part to a lack of acquisition funding available at the federal level, according to Paul Casey, the federal agency’s project manager for the latest proposal. Casey said in August a High Peaks refuge could protect birds like the Blackburnian warbler and Bicknell’s thrush along with fish such as Atlantic salmon and brook trout.
He also emphasized the Fish and Wildlife Service was open to continuing to allow ATVs and snowmobiles on any new site. Regarding another sticking point, Casey said federal rules ban bear baiting — a common hunting practice in Maine — on such a refuge.
But opponents argued Maine already has laws to protect the identified birds and habitat, asking the federal government to work with residents and the state to solve any issues and noting nearly two-thirds of the 200,000 acres originally outlined for the refuge is already conserved.
Golden is “glad to see that the Fish and Wildlife Service recognizes that this decision demands local input and that Maine land shouldn’t be taken by the federal government without local approval,” he said in a Wednesday statement.
