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By BETTY JESPERSEN
Staff Writer Friday, August 03, 2007

Staff Writer

A new management plan for the state-owned Bigelow Preserve calls for more protected wilderness, limits on mountain bike use, and larger buffers to shield visitors from timber operations.

The Preserve, in northern Franklin County, encompasses 35,000 acres along Flagstaff Lake and centered on the scenic 20-mile-long Bigelow Mountain Range.

The management plan, available online and in print, is the second one since the Preserve's creation in a 1976 public referendum. The plan also covers management of adjacent public lands.

State officials say visitors will see only minor changes as it goes into effect.

Under the 175-page plan:

n Another 10,000 acres will remain wild, in addition to 10,000 acres set aside in 2000 for an ecological reserve.

n Off-road mountain biking is out. Facilities, especially those along the shoreline, will be improved, but only after a study of documented need.

n Better buffers will shield trails and mountain views from timber harvests.

The plan also commits to good stewardship of competing recreational opportunities to protect the undeveloped backcountry character and natural beauty of the area while making the public lands available to enjoy.

The plan was released after three years of work.

"This was a very thorough process. There was some frustration on the part of some groups but, by and large, I think we were able to retain the character and without making a lot of changes to what people expect," said the manager of the Flagstaff Region, forester Peter Smith, at the Farmington office of the state Department of Conservation's Bureau of Parks and Lands.

The plan was approved by Commissioner Patrick McGowan earlier this summer.

The Flagstaff Region includes the rugged mountains, backcountry forests and high-elevation ponds in the Bigelow Preserve that is traversed by 17 miles of the Appalachian Trail. It also encompasses about 20,000 acres of public lands north of Farmington to the Canadian border and east of the Rangeley Lakes Region to the Kennebec River valley.

The Preserve, created by public referendum in 1976 in response to the threat of a proposed four-seasons resort, was established to "set aside land to be retained in its natural state for the use and enjoyment of the public."

Among the changes made since Bigelow's 1989 plan, said coordinator Kathy Eichenberg, has been the designation, in 2000, of 10,561 acres as The Horns Ecological Reserve in the heart of the Preserve where no snowmobiles, bikes, or timber harvesting is allowed. The 2007 plan protects another 10,000 acres around the Reserve as a buffer.

An overarching concern was expressed by some interests related to the Preserve's future, she said.

In their comments, they say they are worried that, little by little, the nature of the area could shift from a backcountry area to an intensively managed recreation destination with new trails, additional camping facilities and new uses contrary to the Preserve's purpose.

One concern was the increased use of mountain bikes. Eichenberg said the Bigelow Act did not specify what uses were allowed in the Preserve. Snowmobiles, an existing use in 1976, were permitted but restricted to designated, low-speed trails.

In recent years, mountain bikers, often connecting from outside recreational trails, have unofficially been using old woods roads and trails and disturbing traditional uses. Now, the sport will be limited to roads where cars travel and there is no off-road riding, she said.

"We consider it to be a quiet recreation that could be managed so we provided for it," Eichenberg said. "For folks who are concerned, the Preserve will not be overrun with pressures to have more snowmobile and mountain bike trails."

A coalition of interests known as the Northern Forest Alliance Caucus, worried about cutting the Preserve's oldest and largest trees, requested that significant areas be set aside as a new, backcountry, non-mechanized area where timber harvesting was not allowed.

The Bureau's response was that its sustainable forest management of old-growth stands and mature trees, together with the extensive, no-harvesting area set aside in the ecological reserve, will increase -- not decrease -- their numbers.

Bob Weingarten of Vienna, a member of the Friends of Bigelow, said tourism was his worry.

"The state sees tourism as a major economic driver and is targeting the Bigelow Preserve as one of the places to promote," Weingarten said.

Eichenberg disagreed.

"The Bureau will not seek to market the Preserve to increase its use."

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