by Jonathan Reisman

In the 1990s, Maine adopted a 10% public lands goal (about 2 million acres) and began generously funding the Land for Maine Future’s program to achieve it. The effort was led by Governor Angus King and Senate Majority Leader (and future Congresswoman) Chellie Pingree, who sponsored a $50 million land bond. Twenty-five years ago, that was real money.

I was part of an unsuccessful effort to defeat that bond because public land’s benefits and costs were not distributed equitably in Maine, with a disproportionate burden on the 2nd Congressional District, specifically the three poorest counties–Washington, Piscataquis, and Somerset. There was also a demonstrable dearth of public land in all of the 1st Congressional District. I asked the rhetorical question, “What economic system is it where the government owns the means of production, including land?” It was a good economics question, but not a successful political one.

In 2021, I had a bill put in to cap overall public (federal, state, and local) ownership at 33% of the state and no more than 50% of any county and to require the state to report public holdings on a county-by-county basis. The table below from the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry (ACF) alarmed me greatly and clearly showed the problem was getting worse, but we were unable to secure even a roll-call vote. The Climate Council advanced a 30% public lands goal by 2030. There is some talk of increasing the overall goal to 50%. Washington and Piscataquis Counties have already met that goal and had 30% of their taxable acres and development opportunities removed. 

In 2021, 14.1% of Maine (19.6 million acres) was publicly owned (state ownership comprised about 90% of that). Of the State’s 2.4 million acres, 1.9 million (78%) are in those same three counties–Washington, Piscataquis, and Somerset. In my opinion, there is no way the Climate Action Plan’s 30% public lands goal to add 3 million acres can be achieved without continued emphasis on the counties that already have the vast majority of public land. I do not believe there is any appetite to convert large percentages of the 1st Congressional District into public land for carbon sequestration, but I have not been able to use numbers and English to effectively make the case. Then I remembered that a picture is worth a thousand words, or in this case, three million acres.

 I asked some of my think tank and academic contacts for assistance to no avail, but then remembered that capitalism involves the private ownership of the means of production. I asked my publisher, and he put his crack graphics staff on the case.

As this column is published, I will be presenting this case to the Washington County Commissioners and asking them to make suggestions and support proposed legislation to cap public ownership in any given county at 50%.

Source: Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, submitted 3/16/21 in opposition to LD 324.