A proposed mine near Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument threatens water, wildlife and dark skies — as well as the Penobscot Nation’s way of life and decades’ worth of work in restoring endangered fish.
Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument preserves 87,500 acres along Maine’s East Branch of the Penobscot River. Its vast boreal forests, abundant wildlife and flowing rivers inspired American conservationists from poet Henry David Thoreau to President Theodore Roosevelt and led to its establishment as a national monument in 2016.
Maine’s iconic sports fish, brook trout, as well as bear, moose and the Canada lynx, which is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, rank among the national monument’s wildlife. Hikers, skiers, mountain bikers, hunters and anglers alike enjoy this land — a total of 43,000 visitors came to Katahdin Woods and Waters in 2022 and spent $3 million in the local economy.
This area of Maine also contains minerals. Wolfden Resources Corporation, an exploration company based in Ontario, Canada, has proposed building a zinc mine just seven miles from the border of Katahdin Woods and Waters’ Seboeis area. For the mine to be built, 374 acres near the Penobscot River headwaters must be rezoned from forestry and agriculture to planned development. Maine’s Land Use Planning Commission (LUPC) is considering Wolfden’s rezoning request and plans to make a decision in February 2024.
NPCA and the monument’s neighbor, the Penobscot Nation, are urging the LUPC to reject this rezoning request.
“After reading Wolfden’s application, it is abundantly clear that their mining proposal is a serious threat to the clean waters, dark skies, quiet solitude, viewshed and endangered species of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument,” NPCA’s Todd Martin, Northeast regional program manager, said in testimony this fall before Maine’s Land Use Planning Commission.
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