Protect the lands around western Maine’s Wild River | Opinion

**Adam Nordell** _is a conservation advocate with Environment Maine._ The Wild River runs through steep and rocky mountains hugging the Maine-New Hampshire border before it joins the Androscoggin River in the tiny town of Gilead. Its headwaters stretch south into a mountainous landscape including the Wild River Wilderness Area, the Caribou-Speckled Mountain Wilderness Area and the surrounding White Mountains National Forest. This dramatic place boasts a 3,100-foot elevation drop between the watershed’s tallest peak and the confluence of the Wild and Androscoggin Rivers, with an astounding diversity of ecosystems packed into a relatively small network of mountain valleys. For decades, the federal government wisely has protected [about 6,000 acres](https://outdooralliance.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/basic/index.html?appid=bffb3fe5fdfb43519a84c6a0cf4f8ff5) within the watershed with an [“inventoried roadless area”](https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R46504) designation. But what’s given may be taken away. The U.S. Senate’s Environment and Natural Resources Committee is voting Wednesday on [the Wildfire Prevention Act,](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/140) which was just amended to nullify roadless protections across the country. Advertisement As a committee member, U.S. Sen. Angus King will have an opportunity to vote against the bill. On the other side of the aisle, Sen. Susan Collins has an opportunity to work with her party to withdraw this misguided legislation. What’s at stake for Maine? The Wild River and its environs are [an ecological treasure.](https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mnap/focusarea/white_mountains_focus_area.pdf) Endangered [peregrine falcons](https://www.maine.gov/ifw/fish-wildlife/wildlife/species-information/birds/falcons.html) find nesting sites on high cliff faces above the valley and [golden eagles,](https://www.maine.gov/ifw/fish-wildlife/wildlife/species-information/birds/golden-eagles.html) Maine’s rarest breeding birds, are occasionally seen here. [Northern spring salamanders](https://www.maine.gov/ifw/fish-wildlife/wildlife/species-information/reptiles-amphibians/spring-salamander.html) thrive in the clear, oxygen-rich mountain brooks that feed into the Wild River, while their populations have shrunk or vanished elsewhere in Maine due to deforestation and the associated degradation of stream water quality. The watershed also hosts endangered plant species, including [American ginseng,](https://www.maine.gov/dacf/php/ginseng/index.shtml) small whorled [pogonia](https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mnap/features/isotmed.htm) and the only documented population of [tall white violets](https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mnap/features/viocan.htm) in the state. These species critically need this place. Our species critically need places like this, too. My family has been camping near the river every summer since our son was born. On hot, late summer afternoons, we swim through cold and clear mountain water, navigating between giant, truck-sized boulders until, frigid and shivering, we clamber up the water-scoured bedrock lining the river to stand facing the sun, warming ourselves like cormorants. We hike trails through pungent spruce and fir forests, up slopes lined with pine, maple and birch trees, to stand on high, granite outcrops or scrub-covered peaks, losing ourselves for a moment in an apparently endless — and timeless — mountain landscape. Advertisement But our wild, roadless lands are neither endless nor timeless. Our wild places are here because previous generations loved them enough to fight for their protection, and because we love them enough to fight for their protection now. For the past 25 years, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule has safeguarded wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities on 45 million acres of pristine backcountry across the United States, including the roadless areas in western Maine. Last August, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced her intention to undo those protections and to open roadless areas up for commercial activities, including large-scale timber harvest, oil and gas drilling and more. In the coming weeks, unrelated to the pending legislation before Congress, the Department of Agriculture is due to publish a draft environmental impact statement. This document will lay out options for retaining or weakening the Roadless Rule. At that point, the public will have 30 days to weigh in. Please join me in asking Secretary Rollins to protect the Roadless Rule, and in asking Sens. King and Collins to make a similar commitment to the protection of the Wild River watershed and similarly wild places across the country. Copy the Story Link