Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Engineer: John Greenman

Nearly 1400 people packed the Collins Center at the University of Maine Monday evening to let Senator Angus King and Jonathan Jarvis, Director of the United States National Park Service, know how they feel about a proposal to designate land east of Baxter State Park as a national monument. A national monument can be designated by the President, whereas a national park requires the approval of Congress. Roxanne Quimby’s family foundation is offering 87,500 acres of land for a “Katahdin Woods and Waters” national monument or park –and millions of dollars to support it.
While a much smaller meeting in East Millinocket earlier in the day drew mostly opponents to the proposal, the audience at the Collins Center was overwhelmingly in support, as evidenced by a sea of pro-monument t-shirts. Today’s show features Lucas St. Clair presenting the proposal, some of the public comments pro and con, and Director Jarvis’ responses to questions.

The full, unedited (3 hr, 16 min) meeting can be heard here: soundcloud.com/amy-browne-1/public-weighs-in-on-natl-monument-proposal

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