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RESOLUTION IN OPPOSITION TO THE FORESTRY PRACTICES REFERENDUM – OCTOBER 18, 2000 WHEREAS, the Town of Greenville and the Greater Moosehead Lake Region are dependent upon the forest products industry for their economic livelihoods, and; WHEREAS, the November 7, 2000 general election ballot contains as Question #2 a Citizen Initiative Referendum Question phrased “Do you favor requiring landowners to obtain a permit for all clear-cuts and defining cutting levels for lands subject to the Tree Growth Tax Law?”, and; WHEREAS, this referendum question, if passed, would add to our statutes vague language on how such cutting levels would be determined and enforced, would inflict poor scientific management requirements, and would allow no flexibility in harvesting operations by species or type of tree stand, and; WHEREAS, this referendum question will mark the third time in the last four years that similar questions have been put before Maine voters, each time the proposal being soundly defeated, and; WHEREAS, the Forest Ecology Network, the prime sponsor of this effort, along with several related organizations assisting with the building of support for this proposal, apparently seeks to end commercial logging as well as the pulp and paper industry in the State of Maine as a long-term goal, and; WHEREAS, the woods-industry employment in our region offers some of the highest-paying work for Greenville citizens, and makes up a significant portion of the job base statewide, and; WHEREAS, the citizen's referendum question as written does not take into consideration the many previously successful efforts through State legislation and regulation and increased levels of industry responsibility and land management to improve forest practices over the past decades, and; WHEREAS, the Maine Tree Growth Program, a legislatively-created mechanism for resisting sprawl and maintaining undeveloped woodland, would be devastated by passage of this referendum, and; WHEREAS, the Maine Woods of the Greater Moosehead Lake Region, visited by tens of thousands of hunters, fishermen, snowmobilers, hikers, bikers, and other outdoorspeople each year, benefit from the protection from development afforded by the Maine Tree Growth Program; WHEREAS, that the Board of Selectmen for the Town of Greenville declares its opposition to the Forestry Practices Referendum put forth to voters November 7, 2000 in the general election. The Board of Selectmen urge all voters in our State to soundly reject this latest attempt to over-regulate and destroy the forest products industry in the State of Maine. Resolved at the Greenville Municipal Building Wednesday, October 18, 2000.
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