History+of+Plum+Creek

=The History of Plum Creek = 

 A private lumber company is buying up the forests. This is happening in 19 states. Plum Creek has purchased 929,000 acres in Maine alone and is still expanding. Plum Creek has only been established for 20 years and is now reshaping America's timber lands. Plum Creek began as a timber company buying land and using it for the paper business but quickly became a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT.) That enabled them to start formulating plans and making proposals for development in all 19 states that they own land in. One company is changing the nation's landscape from timberland to development; how is this possible? Plum Creek has a very unique history that led to September 2009, and the 30-year development plan that was recently approved in Maine. = =  Currently, in 2009, Plum Creek timber company is the largest private land owner in the United States. Based in Seattle, Washington they are a timber company who acquire land. Originally, Plum Creek started out with inherited land from Burlington Northern Railroad Company in 1989 when this railroad broke off its timber holdings to form a different company. In 1970, Burlington Northern Railroad Company was created when several smaller railroads merged. One of these smaller railroads was Northern Pacific. Northern Pacific was very lucky because during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln gave 1.4 million acres to Northern Pacific. This was part of the Railroad Act of 1864. This land, given by the government, was supposed to be used to help connect the railroad from coast to coast. Thus, Plum Creek is a company that obtained its assets from unused railroad land, land that is potentially worth a lot of money.

Plum Creek’s name came from a small sawmill created by D.C. Dunham in Minnesota back in 1930. In 1945, the company moved to Montana and changed its name to Plum Creek. During the 1960s, Dunham died and his family sold his mills to Northern Pacific. That is when Burlington Northern first developed a name for their department managing timber holdings, Plum Creek. In addition to the land they inherited when Burlington Northern divided their holdings, in the 1990s Plum Creek began to buy large parcels of land from lumber companies that managed the forests for wood products and used wood products. (They now have long term contracts to supply some mills with pulp.) Over the past 20 years, Plum Creek has acquired 7,329,000 acres in 19 states, 929,000 of that is part of northern Maine (www.PlumCreek.com). Poor management practices in Washington state has raised concerns about what Plum Creeks stewardship would be in other states.

Plum Creek, like any other big company, wants to make money. One way to increase margins is to avoid taxes by cutting deals. In Missoula, Montana, Plum Creek made a deal with the U.S. Forest service that they can cross each others' land for timber hauling (Jamison). Regular tax payers pay for U.S. Forest Service roads, and thus are helping Plum Creek profit. Most big lumber companies clear cut because it makes it easier to harvest the wood. The forest is being cut down faster than it can re-grow. Plum Creek admits they don’t have a policy for sustained-yield forestry. Plum Creek says they are trying to get rid of the old forest because it grows too slowly. Replanted forest grow faster. Some environmentalists have now changed their minds. Clear cutting is better than development because the trees grow back but the houses are forever (Jamison).

Plum Creek did not want to pay any taxes for all the land they own, thus in 1999 they reformed as a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). They wanted to sell their land for development instead of logging because forest land is valued at $500 an acre, whereas selling the land as real estate earns on average $29,000 an acre (Johnson). In changing from a lumber company to a Real Estate Investment Trust, they can avoid paying corporate taxes. As part of the deal, they have to give money back to their investors. Plum Creek, as a corporation, has a good deal because they don’t have to pay as much in property taxes to the state of Maine as other corporations.

Being in the wilderness is another important part of a lot of peoples lives in Maine. Whether it is hunting, fishing or just enjoying nature people want a place to go. Big corporate lumber companies like Plum Creek are threatening to take access away. By selling select chunks to private owners only the few can enjoy the land. Plum Creek’s clear cutting is a problem. If you take away an animal’s habitat they leave which results in fewer animals and less reason to hunt. When animals are threatened they become endangered. Out west this summer I learned that when you don’t have continuos expanses of land, large predators die and nature becomes unbalanced. In my opinion we should turn Plum Creeks land into public land. Originally Plum Creeks land was taken from the public and should have been returned when it was not used. National Parks are controlled by one agency while national forest are controlled by another. National Parks are there to preserve land in its natural state. Nation Forest land is managed by foresters. If Maine wilderness land was managed by a National Forest then everyone including the hunters could use it.

This history is not only effecting Maine. 19 other states are facing the same type of development issues as Maine is currently. The presence and the acceptance of Plum Creek in other states vary. Some states are allowing Plum Creek to push them around and some states are pushing Plum Creek around and taking control of their situation on a state level. Here are a few example of how other states and being effected, influenced and changed by Plum Creeks presence.

=**Plum Creek in Other States** =

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Although Plum Creek owns land in 19 states, they were not all treated as kindly as Maine is being treated; Among some of the unfairly treated states are Montana, Florida, Washington, and Michigan. These four states are the four states on which I am going to focus. =====

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In 1993 Plum Creek bought 865,000 acres of land in Montana, from the Champion International company. Now they own over 1,000,000,000, acres of land in Montana. Of this land over 600,000 acres is conservation land. Plum Creek uses this mostly for production of lumber, plywood and fiberboard. In 2008 Montana was concerned that the easement plan would change their beautiful forests into paved roads and neighborhoods. If Plum Creek had made Montana’s worst nightmares come true, they would have been breaking the easement plan which is against the law without getting it changed. The easement plan is the This would have put Plum Creek in danger of a law suit. This is not like what is going on in Maine. ===== 

[[image:Snapshot_2009-10-13_11-02-36.jpg width="491" height="328" align="center" caption="Plum Creek's land in Montana"]]
  Plum Creek came to Florida when they merged with the Timber Group co. in 2001. By 2005 they had bought over 56,000 acres of land. Now the tiny county of Union, that is set on Lake Butler have not had developmental plans like this one until now. This small county set 30 to 50 miles away from any real development has one issue that they may not be able to get rid of, it is that Plum Creek owns more than half of Union County. Union County is the only county in Florida that if one was to take a visit that you would not find any motel 6 or any motel at all. Plum Creek’s director of Florida Todd Powell does not know if the project will continued or not but what he does know is “This is not one where we’ll sell it off and let someone else do it all” says Todd Powell. In Union County the people are very optimistic about the project. This project is said to bring jobs to the people who live there while most of the waterfront and woods will stay as much as posable the same.



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Plum Creek owns 121,000 acres of land in Washington State. In Washington State to Montana Plum creek is cutting a trail of profits through the Pacific northwest, they are taking trees down that are older then this nation by a century. Plum Creek is cutting these forests twice as fast then they can grow back. Rod Chandler said “Within the industry, they’re considered the Darth Vader of the state of Washington” (Farney Dennis). In both Montana and Washington Plum Creek is trying to make them look better by and replace the trees that they cut down. The Snoqualmie pass is land that Plum Creek wanted back in 1998 they were trying to do a land swap with the U.S. Forest Service, this was going to make it easier for Plum Creek to log. In addition the land that they were going to swap with was land that hikers valued. The Snoqualmie pass runs mostly through the interstate, but it also includes tribal land, six counties, and other groups. Plum Creek set a deadline of December 31, 1998 for the U.S. Forest Service to make up there mind if they would go ahead and do the land swap. If they didn’t Plum Creek was going to use the land that the hikers wanted to go into land conservation. =====

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In Michigan Plum Creek bought 650,000 acres of land on the Upper Peninsula from Escanaba Timber LLC. This forest that Plum Creek bought has many types of trees on it. Plum Creek said that they would sell most of the pulpwood that they were harvesting on the 650,000 acres to Escanaba pulp and paper mill. They would be supplying pulpwood so that the mill can make paper. It is a win for both sides because they both get something out of it. In this case both sides were happy with the choice that was made. =====

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These states are all connected to Maine by one thing and that is that Plum Creek has been to all of them and come and done what they do best and that is buy land then make a proposal to the state, change it until they get something that they like. It took over 4 years for there to be a plan that made almost everyone happy. See some of the states did had more trouble with Plum Creek then Maine is. =====  Plum Creek, as way to gain support and put their plans into effect, has to make sure that all stakeholders, and the general public agree on some level with their proposal. Although groups such as Maine's Earth First will never agree with a development plan, the way that development is going to effect future generations is a critical part of LURC's decision. On one hand you have a declining population in Greenville that needs job to ensure that more people will move there and attend their elementary, middle and high schools. But on the other hand, when this land is developed, no future generation will have the opportunity hike Big Moose Mountain or camp on Indian Pond without trespassing on private land. This posses a difficult dilemma for North Haven Community School's high school students who go on a fall expedition every September in Maine's North Woods.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Maine's North Woods** = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> On September 16th, 2009, a group of students from North Haven Community school stood at the base of Big Moose Mountain, staring up at its peak. The group continued on that day and climbed to the peak of the mountain where they bivouacked on the bald summit. The environment up and down the trail was of such profound beauty that it was hard to take it all in at one time. This story, along with others just like it are quickly becoming a part of the distant past. In the near future, a group who makes that same climb, to that same summit, could be in a car or on a chair lift. The empty dirt logging roads that we walked will be paved slabs, and the base of the mountain will be the entrance to some form of a resort/ski area. Plum Creek, the owner of all the land that which has been rezoned for development over the next 30 years, owns 929,000 acres. Although Moose Mountain is going to be developed, 97% of 400,000 acres will be conservation land. The Landownership since the 1800s, plays a key role in how Plum Creek came to own this land in the Moosehead area, and the history of the Maine North Woods plays a key role in why there is so much controversy surrounding all of Plum Creek’s land.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Plum Creek: Landowner** = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Plum Creek today owns over 929,000 acres of land in Maine. They acquired that land through a web of different timber and lumbering companies in 1998. However, the history of Plum Creek’s land ownership in Maine dates back to the 1800’s. In 1830, Eleazer Coburn, a Maine citizen, owned 700 square miles of forest in Maine’s Moosehead region. Coburn and his sons used the land for lumbering operations on the Kennebec River. The Coburn family owned that same land until 1895. In 1895, Hollingsworth & Whitney Paper Company was established in the Moosehead area, owning a total of 161,000 acres. In 1947, Holligsworth & Whitney bought 100,000 acres from the Coburn heirs, bringing their landownership to 261,000 acres for logging and paper industries. In 1900, Great North Paper Company was established in the Greenville/Moosehead area, and 59 years after Hollingsworth & Whitney was established in the Moosehead area, they sold 400,000 acres of land to Scott Paper Company. Soon after, in 1969, Scott Paper bought 100,000 acres of land from S.D. Warren, making them the biggest landowner in the Moosehead area. In 1964 South African Pulp and Paper International (SAPPI) bought all of Scott Paper’s land, who then turned around and sold all of their land to Plum Creek Timber Company in 1998, increasing their total landownership to 905,000 acres in Maine.

Today, Plum Creek has come to own 929,000 acres of land in Maine. This land, along with the rest of the Maine North Woods, is owned by companies that use the land for paper, pulp, and timber businesses. However, that land is used, and maintained as if it were National Forest, which poses an interesting dilemma for Maine people and how they feel about Plum Creek.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**National Forest** = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> All U.S. National Forest land is managed by the National Forest Service which was established in 1905 as an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 2005 the total National Forest acreage in the U.S. was 193 million acres, and growing. The way that most of the National Forests are set up across the country is that anyone can enter forest land to camp, hunt, fish, canoe etc. for a number amount of days, depending on the state. All of that land is maintained by the National Forest Service, which also varies in scale and operations. The general rules for most states limit the amount of hours that a person is allowed to spend there, the areas allowed for fishing and hunting, campfire regulations and other general forest rules. These areas of National Forest are typically marked on road maps in green and can be seen all across the U.S. in all states, except for one, Maine. Although there is a “green spot” over Baxter State Park, it is not regulated by the same Forest Service that the other National Forests are because it is privately owned conservation land. How then are we, as residents and non-residents, allowed to access all of Maine’s North Woods for recreational use?

Maine’s North Woods have a very unique history which began in the 17th century when settlers began to settle the region. Over the next 200 years individuals began to develop the area as timber barons. Beginning in the early 1900s, the individual land owners began to sell their land to privately owned paper companies. Most of these companies developed their timber and paper mills on the edges of their land, making it easier to transport their goods out of the woods. This left the interior of the woods largely undeveloped, which left the land as privately owned, but available for public access.

The Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) identifies two major changes that occurred and altered the area's history. The first of these changes occurred in the 1960s, when dirt logging roads were developed as a primary means for transporting wood to and from mills and to markets. These roads made access to shorefront properties easier which in turn made accessible routes available for construction vehicles that came in to develop vacation and shorefront homes. The second of the two changes occurred in 1971 when the state of Maine became concerned with the rapid development of shorefront properties in the North Woods and created the Land Use Regulatory Commission (LURC) who is responsible for managing the usage of all state and privately owned land in Maine. This shifted management of the Maine North Woods over to LURC so whenever any development, or sales of land happens, the easements have to go directly through LURC, who will make the decision based on the opinions of stakeholders in the state, economic situations, land use, and a long list of many other factors. For example, when Plum Creek decided to become a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and began formulating plans for development, the plans had to go through, and be approved by, LURC.

Plum Creek’s plan went through 5 different phases over a span of 4 year and was constantly being viewed by LURC, NRCM, the public, and other Maine companies and organizations. Even when LURC was put into play in Maine, public access was still permitted. Before Plum Creek’s plan was approved, LURC was selling thousands of house lots in the Moosehead and other North Woods areas, which increased the number of landowners and decreased the amount of land that the forest products industry owns by 45% (NRCM.) This makes it increasingly more difficult to keep up public access land after owners begin putting up “no trespassing” signs. Since LURC was established in 1971, the number of houses in its jurisdiction has increased by over 70%, and the townships in which development has occurred has increased by 72%.(NRCM) LURC has also approved 667 residential development zones and approved 2,469 subdivision lots. (NRCM) The impact that Plum Creek’s plan, and that LURC’s developments have had, and is going to have on Maine’s public access is expansive. It has Maine people questioning how to weigh economic growth with public access, temporary jobs with permanent jobs, and the effect that all of this development is going to have on the state of Maine as a whole.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">**Moosehead, Baxter and Maine’s Unorganized Territories** = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Plum Creek’s current development plan is centered around the Moosehead Lake region. No matter which paper you read or who you are talking to, the reasoning behind developing this region is controversial. While Plum Creek believes that it will bring more jobs to the area and put money back into areas like Greenville, NRCM believes that development will significantly impact Maine culture and history.

This type of development is not foreign or new to the state of Maine. Developments and lodges can be seen throughout the history of the Maine North Woods and, in particular, in the Moosehead Lake region. One of the most famous developments in the history of Moosehead is the Mount Kineo Resort which was built in 1884. The resort was a major tourist attraction. It brought money to the area in the form of jobs and tourism. Along with those benefits came fishing, hunting, hiking, canoeing and many other forms of sport that were unique in the Moosehead area. Plum Creek’s stance is that if that same kind of development happened today, the economic situation in the Moosehead area would improve immensely. Luke Muzzy, a Maine resident and local real estate broker for Plum Creek’s Maine branch, told a story recently at the LURC hearing about his family and his hometown (Greenville.) He said that he graduated in a class of 49 and his son just recently graduated in the class of 2009 as a class of 17. This is upsetting to Muzzy who has grown up in Maine and watched the effects that the struggling economy has had on his hometown. He believes, as a member of the Plum Creek “team,” that the amount of jobs and people that this plan will bring to the area outweighs the fact that some of the land in the Maine North Woods will be lost.

Plum Creek uses Mt. Kineo as an example of how development will help Moosehead and the surrounding towns. They are using the past as a precursor to the future in an attempt to win over Maine citizens who use this land on a daily basis. Luke Muzzy is one of many stories of how small towns are struggling. North Haven, for instance, is a community based largely around the care-taking business. If that occupation were to become unavailable, over half of the population would have no job and be forced to move off the island. The same can be true for Greenville, but the opposite. If houses are built for summer residence, then those houses need to be maintained, which will bring year round jobs to the area. But this is only one example of the economic growth that will happen when these developments are built not to mention the people it will take to run the resorts, maintain the land, and build homes in the Moosehead area.

On the other side of the controversy, NRCS believes that this plan is going to completely diminish the culture of the Maine North Woods. Cathy Johnson, the lawyer for NRCM said at a recent meeting “once a land is developed, it is developed forever.” What she meant by that is, with Plum Creek’s plan, the Maine North Woods are going to see an incredible amount of development, that will be there forever. You can’t re-build a natural forest like Maine’s. Maine’s North Woods represent “the largest remaining contiguous block of forest.” (NRCM) One thing that worries people opposed to this development plan is the sense that this is the first large scale development project in the state that has been approved. It has set precedence for other developments to happen in the future, and where will those developments stop? Everyone understands that a lot of this land is going into conservation, but it is going into conservation under Plum Creek. It will be owned and managed by the company. Paul Johnson said of a recent developed area where the trees were newly planted and the sounds of machinery could be heard in every direction, “It’s managed forest, it’s not wilderness.” (Portland Newspapers) If you have ever hiked or canoed in the Maine North Woods, it is easier to understand the difference between wilderness and a nature preserve.

Another area which concerns NRCM is Maine’s unorganized territories. Unorganized territories are areas that are either considered too small to be a town, or towns who decide that they do not have enough willing people to keep the town up and decide to withdraw from a township. These territories are owned by LURC. Because they are owned by LURC, NRCM is worried about what will become of those places if development continues, and more REIT’s want to develop land, a legitimate fear now that Plum Creek has begun the process. However, there is hope that conservation land will remain natural and will not turn into controlled wilderness. Most of this hope comes from places like Baxter State Park the only “green spot” on the Maine map. Baxter State Park is a privately owned piece of land that is in permanent conservation for the people on Maine. With Plum Creek’s plan, 97% of the land they own is going into permanent conservation, meaning that even after the 30 years that Plum Creek has to develop is over, that land will stay in conservation for public use and access, similar to Baxter State Park.

It is essential to understand who Plum Creek is and what their purpose is in order to defend or support them. Even if you are not taking a side, all of the developments that are going to happen as a result of the LURC decision in September 2009 are going to directly, and indirectly effect everyone who currently resides, and will reside in Maine in the future. A major piece of Moosehead Lake is going to be developed and an even larger piece is going into permanent conservation. For some people this seems like the worst possible thing that could happen, their freedom to use that land is being taken away. But for other people this is the beginning of something great, something that is going to keep their family in Northern Maine. These developments also open the door for out of state residents to move to Maine and tourists to come visit for skiing and sport which will subsequently boost Maine's declining economy. No matter how anyone feels about the plan, it is going to happen. Over the next 30 years Indian Pond will be changed drastically. Structures will go up and trees will come down. The biggest questions on everyone's mind are; where will the development stop? How much development will the state of Maine see in the next couple of decades? How long will it be until the only public land access that we have is "controlled wilderness?" All of these are valid, and extremely important questions to ask as this is our future. This is the land that generations one hundred years down the line will walk on, however, it is up to us to make the decision whether or not that land will be concrete or dirt, whether they will look up and see trees or skyscrapers and to think about how that is going to shape our state, and our nation.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Works Cited
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Farney, Dennis. "Unkindest cut? timber firm stirs ire felling forests faster then they regenerate---Burlington Northern Spinoff clear-cuts ancient stands granted by Abe Lincoln --- Spooked by Corporate raiders." Wall Street Journal Jun 18,1990, Eastern.: A1. Print.

Jamison, Michael. "Plum Creek Shareholders Land deal." Missoulian Aug 13,2008: a1. Print.

Kirk Johnson, New York Times, New York: October 13, 2007. pg. A1

Little, Thomas. Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine. First Edition. Volume 1. Print.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> Michael Jamison, Missoulian, Montana: August 28, 2008. pg. B1 __[|www.PlumCreek.com]<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: normal;"> __

Moy, Chelsi. "Senator asks Rey not to sign land deal." Missoulian Dec 19, 2008: B1. Print.

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Taylor, Rob. "Debate sharpens over Snoqualmie pass forests." Seattle Post Apr 14,1998: B1. Print.

"US Forest Service." 10/13/09. US Forest Service, Web. 13 Oct 2009. <http://www.fs.fed.us/>.