Gates on woods roads upset townsfolk

Sunday, July 3, 2005

Associated Press

WELD — A land-use spat between Linda Bean Folkers and local residents escalated as foresters for the granddaughter of L.L. Bean erected steel gates across private logging roads on her property. The move came little more than a month after Folkers had a crew dismantle a three-walled lean-to near Little Jackson Mountain that campers had used for 60 years.

"I very much care about the land," Folkers said Friday after the gates were put up. "This is my private property and I can do with it what I want. We have gates on all our forested properties."

Citing damage from all-terrain vehicles and a serious problem with discarded trash, Folkers banned camping, fires and motorized vehicles on the 8,000 acres she owns in this western Maine town.

Hikers and hunters on foot have not been barred from the land, which used to be owned by a paper company and had been open to public use.

In May, more than 100 townspeople voted to deny Folkers' request to put up a gate at an intersection leading to Tumbledown and Jackson mountains.

Some residents acknowledge that there were campers who abused their privileges by leaving used diapers, toilet paper, beer cans and other trash in the traditional camping area known as Tumbledown Field. But many also felt that Folkers handled the situation the wrong way.

One resident, Bernard Rackliffe Jr., said the new gates block ATV access to traditional hunting grounds and detract from the area's natural beauty.

"They're putting up these ugly steel barriers that say 'keep out' and 'go away,' " he said.

Rackliffe suggested that Folkers' representatives may find more trash in the area as an "in-your-face" reaction by some people.

"I'm sorry they have that un-Christian attitude," Folkers responded. "Retaliation is not my way of doing things."

Bennie Bowie Jr. of Carthage said he found it hard to fault Folkers for blocking her property after people left a mess there.

"I deeply feel people abused the privilege of being a free American," he said. "It was just a few select people who ruined it for everybody else."

Ted Simanek of the town Planning Board suggested that Folkers should have announced what changes she planned on her property before going ahead with them.

"She has the right to do whatever she wants to do with it and protect it," he said, "but there's a tradition there that's come to a complete screeching halt."

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