The NPCA first publicly advocated the Federal takeover as part of its National Park System Plan, which it heavily promoted beginning in 1988 to expand the National Park System nationally but which failed to gain support in Congress due to a backlash of popular resistance against Federal control and acquisition of private property.

The NPCA is a private lobbying arm of the National Park Service. It was founded in 1919 by the first Director of the NPS, three years after the beginning of the NPS itself in 1916 in order to undertake political activities on behalf of the NPS that a government agency could not do itself.

The NPCA drafted its 1988 expansion plan, which it called a "blueprint" for future acquisition nationwide, with the help of NPS planners, national pressure groups such as the Wilderness Society, and foundation funding, mostly from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The Director of the National Park Service, William Penn Mott, was on the NPCA Board of Trustees at the time. The Plan anticipated a renewal of the large scale Federal land acquisition during the 1960's and 1970's which had stalled during the Reagan years when funding for land acquisition was dramatically curtailed.

The Plan calls for ultimately nationalizing over a hundred million acres nationwide, mostly in rural areas, through the creation of 130 new National Parks and expansion of 178 existing units. Northern New England and upstate New York, including much of rural Maine, are targeted as a strategic high priority in what the Plan calls "Mega Conservation" in New England. Promotion of the Plan in Maine coincided with a mostly unpublicized lobbying drive by major viro groups to impose Greenlining across 26 million acres from the downeast coast of Maine across central and northern Maine, northern New Hampshire and Vermont, to the Adirondacks in New York, including 10 million acres in Maine.

The NPCA Plan includes 5 new planned National Park takeovers in Maine -- which have continued to be targets for land acquisition on behalf of viro groups by a variety of other means -- and expansions of existing Federal areas at Acadia and Wells. The Federal park plans for Maine were openly supported by the Natural Resources Council of Maine and Maine Audubon, which supported the public promotions in 1988. The State Planning Office and the Maine Coast Heritage Trust were also cited by NPCA as sources for the plan in Maine.

Heavy popular resistance led to the National Park promotional blitz for Maine dying out as funding for them dried up, except for the plan for the Maine woods sponsored by the Wilderness Society. Despite the opposition, a Wilderness Society offshoot based in Massachusetts, called RESTORE -- led by former Wilderness Society New England director Michael Kellet and backed by national viro groups, was formed to strategically promote the Maine woods takeover plan and try to build support. The Sierra Club has also continued to agitate for a National Park Service takeover.

The Oct. 6, 2005 NPCA press release advocating a Federal takeover of the Maine woods marks a change in tactics for NPCA . Since the public rejection of its controversial national plan years ago, NPCA has not publicly acknowledged its strategic "Mega Conservation" takeover plans across the northeast and the Plan is not available to the public. But the NPCA had continued to promote a short list of national targets and had recently suggested at its website that central/northern Maine would be coming up on the active Congressional lobbying agenda again:

"The list omits many areas that clearly qualify as potential national park candidates but will likely not be considered by Congress within the next two years. However, we believe nationally significant places such as ... the Maine Woods ... also qualify for national park designation."

(Thanks to Bob Kord of Cutler for noticing the new NPCA initiative.)

NPCA Press Release:
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=54653

ational Parks Magazine Highlights Maine Woods; Group Urges Congress to Study Area for Potential Parkland; NPCA Sr. V.P. Statement
10/6/2005 11:09:00 AM
To: City and State desks, Congressional Correspondent
Contact: Ron Tipton of National Parks Conservation Association, 202-223-6722, ext. 266

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following is a Statement by Ron Tipton, senior vice president, National Parks Conservation Association:

"NPCA believes that the Maine Woods is a nationally significant landscape, and very worthy of National Park designation. While we encourage Congress to authorize a study of the Maine Woods for its potential addition to the National Park System, we recognize that serious public dialogue and discussion of the proposal in Maine is essential. It is highly unlikely that any park could be created without strong public support in the state.

"It is our hope that the Fall issue of NPCA's membership magazine National Parks, which features a cover story on the Maine Woods, can help to encourage this kind of public discussion in Maine."

National Parks magazine is available at select booksellers now and online at http://www.npca.org . Hard copies of the magazine can be obtained by calling Kelli Holsendolph at 202-223-6722, ext. 220.

/© 2005 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/

The following article in NPCA's National Parks magazine promoting a Federal takeover of the privately owned Maine woods reads like a self-caricature of quasi-poetic, romanticized viro park promotions not coincidently demonizing private property, but is aimed at readers who don't know what it means for the Federal government to take over. NPCA is not about to tell them.

http://www.npca.org/magazine/2005/fall/maine_woods.asp