This letter is to express my deepest concerns regarding the proposal to remove trees on the Chewonki Campground property in Wiscasset, potentially eliminating 23 of the 47 campground sites for airport expansion.

The campground has been maintained for the last 53 years providing a breath-taking natural atmosphere for people who are looking for a family-oriented camping experience.

As importantly, it has been appreciated and kept as a significant wildlife habitat, tidal marsh and place for people to connect with nature.

Open five months during the year, the business generates substantial revenues for the town of Wiscasset. It is a venue for weddings, reunions, local business gatherings, music workshops, bicycle and kayaking groups, just to mention a few of the clientele who benefit from its existence.

If the Airport Master Plan is accepted as is, a viable business run for over half a century by two local women, will be destroyed.

As a Maine children’s book author and illustrator, my first book, “A Caribou Alphabet,” is a witness to the critical consequences when a natural habitat is altered.

Caribou, once prevalent in our state, can no longer survive in what has become a “fringe habitat” for them due to the alteration of the forests of Maine. This and other factors added up to failure at the two attempts to bring them back. There is no going back.

I encourage Wiscasset citizens to attend the next selectmen’s meeting and urge the board to reject the proposed plan and consider alternative ways for both the Chewonki Campground and the airport to continue to thrive and benefit the entire community.

Mary Beth Owens
Walpole