As someone who has worked, hunted and snowmobiled in the Central Maine Power corridor area, I write in response to Ashley Tempesta (“Letter to the editor: CMP corridor forces industrialization of Enchanted Forest,” Sept. 22), who believes the corridor will destroy an “enchanted” forest.

Ms. Tempesta cites road names such as “Lower Enchanted” and “Upper Enchanted” and encourages us to find them in the Gazetteer. Everyone should do this. There are hundreds of miles of roads! Why would an enchanted forest have so many roads? The answer is because this entire area is commercial working forest and these roads are all logging roads. There is nothing enchanted or pristine about any of this.

Ms. Tempesta tells us a snowmobile trail was closed while logging for the corridor was ongoing. Snowmobile trails are routinely closed or rerouted around active logging. Credit is due the private landowners, including CMP, which allow free recreational use of their land.

Ms. Tempesta states, “Tourists and residents cried at the sight of our wilderness recreation forest and rugged mountains scarred by a stripped corridor of fire-hazard rubble and chaos.” She says the Enchanted Forest “once brought a sense of awe, joy and an oasis from the industrialized world.” These statements are blatantly misleading. This area is every bit an industrialized world of log trucks, skidders and workers’ livelihoods.

I encourage everyone to study the area in the Gazetteer, on Google Earth, or go there and see it. Enchanted forests are found in mythology and children’s books, not in western Maine.

Wayne Duffett
Portland

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