Maine Earth First!

Maine’s forested lands have historically been owned by multi-national paper and timber corporations, who have always pulled the strings in the state government. Maine’s economy is based upon its history as a resource colony supporting the larger, more developed and more affluent communities of southern New England and beyond.  This long history as a resource colony still shapes the land ownership in the state today.  Maine has the largest concentration of industrial ownership and one of the lowest proportions of public land (under 6%) of any state in the country. These conditions, current economic changes, and the fact that most of the forests have been overly harvested, have led to a trend of massive land swaps engineered by real estate companies masquerading as “sustainable” timber companies. These companies  realize that they’ve exhausted the timber and paper resource, and are looking for other resources to exploit, such as clean water, private getaways for rich out-of-staters, biomass, landfills, high-way corridors, and energy production. These current trends make Maine one of many unfortunate examples of the environmental colonialism and corporate take over characteristic of our times.

Despite the private ownership and the past degradation of the forests, northern Maine is still the largest undeveloped, though not totally wild, area in the U.S., east of the Mississippi River. It is this  gray area that makes land in Maine challenging to defend. It remains undeveloped and remote with a high potential for regeneration, yet the forests are carved with a large matrix of roads and have been raped extensively since Europeans first arrived on this continent. It is also an incredibly unique and bio-diverse place. The North Woods bioregion stretches from Maine to Minnesota, including northern Wisconsin and Michigan and the forested lands of southern New England. Elements of boreal forests to the north and the big woods to the south create a large diversity of ecosystems and habitats that define the North Woods.

This diversity and relative lack of development give Maine an excellent opportunity for regeneration and restoration, and make it a powerful case example against resource colonialism. As a response to the oppression of the land, a wealth of resistance movements have formed. However, our fight is very different from those fought in areas with large tracts of wilderness, or acres of untouched old growth forests. Here in Maine we are not working to protect already public lands, instead we are faced with the battle of shifting land ownership out of corporate hands. The uniqueness of the fight here in Maine and other areas with relatively low percentages of public lands, presents not only challenges but also amazing opportunities to fight corporate power while providing excellent grounds for innovative models of land ownership and regeneration. Having the highest percentage of forested lands in the country, Maine could set a precedent for designating large areas as “carbon sinks” to aid in the mitigation of climate change and allow for the forests to regrow and ecosystems to heal.  These efforts could be far more effective than the false solutions that corporate interests have been pushing.

This is where Earth First! omes in to play. Earth First! is a movement that distinguishes itself from other environmental organizations and movements by its strong, uncompromising philosophies of deep ecology and biocentrism. Deep ecology is a philosophy that places humans within the web of life, recognizing that our actions have ramifications upon all living creatures on this planet and vice versa. Biocentrism is a philosophy that recognizes the intrinsic value in all living things, regardless of their use to humanity.  Earth First!’s recognition of the interconnectedness of all life forms is crucial in the struggle to end the corporate rule of our state and recreate wilderness. Every action towards ecological protection, every success in reversing the footprint of humanity on the face of this planet is an important step forward in the fight to protect this planet and its  inhabitants.   As a movement, we must seek out these unique opportunities and threats wherever they may exist and work towards the rewilding and restoration of damaged lands.

There is no life on a dead planet. With the impending chaos of climate change and anthropogenic mass extinction, Earth First! is the movement that works to expand wilderness, working towards the future health and stability of this planet even after humans are gone.  Too much of this planet has been consumed by corporate greed. We must work to turn back the hands of time and find ways to rewild what has not been completely lost.

Earth First!’s uncompromising messaging and holistic analysis of ecological problems also provide the opportunity to confront corporate power and colonialism.  Here in Maine, it is corporations that have pillaged the lands, which gives us an opportunity to confront the greed of corporations including Plum Creek, TransCanada, Nestle, Casela, and Irving. While confronting these corporate giants we are working towards creative new approaches to landownership and moving away from corporate resource extraction from the North Woods as a way of life.

Earth First!, as a movement, offers a unique approach to existing struggles to challenge corporate resource extraction in Maine.  There are many issues being addressed and many multinational companies being fought because of their assault on rural communities and the environment.  What is lacking is a unified campaign against all threats to the wild and our way of life.  Maine EF! Is working towards the preservation of an entire bioregion, not just trying to protect small, isolated pieces of land.  Our actions and our messaging can challenge this system that does not recognize the rights of eco-systems and gives more rights to to corporations than to citizens.

The Round River Rendezvous is an excellent opportunity to  further elaborate and enact these visions, potentially creating a model that can be duplicated throughout the continent (or North Woods)!