Latest Buzz: RESTORE Prowls for More Park Land
Ms Quimby is the force behind Burts Bees, the hippie generations answer to Elizabeth Arden. Years ago she came to Maine, tried to make a living waiting on tables, and eventually started a successful business in Guilford, Maine. She later moved it to business-friendlier North Carolina.
Burts Bees is named after Burt Shavitz, her former partner. Burt breaks the mold on looks. Quimby has said of him, “With a guy like Burt on the label, you’d better pray something’s in the jar.” (The newly revamped web site features less of Burt and more of an attractive, young model brimming with good health.)
Burts Bees has continued to take off. A May 1, 2002 Yahoo news story said that “Burt’s Bees is on target to meet 2002 sales projections of $45 million to $50 million, which is about 50% more than in 2001. That year, sales increased by 46% over 2000 figures.” Quimby has made it no secret that creation of a federal park is her ambition and that profits from her company will be used in that direction.
Not long ago she was put on the Board of Directors of Massachusetts-based “RESTORE: The North Woods” and has been buying land in Piscataquis County which she says is destined for a federal park some day.
The thought drives the natives nuts.
Adams Report has learned that Roxanne and Jym St. Pierre of RESTORE paid a visit last week to a 30-acre parcel of land which backs up to the Appalachian Trail in Elliotsville Plantation. This is within RESTOREs park proposal and Quimby already owns land nearby on the other side of the Trail.
If you consider the AT as being a long federal park, then adding to the corridor simply enlarges it. It might not be necessary for an act of Congress to create a federal wilderness area after all. The anti-federal park pronouncements of the Maine Legislature, the Maine Congressional Delegation, the “NO PARK” efforts of the area towns, the counties and the Maine Woods Coalition may not amount to a hill of beans if the no-growth radicals use the Trail as a spine to which they attach nearby land.
The owners have to sell the 30-acre piece of heaven in Elliotsville. They have owned it for more than a dozen years. For about 10 years, it was the site of a little sporting camp business using cabins built for that purpose.
Access to electricity is a mile away from the property, but a trophy trout pond (North Pond) is only a 5 minute walk. The fly-fishing-only pond is entirely within the AT corridor.
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North Pond
Gas lights and a generator do the work instead of Central Maine Power at “Boarstone Lodge” – the name the owners gave the property. The 30 acres are situated in unorganized territory under LURC jurisdiction. It has a Management General designation, meaning that land can be developed.
If you or someone you know would like to own a beautiful piece of Maine, now is the time to act. Borestone Lodge would be good property to own, use, and pass on to the next generationsomething that wont happen if Quimby and RESTORE get a lock on it.
