Portland Press Herald & Plum Creek - joined at the hip.

As noted by Jeff Inglis in the Portland Phoenix (Click Here) Plum Creek's CEO joined the Board of Directors of the company that owns the Portland Press Herald 18 months ago - just as the Creeklings began its efforts to sell the public on their plan to build nearly 1000 homes and condos and two hotels around Moosehead Lake in Maine’s North Woods.

The Portland Press Herald, known for trumpeting the "historic" nature of the Plummies' plan, had never revealed this little fact about their ties with Plum Creek until it was mentioned as an aside in the Seattle Times, another paper in the Blethen stable.

PPH's Richardson drops "historic" from Plum coverage?

Perhaps there's hope for him yet. If J-Rich continues he might find his coverage praised by historians of the future, not discarded as syncophantic.

But can the Press Herald afford not to be syncophantic towards Plum Creek?
How strong is the corporate interlock betwixt PPH-owner Blethen and the Plum People?

That there is one is known. What part it plays in the day to day coverage of industrial forestry in Maine as well as PPH scrutiny of Plum Creek's mega development efforts can only be seen through the lens of the paper's news and editorial archives. Something to be done in later posts.

Portland Press Herald's John Richardson: Plum crazy about sprawl.

In his recent article "Plum Creek plan aired, 2nd hearing set for today in Augusta" 12/2/07 (which, thanks to the reduction in reporters in the Blethen Company's Maine bundle of newspapers, appeared simultaneously in the Maine Sunday Telegram, the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel) reporter John Richardson repeatedly salutes the "historic" nature of the massive Plum Creek sprawl proposal for the Moosehead Lake region, and relegates nearly all opposition to the proposal to the distant parts of his article well beyond the fold.

Get a grip, John: what's "historic" here are the untrammeled views and natural wide spaces of Moosehead Lake, better known for the last few thousand years as Mousinibes, btw, and its environs. Not the sprawl wannabe.

He starts off well, contrasting the pro and con one liners of two residents of Greenville , the small town nestled on the southern tip of Moosehead Lake. But it all goes downhill from there.

Richardson found that "Strong opinions weren't lacking" at the Saturday meeting, but manages to quote only the strong opinions of Plum-huggers Ray "Bucky" Owen, Millinocket resident Dan Corcoran, Rep. Doug Thomas, R-Ripley, "one of several current and former state legislators who spoke in favor of the plan" (did any speak against, one wonders), Randy Comber ( owner of Moosehead Cedar Log Homes, obviously a potential beneficiary of a building boom at Moosehead Lake, and Christopher Fife, of Moose River, in Jackman, west of Moosehead Lake.

Richardson's selection of opponents verged more on the milktoasty: "Some opponents agreed that the plan today is better than the one first unveiled by Plum Creek three years ago" Richardson writes, going on to quote only one of the "some", Sally Farrand. Her position?

"I think we can all agree the current application is much improved," said Sally Farrand of Beaver Cove. But, Farrand said, "I ask that Lily Bay be removed from the development plan."

Certainly every other opponent of the Plummers will agree that the shore of Moosehead Lake's Lily Bay shouldn't be sprawled upon; they also, however, urge the same status for the rest of the acreage within Plum Creek development footprint. All of it

While he does acknowledge there are 'critics' of the plan, they are given short shrift and are, apart from one, exiled to the end of the article, and in general portrayed as merely quibbling over bits of the Plum Creek proposal, not against the whole kaboodle as the overwhelming number of Mainers across the economic and political spectrum are.

Come on, J-Man: What's this? You're not doing a fair 'n balancin' act on us, are you?

The bright stars and Milky Way reflecting on Moosehead waters in the deep dark of unspoiled night. The keeping of this vast lake largely in a state of Nature through all these years and now into the 21st century. That's Maine history, alive and well.

Large scale developer wannabe Plum Creek's plan isn't historic. It's the very opposite of historic. It is the destroyer of history.