PATTEN, Maine — In northern Penobscot County, a community is split on a proposal to build a large metal mine near Katahdin.
The Canadian company Wolfden is petitioning to rezone hundreds of acres it owns on Pickett Mountain, with the goal of eventually building a zinc and copper mine in the area.
Those in favor of the plan see it as a boost in jobs and wealth to a region that has been economically rudderless since the closure of the nearby mills in the later twentieth century.
“It's going to bring work that our community is really dying for—some kind of business,” James Parker, a resident of Patten, said on Monday.
By Wolfden’s own estimate, the Pickett Mountain project would see around 275 new jobs come to the region, a welcome prediction for local business owners who say the recreational industry in the area hasn’t captured enough of the jobs lost in the 1970s and 1980s.
“These communities need to see some higher paid jobs, they need to see it in a different aspect than say just the monument,” Terry Thurston-Hill said on Monday.
But that monument—Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument—and the land around Katahdin are why many in the community are opposed to the construction of a mine.
This summer, the Penobscot Nation and the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians joined conservation groups in a petition to intervene against the rezoning of Wolfden’s land. In that document, the groups wrote, “Wolfden’s proposal threatens to severely degrade these vital lands and waters, the concern is focused on machines used to process and concentrate extracted ore, which the tribes and non-profits worry will contaminate the natural area."
In addition to the conservation question, some in Patten and the surrounding areas believe a mine built on Pickett Mountain would ruin the charm of the Katahdin region.
The public will have the chance to weigh in on Wolfden’s rezoning application at a series of public hearings hosted by the Maine Land Use Planning Commission next week.