Gates go up on Weld
logging roads
By Jodi Hausen, Staff Writer
WELD - L.L. Bean granddaughter Linda Bean Folkers had
foresters erect steel gates across private logging roads on her property
Friday, sparking more controversy among townspeople and other former users of
the land.
"I very much care about the land," Folkers said
Friday. "This is my private property and I can do with it what I want. We
have gates on all our forested properties."
Folkers owns 8,000 acres in Weld, most of it former paper
company land that the public was allowed to use. She banned camping, fires and
motorized vehicles on the property, which has been host to Boy Scout troops,
hunters and other campers for more than 60 years. She also had a decades-old
shelter dismantled.
She does not prohibit access to hikers or hunters on foot.
More than 100 townspeople voted May 17 to deny Folkers'
request to gate
Some of the more than 400 town residents admit that the
privilege was abused by some who left used diapers, toilet paper, beer cans and
other trash in the traditional camping area known as Tumbledown Field. But many
also felt the manner in which Folkers handled the situation was disrespectful.
Resident Bernard Rackliffe Jr. said he believes her
representatives will find more trash in the area as an "in-your-face"
reaction by some people.
"I'm sorry they have that unchristian attitude,"
Folkers responded Friday. "Retaliation is not my way of doing
things," she added.
"I don't blame her for doing what she did; people left
a mess there," said Bennie Bowie Jr. of Carthage, who was on his way up
Byron Road to the former camping area Friday.
"People are people, and I feel bad that people would
step on a landowner like that. I deeply feel people abused the privilege of
being a free American," the self-proclaimed partier said. "It was
just a few select people who ruined it for everybody else," he added.
The new gates block ATV access to traditional hunting
grounds, according to Rackliffe, and detract from the natural beauty of the
area, he said.
"They're closing the door on everybody's face. They're
putting up these ugly steel barriers that say 'keep out' and 'go away,'"
he said.
Sitting in the Weld General Store on Friday, fellow
residents tended to agree that Folkers has a right to protect her property, but
they also agreed she could have handled it differently.
"After coming here for years and years, you grow fond
of it," said Douglas Bonney of
"To have someone come in from outside and raze the
shelter, it showed a lack of respect for the people who live here," he
said.
"It irks me that an outsider is coming in and making
changes to the landscape," Rackliffe agreed.
She could have handled it differently by making an
announcement that she was going to make these changes, said Ted Simanek of the
town Planning Board.
"She has the right to do whatever she wants to do with it and protect it," he said, "but there's a tradition there that's come to a complete screeching halt."