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In Maine’s north woods, you can’t get much more local than Luke Muzzy.
“My mother’s family goes back to the founding of Greenville in 1835,” he says, gazing out the window at the expanse of Moosehead Lake. Muzzy grew up in this house, with its surrounding hilltop acreage and panoramic views. His grandmother built the Indian Hill Motel, just down the hill, in the 1960s; the family opened the Indian Trading Post across the street in 1978. His family has been in the logging business since the 1910s.
The stolid-yet-friendly Maine farmhouse dates to 1929, when fire took the original. “The townspeople helped build it,” Muzzy says. “They had one of those old barn raisings right on the same foundation.”
Muzzy, who is 46, lives there now with his wife, Laurie, and their two teenage children; his mother resides in a separate house on the property. After attending the University of Maine and then earning a graduate degree in political science and history from the University of Rhode Island, Muzzy came right back to Greenville, began a successful real estate career, and won election to the board of selectmen, on which he served for six years.
“People can match my love for this area, but no one can top it,” he says.
For two decades, Muzzy says, his Century 21 real estate office did well despite stagnant population growth. Then, in 1998, Muzzy was approached by Plum Creek, the Seattle-based timber company that owns the majority of land in the Moosehead Lake area. The company needed a local broker to handle a smaller development project at nearby First Roach Pond. “I started making recommendations, and they liked what they heard,” he says. “That allowed me to get to know them. I urged them to plan comprehensively for the area, rather than going lake by lake. By clustering development, we’re keeping other lands open.”
It was such a natural fit, Muzzy sold his real estate business and joined Plum Creek full-time in 2005. “They never thought I would leave what I had to go to work for them,” he says. “I had a great business. But I haven’t regretted one second.”
Plum Creek owns more than 8 million acres nationwide, including 900,000 acres in northern Maine. It plans to develop approximately 20,000 acres of that land. A permanent easement of an additional 90,000 acres would be placed in conservation to offset the development. Some 341,000 acres would be sold as conservation easements to the Nature Conservancy and similar organizations.
The proposed development has caused controversy, with advocates arguing for smart economic growth and opponents claiming that such a large development is inappropriate for the largest tract of undeveloped land in the United States east of the Mississippi. At times, the conflict has turned ugly. Two years ago on Halloween, vandals defaced the front of Muzzy’s home with a foul-smelling mixture of animal feces and trapping lure. The attack was one of several against the homes of Plum Creek representatives as far away as Hallowell.
Muzzy acknowledges that the project is controversial. “Some people are happy just the way things are,” he says. “But we’re at a watershed moment for this area. For the past 20 years, the trends have all been in the wrong direction. We’re down to 90 kids in the local high school. If we lose the school, we’re going to lose those families. They’re not going to stay here and watch their kids ride a bus 30 miles down the road.”
To his critics, Muzzy would point out two things: that more than half the land around Moosehead Lake is already protected from development, and that northern Maine is working forest. “Since the Revolutionary War, this area has been known for two things: timber and tourism. We need to use our assets.”
“My mother’s family goes back to the founding of Greenville in 1835,” he says, gazing out the window at the expanse of Moosehead Lake. Muzzy grew up in this house, with its surrounding hilltop acreage and panoramic views. His grandmother built the Indian Hill Motel, just down the hill, in the 1960s; the family opened the Indian Trading Post across the street in 1978. His family has been in the logging business since the 1910s.
The stolid-yet-friendly Maine farmhouse dates to 1929, when fire took the original. “The townspeople helped build it,” Muzzy says. “They had one of those old barn raisings right on the same foundation.”
Muzzy, who is 46, lives there now with his wife, Laurie, and their two teenage children; his mother resides in a separate house on the property. After attending the University of Maine and then earning a graduate degree in political science and history from the University of Rhode Island, Muzzy came right back to Greenville, began a successful real estate career, and won election to the board of selectmen, on which he served for six years.
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“People can match my love for this area, but no one can top it,” he says.
For two decades, Muzzy says, his Century 21 real estate office did well despite stagnant population growth. Then, in 1998, Muzzy was approached by Plum Creek, the Seattle-based timber company that owns the majority of land in the Moosehead Lake area. The company needed a local broker to handle a smaller development project at nearby First Roach Pond. “I started making recommendations, and they liked what they heard,” he says. “That allowed me to get to know them. I urged them to plan comprehensively for the area, rather than going lake by lake. By clustering development, we’re keeping other lands open.”
It was such a natural fit, Muzzy sold his real estate business and joined Plum Creek full-time in 2005. “They never thought I would leave what I had to go to work for them,” he says. “I had a great business. But I haven’t regretted one second.”
Plum Creek owns more than 8 million acres nationwide, including 900,000 acres in northern Maine. It plans to develop approximately 20,000 acres of that land. A permanent easement of an additional 90,000 acres would be placed in conservation to offset the development. Some 341,000 acres would be sold as conservation easements to the Nature Conservancy and similar organizations.
The proposed development has caused controversy, with advocates arguing for smart economic growth and opponents claiming that such a large development is inappropriate for the largest tract of undeveloped land in the United States east of the Mississippi. At times, the conflict has turned ugly. Two years ago on Halloween, vandals defaced the front of Muzzy’s home with a foul-smelling mixture of animal feces and trapping lure. The attack was one of several against the homes of Plum Creek representatives as far away as Hallowell.
Muzzy acknowledges that the project is controversial. “Some people are happy just the way things are,” he says. “But we’re at a watershed moment for this area. For the past 20 years, the trends have all been in the wrong direction. We’re down to 90 kids in the local high school. If we lose the school, we’re going to lose those families. They’re not going to stay here and watch their kids ride a bus 30 miles down the road.”
To his critics, Muzzy would point out two things: that more than half the land around Moosehead Lake is already protected from development, and that northern Maine is working forest. “Since the Revolutionary War, this area has been known for two things: timber and tourism. We need to use our assets.”
