Seymour quoted in Sun Journal article on Irving’s mining battle
Robert Seymour, the Curtis Hutchins Professor of Forest Resources at the University of Maine, was quoted in a Sun Journal article about Canadian company J.D. Irving. The Sun Journal reported that after four years of debate, the Maine Legislature in June turned down Irving’s bill to relax environmental laws so it could mine copper and zinc from Bald Mountain in Aroostook County. Besides the $250,000 in mining-issue lobbying, Irving spent $159,000 in the same period lobbying on forest-related issues, according to the article. In 2012, the Maine Forest Service gave the company an exemption from some clear-cutting restrictions and other wood-harvesting regulations, and from having its harvests closely monitored, the article states. Seymour said that although he was concerned about Irving’s “thin” zones of separation between clear cuts, which “may not serve visual and wildlife purposes,” he generally felt positive about the company’s agricultural-forestry model.