$100 Million Proposal to Create National Park Faces Local Opposition

A $100 million offer from the founder of natural products company Burt's Bees to create a national park in Maine faces local opposition driven in part by distrust of the federal government, The Associated Press reports.

In 2011, Roxanne Quimby offered to donate 70,000 acres of woodlands at the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail to create the nation’s next national park. More recently, she has proposed donating land worth an estimated $60 million and an additional $40 million—$20 million from the Quimby Family Foundation and another $20 million from private donors—to fund the park's operations. Quimby also envisions donating a similar-sized parcel that would be conserved for hunting, snowmobiling and other recreational opportunities, boosting the total area to be conserved to 150,000 acres.