I’d like to address Carey Kish’s June 23 Hiking in Maine column, “Credit the Nature Conservancy for fabulous trail in Leuthold Forest Preserve” (Page C8). It is a lovely description of a great hike up Number Five Mountain, one that I’ve taken long before the Leuthold Forest Preserve was involved.

In reading Kish’s account, I found one thing absent. Whether by deliberate exclusion or ignorance of the situation, he made no reference to the atrocity that looms over this area in the form of New England Clean Energy Connect, Central Maine Power’s proposed transmission corridor. This issue should have been recognized in the column.

All of the groups that have preserved Number Five Mountain and/or lands visible from the mountain – the Nature Conservancy, the Holeb Public Reserved Land, the Forest Society of Maine and the Moose River/Number Five Bog Conservation Lands – are stewards who should be opposing this corridor.

In view of the fact that a ravaging of the land that was described so nicely by Kish is probably imminent, the above named groups should be working to preserve this property.

Mr. Kish should return to Number Five Mountain with a map of the proposed project and tell his story again, one that fully depicts the unnecessary and unwanted damage that will happen if CMP’s transmission line progresses. His current view of that wonderful piece of wilderness is myopic and needs revision.

Barbara Kane

Jackman