Phillips Brook Property To Sell
January 28, 2011
By Barbara Tetreault
The Berlin Daily Sun
PHILLIPS BROOK -- The 23,000
acre Phillips Brook tract is part of the more than 900,000 acres of forestland in Maine and New Hampshire being sold to a company connected to Colorado billionaire John Malone.The land is currently owned by
GMO Renewable Resources, a private forest investment company that purchased the land in 2004 from International Paper. The new buyer is BBC Land LLC, which lists Malone as its manager. A major player in telecommunications and media markets, Malone is chairman of Liberty Corporation and CEO of Discovery Holding Corporation.Among his major holdings are OVC,
Starz, Encore, and the Atlantic Braves baseball team. John Casewell of BBC Land said the transaction is scheduled to be completed Feb. 1.Casewell said BBC Land will continue
to manage the entire property as a working forest and will allow public access for recreation. The long term wood procurement contracts that provide wood to Verso Paper’s mills in Jay and Bucksport, Maine will remain in place. GMO Renewable has an agreement with Granite Reliable Power, allowing the developer to place 33 wind turbines along the ridgeline in Phillips Brook. Casewell said that agreement would transfer as well."Everything’s going to be the same,"
he said. Jack Savage, of the Society for the Protection of N.H. Forest, said he is glad to hear BBC Land intends to maintain the tract as a working forest. In 2006, the Forest Society spearheaded an effort to apply for federal Forest Legacy funds to purchase an easement on the Phillips Brook land.The easement would have permanently prevented development of the watershed but kept it open for timber management, hunting, fishing, and snowmobiling. Just before the application was submitted, GMO decided to put the easement on hold while it negotiated with GRP over the wind farm. Noble Environmental, which owns 75 percent of GRP, has since announced it plans to sell its majority stake to Brookfield Renewable Energy. GRP is currently seeking approval to transfer the certificate to construction and operate the wind farm to Brookfield.
Savage said the Society is still interested in permanent protection for the tract. Caswell said it is too soon to talk about Forest Legacy since BBC Land does not own the property yet. Unlike GMO, which is a financial investment firm, BBC Land is described as a family firm.
Savage noted the sale of the GMO lands is part of a larger trend. At one time, such lands were owned by paper companies. Looking to guarantee a supply of wood for their mills,the paper companies owned the tracts for generations. With the decline of the paper industry, that has changed.
Now the ownership of such lands is changing hands frequently. Phillips Brook is a prime example. For over 100 year, the property was owned by International Paper. In 2004, IP sold it to GMO Renewable. Seven years later, GMO is selling the tract to BBC Land.
Savage wondered about the implications of such changing ownership pattern "Who will be owning the large scale woodlands in the next 50 years," he asked. The Phillips Brook tract contains 78 percent of the watershed including most of Phillips Brook, three remote ponds, a 146 acre fen, at least four known state threatened species, and prime habitat for bear, moose, pine marten, fishers and Canada lynx.
Most recently, the area was featured prominently in John Irving’s latest book, ‘A Night in Twisted River".