Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin of Maine wants to meet with a high-ranking White House official to discuss his concerns about the possible designation of a national monument encompassing 100,000 acres of Maine’s northern woods.

Poliquin sent a letter Thursday to Christy Goldfuss, managing director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the agency that recommends designations to the president, who can create a national monument through executive action.

“I am requesting this meeting because I fear that the voices of the local residents, my constituents, are not being heard at the White House, leaving only the current land owners and their Washington lobbyists the opportunity to make their case for a national monument designation in Maine’s Katahdin region,” Poliquin said in a statement released Thursday evening.

Poliquin, along with Maine Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King, sent a letter to the president in November urging him not to use his executive authority to designate a national monument in the Katahdin region.

Maine’s congressional delegation asked that several conditions be met – among them preserving traditional recreational uses such as hunting, fishing and hiking and continuing to allow timber harvesting – if the president pursues the designation.

Jonathan P. Jarvis, director of the National Park Service, responded to the Maine delegates but his letter didn’t address those concerns and does not commit the administration to a particular course of action.

Designating the land a national monument would bypass the scrutiny that goes into creating a national park, which requires extensive public input and an act of Congress. The land is being offered by Elliotsville Plantation Inc., the company Roxanne Quimby formed to manage the acreage.

“It is important for the White House to hear from the local residents, employers, and stake holders on this issue,” Poliquin said in the letter.