Following negative feedback from the Community Lakes Association, airboat rides with the Maine Warden Service will not be part of this year’s Camp North Woods at the Bryant Pond 4-H Camp.

But both the CLA and the camp director stressed they wish to continue their partnership in areas of mutual concern.

The first Camp North Woods took place last summer, in two weeklong sessions. The camp featured Maine game wardens who appeared in the popular Animal Planet television series “North Woods Law.”

The young campers learned about the wardens’ jobs, as well as about outdoor skills. At the end of each of the two sessions the youngsters, along with their parents, had the opportunity to ride in a Warden Service airboat on Lake Christopher.

The airboats, which can travel in very shallow water or over ice, are used in rescue and other work.

Each airboat session at the camp lasted about four hours.

But the noise the boat generated prompted complaints around the lake.

And CLA member Jane Chandler told Woodstock selectmen last week, “We got lots of negative feedback at the annual meeting. The thing that concerns people is noise. For the people who live on the lake it was very noisy.”

Chandler and her husband, Jim, attended the board meeting for another topic, but selectmen asked them about the airboat issue.

Jim Chandler said when the CLA board of directors was asked for feedback on the issue, “Every single response came back negatively.”

Based on that feedback, he said, Camp Director Ron Fournier “decided not to pursue that part of the North Woods program.”

“The CLA is pleased about it,” said Jim Chandler, “but we also wanted to stress that we are supporters of the 4-H Camp, that we like what they do. We don’t want to look like we’re not in favor of the 4-H program.”

He said the two organizations plan to work more closely on an effort to keep milfoil in the lake under control or eradicated.

Another potential area of cooperative focus, said Chandler, is water-skiers who reportedly “come awfully close to the dock at the 4-H Camp. There might be some mutual issues. The CLA has always supported boat safety.”

Chandler also said regarding the airboat rides that Fournier had gotten “lots of good feedback from the kids, saying it was one of the most memorable parts of the camp.”

Fournier met with CLA representatives earlier this month to discuss the issue, and said in a followup e-mail to them, “It is clear to me that the use of this watercraft bothers many of you a great deal, even if for a short period of time, and with that I am removing this from the program from here forward.”

He went on to say that the airboat “was not integral to the program, as the program is very successful without it. It was certainly one activity that the young people really enjoyed a great deal, and an activity that was included as part of the original concept based on the Warden Service plans for Camp North Woods.

“I appreciate the thought and effort to bring this to the table and I personally am looking forward to a successful program season and a continued partnership with our greater community, including CLA,” Fournier said.