2007 SAM Membership Survey

SAM - Great 35% Good 60%  Fair  3%  Poor 0

SAM News - Great 33%  Good 63%  Fair 6 % Poor 0

Wildlife biologists - Great 15%  Good 61%  Fair 23%  Poor 3%

Fisheries biologists - Great 17%  Good 51%  Fair 27%  Poor 2%

Game Wardens - Great 28%  Good 56%  Fair 16%  Poor 2%

Legislative Agenda 

SAM is creating an ambitious legislative agenda of bills on hunting, fishing, firearms, and access.  Help us in this important task by giving us your opinions on the following proposals, and any additional ideas you have for legislation.

ACCESS:  SAM is putting together a comprehensive package of legislation addressing access issues and problems.  Our focus this session will be on public lands, where we are increasingly challenged to maintain our hunting, snowmobiling, and other opportunities.  Here are a few ideas.

Examine how many acres of public land have been placed in eco-reserves, including any limits on uses that have been imposed on those lands, and take action to limit any negative impacts, including limiting the number of public acres that can be put into reserves.  Yes 90%  No 2%

Examine the management plans for all of Maine’s public lands, focusing on allowed uses and access, to make sure sportsmen remain welcome there.  Yes 100%

Examine all of the state’s conservation easements, to assure that the state is monitoring those easements to make sure they are being honored in terms of access, uses, and forest harvesting practices.  Yes 97%  No 1%

Enact a law that requires no-net-loss of hunting land. If the state were to close any public lands to hunting, this law would require the state to acquire and open new hunting land equal to the acres being lost.  Yes 96%  No 4%

Require the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to use a percentage of qualifying federal funds to purchase land for hunting, trapping, and fishing access.  Although federal funds can be used for this purpose, DIF&W chooses to use nearly all of its funding for staff.  Yes 80%  No 14%

Hunting Issues

The exceptional work of SAM’s Deer Task Force will be the focus of several of our legislative bills, as we seek to implement the Task Force’s recommendations.  Here are the key proposals requiring legislation.  

Fund a full-time Landowner Relations Coordinator at DIF&W.  Yes 80%  No 16%

Quantify and evaluate trends in land posting to properly focus a response.  Yes 87%  No 5%

Revise antlerless deer permit drawings to increase allocations to qualifying landowners who provide deer hunting access to others.  Yes 81%  No 15%

Open the regular firearms season one week later than currently.  Yes 53%  No 46%

Revamp the any-deer permit system into an Antlerless Deer Permit System, allowing all hunters to take one buck, and those who win an antlerless permit to also take one doe or fawn.  Yes 58%  No 40%

Charge $10 for antlerless deer permits with the money dedicated to landowner relations programs.  Yes 65%  No 33%

Bring October bowhunters into the new antlerless deer permit system.  Yes 67%  No 28%

Support efforts to increase coyote harvests where deer are being adversely impacted by predation losses, using a variety of methods from trapping to recreational hunting.  Yes 96%  No 3%

Authorize the Families Afield initiative that creates an apprentice hunter so anyone can try hunting, alongside an experienced hunter, without taking the hunter safety course.  Yes 46%  No 48%

Youth

Allow kids to hunt and fish for free.  Yes 65%  No 30%

Allow kids who shoot a deer or turkey on youth day to continue hunting during the regular season and tag another deer or turkey.  Yes  42%  No 57%

Authorize the auction of five more moose permits for scholarships to conservation schools, specifically to allow funding for Greenland Point Conservation School which reopened this year.  Yes 79%  No 18%

Modernize the hunter safety course by creating an at-home course, on a CD, with a day at a shooting range to take the written test and demonstrate proficiency with firearms and bows.  This course would cover all requirements for gun and bow hunting.  Yes 70%  No 24%

Fishing

Authorize a $10 million bond for fish hatcheries.  Yes 72%  No 13%

Ban splake in all Maine waters.  Yes  48%  No 35%

Firearms

Enact a right to carry law that allows gun owners to carry their firearms concealed without getting a permit from the state.  Yes 44%  No 51%

Investments

Create a program in FAME that provides tax benefits to individuals or businesses that pay for specific DIF&W authorized projects that benefit fisheries (stocking, habitat, etc.).  Yes 77%  No 10%