205 Church Hill Road, Augusta ME 04330

207-622-5503

Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine

205 Church Hill Road

Augusta, ME 04330

Telephone (207) 622-5503

Email:  george@samcef.org

Testimony in Support

Joint Standing Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry

LD 2015, Resolve, Authorizing Land Transactions

Presented by George A. Smith, Executive Director

February 27, 2006

            Good morning.  I am George Smith, a resident of the beautiful town of Mount Vernon, where all outdoor recreationists are welcome, including hunters and hikers, bird watchers and bird dogs.  I am here today representing the 14,000 members of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, but speaking from the heart as the voice of more than 200,000 Mainers who hunt. 

Many could not get here at 9:30 on a Monday morning – when they take their time off from work, it’s to hunt and fish - but they will surely take notice of what we say and do here today.  There are quite a few of us here today, but I chose not to ask supporters to wear stickers at this hearing, because I do not want to emphasize our differences today.  Today, we are all here as conservationists, and that’s how we will conduct ourselves, and that’s how we will leave this hearing.

            Katahdin Lake is a special place – not unique in Maine, but certainly spectacular – and it is worthy of public ownership – although it has fared well in private ownership, and that must be said and recognized.

            I congratulate all who have worked to bring this project forward.  I especially want to thank the Gardner family for keeping their lands open to sportsmen, and to let them know that we continue to appreciate that privilege.

            Sadly, our privilege to hunt, trap, snowmobile, and otherwise enjoy our outdoor heritage on the Katahdin Lake lands will expire, if you approve the project as presented.

I was disheartened to hear that my heritage on this land will not be honored – that I am seen as a hindrance and encumbrance on the enjoyment of this land by others.

I guess sportsmen are just a different breed of people.  We are into sharing.  No where in the state do we advocate for the exclusive use of either private or public land.  No where do we seek to purchase land in order to exclude some users from enjoying that property.

And I am disappointed in some of our conservation allies today.  I say to them:  we have stood together in the name of conservation for more than a decade.  SAM has been in the forefront of support for every single land conservation project:  Nicatous, the Pingree lands, the Downeast Lakes Project, Machias River, the Katahdin Forest, and more. 

We’ve been active in the Forest Legacy program, the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund, and we’ve helped lead campaigns for the Land for Maine’s Future program.  You probably saw the ads last fall for the LMF bond that featured the endorsement by SAM and the Maine Audubon Society.  No one should be questioning or challenging SAM’s conservation credentials.

I ask the conservation community today to help us make sure that sportsmen will continue to be welcomed at Katahdin Lake.  This is the approach we have taken, together, on all of these land conservation projects.

            My first briefing on this project occurred last fall, from the Baxter Park Authority:  Attorney General Steve Rowe, Commissioner of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Dan Martin, and Maine Forest Service Director Alec Giffin.  They told me they’d already decided to accept the parcel with the conditions that hunting, snowmobiling, and other current and traditional uses would be banned, although they said they were having some trouble convincing the Baxter family to support the project.  

            It was the first I’d heard of the project, and already the Authority seemed to have made their decision, giving me no chance to influence that decision and advocate for sportsmen.  How could such an important decision have been made in secret, I wondered?

            Because this is not the first time we’ve been faced with this issue and situation, I was surprised by the Authority’s unanimous decision.  About ten years ago, we had a similar situation when Baxter Park itself purchased the land in the Abol area, and the issue of whether to continue hunting in that parcel was hotly debated. 

The Fish and Wildlife Commissioner at that time, Bucky Owen, advocated strongly for hunting and trapping.  And even though a new Governor, Angus King, took office before the decision was made, Bucky’s successor, DIF&W Commissioner Lee Perry, took up the cause and sportsmen prevailed by a 2 to 1 vote of the Baxter Authority, with the Attorney General of the time voting against us.

            You are not walking new ground here today.  Neither am I.

            For more than a century, Maine sportsmen have been leaders in Maine’s conservation movement – including the conservation of the forests surrounding Mount Katahdin.  The Maine Sportsmen’s Fish and Game Association, a powerful organization in its time, was lobbying for land conservation before 1900, encouraging Mainers to take note of development pressures “by preserving our forests, our fish and our game.”  That Fish and Game Association took a particular interest in the effort to create a state or national park centered on Mount Katahdin.

            This is a complex deal, so today, to simplify my message and shorten my time, I will focus my comments only on the issue of hunting on the Katahdin Lake parcel.  Others will address the other outdoor traditions on this parcel.  And I will be happy to share other concerns about the deal with you as you begin your  deliberations in work sessions.

            Some say hunting doesn’t belong in Baxter Park.   Since this project was announced, I have asked many people this question:  what percentage of Baxter Park is open to hunting?  No one has given me the correct answer.  Many think hunting is banned in the park.  No so.

            Twenty five percent of Baxter Park is open to hunting:  51,000 acres, open to hunting in Baxter Park.  Keeping this Katahdin Lake parcel open to hunting is not unprecedented, or even unusual.

            Some say hunting conflicts with other activities and must be banned on the Katahdin Lake parcel.   That’s wrong too.  I know of no conflicts between hunters and hikers in the 51,000 acres of Baxter Park where we can hunt now – nor any conflicts between hunters and hikers in state parks – where we can also hunt. 

            Most of the hunting that is and will be done on the Katahdin Lake parcel occurs in October and November – when the campgrounds in Baxter Park are closed.  I am up there in the fall and see very few people in the park.

            Some say there are few game animals in this parcel, so it’s “poor hunting.”  That demonstrates a profound lack of understanding about hunting.  In fact, if the measure was to be deer per square mile, no one would hunt anywhere in the north woods.  We’re up there hunting for the total experience.

            Some say this place ought to be managed as “wilderness.”  In fact, Rex Turner, a member of the board of Friends of Baxter Park, advocated for the hunting ban and asked last week in his weekly column in the Central Maine Newspapers, “If not wilderness management here, then where?”

            Well, sure, but guess what, I have been in the real wilderness – in Alaska, Quebec, and Labrador – and people hunt there.  Wilderness is about place, not the uses that occur in that place.  We can share the wilderness.

            Indeed, I have a more compelling case to allow hunting in the wilderness, than do those who advocate for ecotourism activities.  They are newcomers to the wilderness.  Hunters have been there for centuries.

            Turner also wrote, “I care deeply about protecting opportunities to experience solitude and escape from the modern world… I believe this deal presents our legislators… with a strong case for a piece of land being preserved for all those who cherish wild settings in which nature comes first.”

            I could not have said it better myself.  We agree!  Why do these people think that hunters don’t value or deserve the same experience, the same solitude, the same wild setting?  Indeed, perhaps I should be making a case that hiking should be banned, so hunters can enjoy their experiences here, as they have done for so very long.

            Most amusing to me was the decision to allow float planes on Katahdin Lake.  Governor Baxter really didn’t like float planes.  Although he accommodated hunting and hunters in his park, he was not as generous when it came to float planes.  Today they are not allowed to land anywhere in Baxter Park.  But they are going to be allowed to land on Katahdin Lake.

            Imagine my surprise when I read, in the Portland Press Herald, the following report concerning this project:  “There would be two exceptions in the Katahdin Lake area, according to McGowan.  Float planes would be allowed to continue landing on Katahdin Lake and motorboats also would be allowed there because of historic use.”

            Because of historic use!  Float planes will be allowed!  Well, what about hunting?  Hunting was happening on this parcel hundreds of years before airplanes were even invented!  You want to talk historic use – it is hunting!  It is most assuredly not float planes.

            Finally, some proponents of this ban on hunting suggest that they are fulfilling the dreams and wishes of Governor Baxter.  I respect that.  But it is clear from the history of this issue that if Governor Percival Baxter were here today, he would stand with me.  In fact, he did that very thing in 1954, asking the legislature to amend his deeds of trust to accommodate hunting and trapping in his park.

            Here’s the report, from the official Baxter Park history written by Dr. John W. Hakola.  This is in the chapter titled “The Wilderness Concept.”

            “By the end of 1954 he (Baxter) felt sufficiently pressured into maintaining the good will of the people in the area and of legislators to ask the governor and legislature to amend the deeds of trust of 1949 for lands in T6R9, north of Trout Brook, removing restrictions on the use of firearms, hunting, and trapping in the area.  The lands were removed from the game sanctuary.  This was done, he said, when he ‘learned that the closing of this area might be detrimental to the citizens in Patten and surrounding territory who operate stores and camps.’  In his last deeds for land in T6R9, T6R10, and T2,R9, he did not impose the restriction.”

            If Governor Baxter himself could care enough about the local folks and economy that he did this for them, surely those who advocate for his vision today can be just as caring and accommodating.  I guess it will have to start with you.

            I hope you don’t get tied into knots trying to determine what Governor Baxter would want you to do.  But if you do, here’s a remedy, also from the Park’s history by Dr. Hakola: “The deeds of trust are the most important legal basis for determining precisely what Governor Baxter meant by wilderness or ‘forever wild.’  It has been shown that he often changed his mind on what he meant or believed.” 

He often changed his mind.  Certainly that should be sufficient to allow you to change this project. 

            Which brings me to my final point:  the process itself.  It’s a good thing this project requires legislative approval, because otherwise, the people of Maine would have no say in the deal.  It was done in secret, and if public lands were not part of the deal, it would have been consummated in secret.

Sportsmen would have been shut out of this land, with no recourse.  Ironically, to stop this from happening, we’ve been strongly supporting the purchase of land and conservation easements throughout the north country. 

From my first briefing on this project, I tried to be helpful, but others were just unwilling to budge.  And it took quite a while to find out the truth of exactly who wants to ban hunting on this parcel.

            Following my first briefing by the Baxter Authority, I met with a representative of The Trust for Public Land and staff at the Department of Conservation.  In that meeting, I was told that it was the private donors to this project who wanted to ban hunting. They had to be accommodated to make the project attractive.

            I kept meeting and talking with DOC officials, and eventually I discovered who one of the large donors is – and I talked with that large donor.  In fact, I have talked with that large donor more than once.  And I am pleased to report, from my first conversation to my most recent, this large donor has firmly supported hunting on the Katahdin Lake parcel.  Supports hunting! 

Just last week I was contacted by a second large donor – with the same result.  This large donor does not oppose hunting and other traditional activities on this parcel.  It is not the donors who insist that hunting be banned.  Commissioner McGowan has confirmed this to me and I have heard him say it in other meetings as well.

             Following the press conference announcing this project, legislators began approaching SAM’s lobbyists Ed and Cate Pineau and me, telling us they would not support the project unless hunting and snowmobiling were allowed to continue on the parcel.  The prime sponsor of the bill, Rep. Josh Tardy, stated flatly in an article written by Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, that this proposal presented a “mathematical certainty; no traditional access, no acquisition.  They can’t get two-thirds.”

The Senate chair of this committee, Senator Nutting, concurred, stating in the Portland Press Herald, “… until we on the committee solve this traditional use issue, we’re not going to get a two-thirds vote.”

            Given the truth and wisdom of these statements, it is unfortunate that we arrived here today without resolution of this issue.  We appreciate all of the support that has been extended to us by legislators over the past few weeks on this issue.  It is gratifying to know that our hunting heritage has such strong support at the legislature.  I will convey this to SAM’s members and other sportsmen throughout the state.

And incidentally, I have attached the Secretary of State’s entire column to my testimony today.  It appears in the March issue of Northwoods Sporting Journal and is an excellent presentation of our case for hunting.  I’ve also attached a copy of the key page from the Baxter history that I’ve quoted today.

            When Ed Pineau and I met with Governor Baldacci on February 13 to discuss this project, the Governor expressed strong support for our position, and told us he’d never been informed that hunting and snowmobiling would be banned on the Katahdin Lake parcel.  He was not happy.  He asked Commissioner McGowan, who attended our meeting, to redo the deal and restore hunting and snowmobiling on the parcel.  We appreciate the Governor’s support.

            You have many options available to you on this bill.  The simplest would be to insist that the deed going from the Gardners to Baxter Park be encumbered with a requirement that hunting, trapping, snowmobiling, and other traditional activities continue on this parcel.

            But the best option may be to leave the parcel in state ownership.  Some might say this endangers the donations – but the two large donors who talked to me said they would not object to state ownership of the parcel.

            Yes, this land ought to be owned by the people of Maine.  It is a very special place.  And the people of Maine would have more influence over its management – and certainly more opportunity to enjoy the area – if it were owned and managed by the state.  Because, after all, the task here today is to keep the land undeveloped and available for public recreation – including hunting.

            Before finishing, I must disclose my own personal interest in this project.  Some of you know that my wife and I have a camp on Sourdahunk Lake, on the edge of Baxter Park’s northwest corner. 

            I love Baxter Park.  I spend a lot of time there.  I appreciate the park and the opportunities it has provided and continues to provide to me and my family.  I will use this new parcel, no matter if it’s owned by Baxter Park or the State Park System.

            We all share the goal of purchasing, protecting, and enjoying this very special place that stands in front of the mountain that Governor Baxter purchased for the people of Maine.  We are united on this.  Let’s get it done.