Legislative News

 Legislative Updates Available

 The schedule of legislative public hearings and work sessions on bills of concern to SAM will be posted in a special report on our website (www.samcef.org) each Friday.  These reports are prepared by Carol Gay of Pineau Policy Associates, SAM’s contractual lobbyists. 

Legislative News

 Access to public and private lands is the issue of the year – if not the decade – and the Maine legislature will consider many access bills this year.  A coalition of allies including the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, Maine Snowmobile Association, ATV Maine, Maine Bowhunters Association, and Maine Professional Guides Association, is working to address a long list of access issues.

            Members of the new Natural Resources Network are also following these issues with interest.  The Network includes landowner groups such as the Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine and farm groups including the Maine Farm Bureau.  All of the sportsmen’s groups mentioned above are members of the Network, except for ATV Maine.

            Questions have been raised – especially in northern Maine – by sportsmen who have felt threatened by access restrictions proposed for public lands, the Allagash Waterway, and eco-reserves, and the lingering ill-will created by the Katahdin Lake Project –which banned hunting, trapping and snowmobiling on the 4,000 acres surrounding that lake – is still causing problems.

            But some of the state’s leading environmental and conservation groups have stepped up to help sportsmen address these concerns, and the interest of Governor John Baldacci led to a recent announcement that he would get the commission started by issuing an executive order – rather than waiting for the legislature to act.  The decision of the Governor won the praise of SAM and other advocates for the commission and study.

            The entire executive order can be seen on SAM’s website at www.samcef.org, along with SAM’s original legislation.

Other Legislation 

The legislature’s Fish and Wildlife Committee will consider more than 100 bills this session, and began that process on February 6 with its first public hearings on three bills.  One called for a public boat launch on Glazier Lake on the Canadian border. 

Currently the only launch site on this lake, a popular destination for muskie fishermen, is on the Canadian side of the lake.  Beginning in January of 2008, a passport will be required to cross the border and fish the lake.

Although the bill was ultimately killed in committee, SAM is working with northern Maine Representatives Charles Theriault and Troy Jackson, and the private landowner in that area, to try to create the launch. 

A second bill sought recognition and protection of Arctic Charr (Blueback Trout) in the fourteen waters that still have this once-plentiful species.  This bill was proposed by the Dud Deane anglers group, and won the support of DIF&W, SAM, and Trout Unlimited.  John Boland, DIF&W’s Director of Fisheries, testified that the department could support protection of Arctic Charr in ten of the fourteen waters.  The Fish and Wildlife Committee endorsed that approach.

A third bill heard on February 6 was submitted on behalf of a Sabattus farmer.  It would have prohibited the “intentional” feeding of wild turkeys and deer.  The deer feeding ban would include salt licks.

The Wild Turkey Federation, Maine Bowhunters Association, Quality Deer Management Association, and DIF&W supported the bill, although the department pointed out that it would cause “enforcement problems,” and indicated that DIF&W staff would work with the committee to address these concerns at the bill’s work sessions.

SAM joined an array of farm groups, including the Maine Farm Bureau and the Maine Dairy Industry Association, in opposing the bill.  The bill was killed with a unanimous committee vote.

Wild Trout Bill

 One of SAM’s bills was drawing a lot of discussion well before it was even printed.  Sponsored by Rep. Ted Koffman, An Act to Designate Additional Wild Trout Waters for Recognition and Protection has drawn fire from bait dealers and the Maine Ice Anglers Association.

The MIAA sent a letter to its members saying SAM’s intention is “to reduce and eliminate ice fishing opportunities.”  In reality, the bill is intended to extend recognition and protection to native brook trout in waters that have not been stocked in more than 20 years.

This is the same protection enacted by the legislature last session, in response to SAM’s proposal, to ban stocking and the use of live fish as bait in the 284 native brook trout waters that have never been stocked.

DIF&W’s John Boland has been consulting with his wild trout working group to create the new list, and spent the last month massaging the list down to waters that don’t include multiple species targeted by ice and open water anglers using bait and other methods.

The actual list won’t be known until Boland and his group complete their process, but you can rest assured that we don’t intend to reduce or eliminate ice fishing opportunities!

Bait Ban

             A very controversial bill to ban the use of four species of non-native bait was roundly criticized at a public hearing on February 20.  SAM joined bait dealers, ice anglers, and the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in opposing the bill which is expected to find little support when it gets to work session.

            Nevertheless, rumors spread throughout the state – fueled by some bait dealers – that this was a SAM bill and that SAM was supporting it.  That was not true, and we straightened this out at the hearing.

ATV bills

 ATV Maine has proposed five interesting bills, including one that would increase ATV registration fees for those who don’t join an ATV club.  For residents, the current registration fee of $33 would to $60 without club membership, but decrease to $30 for those who join a club.  For nonresidents, the current registration fee of $68 would increase to $90 for nonclub members, but decrease to $65 for those who join a Maine ATV club.

            Brian Bronson, Director of ATV programs at the Department of Conservation, reports that a similar system is working well in New Hampshire and New York, but there is no official word yet as to whether the Baldacci Administration will support the bill.  Some leaders of the Maine Snowmobile Association are interested in expanding the concept to snowmobiles.  This bill will provide one of the more interesting debates of this session for outdoor recreationists.

            Dan Mitchell of ATV Maine visited with the SAM Board at the board’s February meeting, to explain his group’s legislative agenda and seek our support.  He found a very favorable audience, although SAM’s positions on the bills won’t be established until the bills are actually printed.

Moose and More

             Some interesting bills that will be heard soon are the following.  An act to require the Commissioner of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to reserve 250 moose permits for residents who have never received one.  This is just one of many moose bills – always a major area of interest for legislators.  Another bill would allow Maine residents to purchase up to 10 chances in the moose lottery – giving those of us who always lose a chance to chase good money with bad.

            Also coming soon will be LD 504, a bill to authorize DIF&W to allow beagle clubs to trap snowshoe hares.  Clubs have been doing this for years with DIF&W permits, but the department discovered recently that it has no authority to issue those permits and it stopped issuing them a few months ago.  SAM and other sportsmen’s groups, along with DIF&W, are strongly supporting LD 504 – although animal rights groups may contest it.

            SAM’s bill to extend fall fishing opportunities to all stocked moving water has been printed.  LD 579, sponsored by Rep. Abby Holman, has drawn concern from DIF&W that it would be too much work for them to identify all of these waters in rules and the fishing publication, but SAM’s Fishing Initiative Committee – the main group that has championed fall fishing for more than a decade – is determined to give anglers this new opportunity.

            An interesting bill from DIF&W has been printed concerning trespass.  LD 588, sponsored on the department’s behalf by Rep. Mark Bryant, establishes a civil trespass violation with less severe penalties than those that apply to the existing criminal trespass law.

            The Department of Environmental Protection is proposing changes to the milfoil sticker – eliminating the sticker for residents and including the fees – for both the sticker and the agent – in boat registration fees.  Nonresident boat owners would still be required to purchase the sticker because they don’t have to register their boats in Maine.

            Of course, the usual Sunday hunting bills have been proposed, with the most interesting being a bill from Rep. Stacey Fitts to allow landowners to hunt on their own land on Sundays.  It’s a compelling landowner rights issue for Fitts who owns 1,000 acres that he shares with other hunters.

            Rep. Phil Cressey has submitted LD 618 to increase to $3 the fees charged by agents who sell hunting and fishing licenses and permits.

            Among the dozen or more bills on access is one that is sure to be hotly debated.  LD 625, sponsored by Rep. Ray Pineau, would establish a commission to study the feasibility of the state’s acquiring the Golden Road west of Millinocket.