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Gubernatorial Candidates Answer SAM Survey
Question: List outdoor activities you personally enjoy.
Baldacci: My duties as Governor occupy such a large portion of my time that I haven’t had as much time to enjoy outdoor recreational activities in the past four years. When I have been able, I snowmobile, hike, canoe and boat, target shoot, and fish. I also enjoy going to wild game dinners.
Woodcock: Flyfishing for trout and salmon, deer hunting, bird hunting (including woodcock!), Atlantic salmon fishing.
Merrill: I live in Appleton, a town long known to many deer hunters as some of the best deer hunting in the midcoast area. I swim and canoe in our local lakes, hike, bicycle, and spend as much time as possible on our boat. My family enjoys camping as well. I have not snowmobiled in some time, but we recently permitted our local snowmobile club to put a second trail across our property. We own over 80 acres and we permit hunting on our land.
LaMarche: Kayaking, cycling, white water rafting, Moosehead Lake camping.
Question: List your experiences that shaped your thinking about our sportsman’s heritage.
Baldacci: As a young man, my father took me and my family to Baxter State Park where we “roughed it out” in a lean-to in Maine’s great outdoors. We enjoyed fishing, hiking, swimming, and many other outdoor recreational activities. That experience and many others with my father and family spawned a true appreciation of what a special place Maine is. Those experiences helped shape my thinking and have influenced my positions throughout my career in public service. This is a heritage that must be preserved for future generations.
Woodcock: Hunting and fishing with grandfather, trapping with octogenarian, fly fishing with octogenarian, deer hunting with son, fly fishing with son and daughters, canoeing Allagash and St. John Rivers, Atlantic salmon fishing in Maritimes and Maine, Vietnam.
Merrill: Although neither my father nor my father in law were hunters, my mother loved to take us kids fishing. I grew up in a military family moving all over the world until we settled in Waterville for my high school years. Most of what I know about Maine’s outdoor heritage I learned from friends who took me ice fishing, snowmobiling and hunting. When we first bought our property in Appleton (that includes a bog and is very rich in wildlife) I was reluctant to open the land to hunters, mostly out of concern for my small children and two very large brown dogs. However, my experiences with hunters have been very positive, and my land is now open to hunting.
LaMarche: My family hunts – I love the food. My family fishes – generally catch and release. I go along and love the camaraderie.
Question: Do you support any additional state restrictions on ownership, possession, sale or use of firearms.
Baldacci: No
Woodcock: No
Merrill: No
LaMarche: No
Question: Will you work with SAM to identify and enact a new, reliable and permanent source of public funding for IF&W?
Baldacci: I am the first Governor to provide DIF&W with a significant general fund appropriation as called for in Maine statutes, and I provided it in the face of many competing demands for funding… I understand SAM’s concern that future Governors may not have as strong a commitment to funding IF&W. I will work with SAM to identify and put in place a reliable source of public funding for IF&W…Because funding options may be controversial, it may take some time to build support for such a funding source. I am committed to continuing to provide public dollars to supplement the Department’s revenue from licenses, permits and registrations until the new, reliable and permanent funding source is in place.
Woodcock: Yes
Merrill: Yes
LaMarch: Yes
Question: Did you or do you support the Katahdin Lake project which banned hunting and snowmobiling on 4000 acres?
Baldacci: I support the Katahdin Lake project, which fulfills Governor Baxter’s vision for Baxter State Park.
Woodcock: No (editor’s note: Woodcock was one of only three Senators to vote against the project).
Merrill: Originally I opposed the bill because it made inadequate provision for hunting and snowmobiling. After some compromises were made I voted for the final measure, but was not happy with the choices the legislature faced.
LaMarche: I believe in striking compromises.
Question: Would you oppose acquisitions of public land that exclude hunting and trapping in the future?
Baldacci: Virtually all public lands are now open to hunting and trapping. The only exceptions, and they are very limited, are developed recreation sites in parks and wildlife preserves. I support continuation of this policy.
Woodcock: Yes.
Merrill: Yes. I tried to get leadership to allow introduction of legislation which would have included SAM representatives in a process to assure that in the future deals the interests of hunters and snowmobilers are taken into account from the beginning. The legislation was not allowed in by legislative leadership, but I will execute it by executive order when elected.
LaMarche: No. I, however, believe that compromise can be negotiated for combined use.
Question: Did you are do you support (the) Allagash bill (supported by SAM) that resolved long-standing disagreements over access to the AWW, by designating motor vehicle access at six current locations, trail access at five locations, and snowmobile access at 19 current locations, and establishing that the six existing bridges are permanent.
Baldacci: I support maintaining traditional access to the Allagash by recreational users in northern Maine, including access by vehicle or by snowmobile at traditional sites. I also support the establishment of permanent bridge crossing. Most importantly, I support resolving long-standing disagreements about these issues. If the law recently enacted by the legislature was sufficient to resolve these issues, it, too, would (have) received my unqualified support. Unfortunately, many people who have passionate opinions about the Allagash Wilderness Waterway fell that the recently enacted legislation was adopted without a full opportunity to debate varying points of view. Feeling that they have not had a full opportunity to present their perspective before the legislature, many of them strongly urged me to veto the bill and they are considering resorting to the courts or a referendum process to air their viewpoints. I refused to veto the bill, and I do not support resolution of Allagash issues through the courts or in a referendum process. I have initiated a task force to explore the creation of an effective forum to resolve long standing disputes about the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, as an alternative to dispute resolution through lawsuits and referenda.
Woodcock: Yes.
Merrill: Yes
LaMarche: Yes.
Question: Would you oppose legislation to repeal the new Allagash law?
Baldacci: Yes, unless the repeal proposal is part of a comprehensive process that has the support from all parties.
Woodcock: Yes.
Merrill: Yes.
LaMarche: Yes.
Question: SAM supports a proposal to allow state conservation agencies to construct new boat launches without obtaining municipal permits, as long as the construction follows DEP best-management guidelines. These waters belong to all of us and local opponents, intent on keeping a body of water to themselves, should not be able to stop state agencies from providing access for all Mainers. Would you support this proposal?
Baldacci: My administration has been developing a process for building a variety of state facilities, including boat launches, which will give municipalities greater opportunities for input about a facility early in the development process and will require the state to give written responses to the municipality’s questions and concerns. In return, the state would use “best management” practices in building the facility, and the municipality would not be able to block the development or construction of the boat launch (or other facility).
Woodcock: Yes.
Merrill: I need to see the details of this proposal. Here is what I would support. I am strong believer in local control. Having said that I do believe we have to provide real access to every great pond and that should include access for any craft allowed on that pond. If a community fails to provide such access after a period of time or come to agreement with the state to do so, then only then would I support the state having the power to override local concerns for the benefit of all the people.
LaMarche: Case by case, individual situations.
Question: Will you oppose any proposal to merge the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife into a large natural resource department?
Baldacci: Yes, I will oppose such a merger.
Woodcock: Yes.
Merrill: Yes.
LaMarche: Yes.
Question: Do you support trapping?
Baldacci: Yes. As an example, I played a key role in defeating the bear referendum, which had as one of its targets to ban the trapping of bear.
Woodcock: Yes.
Merrill: Yes.
LaMarche: Traditional part of rural life style but humane.
Question: Other states have enacted laws to assure no net loss of public hunting grounds, requiring that if public land is closed to hunting, an equal amount of public land must be opened to hunting. Would you support a no net loss requirement for public lands in Maine?
Baldacci: Yes, I will support such a law, and would want it to require that the “no net loss” provision be applied on an annual basis.
Woodcock: Yes.
Merrill: Yes.
LaMarche: This or a scale model of this is the sort of compromise I’m mentioning above.
Question: Will you be willing to support some Sunday hunting opportunities?
Baldacci: In 2005 I became the first Governor to ever propose and advocate for Sunday hunting. Despite our collective efforts, the idea was rejected by the legislature amidst strong opposition from many people and groups, including a surprising number of hunters themselves. I have since learned that repeated surveys by SAM showed that sportsmen have been almost evenly divided on whether to allow Sunday hunting. Unless new polling shows a dramatic change in sportsmen’s, and the public’s, attitude towards Sunday hunting, there is little chance such a change will be approved by the Maine legislature. Until attitudes change, it would be fruitless to seek legislative action, and it might even be counter-productive of other initiatives SAM may propose.
Woodcock: No.
Merrill: No. I deal with this subject in my book. I don’t think there is any one thing which would sour landowner relations more on hunting than Sunday hunting. I contacted every hunter in my district when the Governor proposed Sunday hunting, and the overwhelming response was negative. Friends sometimes differ and this is one on which I am convinced the long term interests of hunters would be hurt. Therefore I cannot support it.
LaMarche: No.
Question: Do you favor a vigorous program to limit coyote predation of deer in the areas of the state where the deer herd needs to be rebuilt?
Baldacci: Yes, I favor a multifaceted approach to rebuilding deer herds in those parts of Maine where they have been significantly depleted, including efforts to greatly reduce the effects of coyotes and other predators on the deer herds. As an example of what such an approach might entail can be seen in the plan for Washington County, developed jointly by the Washington County Fish and Game Association and the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in 2005. This plan recognized that in northern and eastern Maine, white-tailed deer are in the northern reaches of their normal range, and building the deer herds in these parts of the state can only be achieved by addressing the several components of the problem, among them being more and better deer wintering yards, better sources of food during the winter season, and better protection against deer predation by coyotes, poachers and other predators.
Woodcock: Yes.
Merrill: Yes.
LaMarche: No snaring, but coyote hunting.
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