Posted on February 05, 2003 at 08:49:10:
ATV CONFERENCE
The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine will be sponsoring an ATV conference at the Augusta Civic Center on March 18th. It will be an all day affair and will cover plans to control the ATV problems we are facing. Speakers from other states and Canada are scheduled to discuss what they have tried, their successes and failures. If you are interested please call the SAM headquarters at 622-5503 or e-mail members@samcef.org
Reservations will insure you a seat and they are filling up fast. I will be in attendance as well as Galen Harkins the MBA’s representative on the Governors Council for landowner/sportsman relations. Our interest in the topic is obviously the concern over posting of lands due to a few irresponsible individuals. Our strong landowner relations program needs our direct concern to this multitude of problems that are rising.
The second issue we need to talk about is the legislation (L.D. 237) to eliminate the current Coyote snaring program. As I mentioned in a previous column, in fact, it is an attempt to eliminate all snaring of all animals. The Maine Trappers Association has asked for our help with this problem and I must remind you all they have helped the MBA plenty in the past. The fact that we go through great efforts to protect deer wintering yards and select cut for deer habitat alone makes the elimination of the program a poor choice. Until they create a better plan or another logical way to control Coyote’s, this bill basically says protect the deer herd so the Coyote’s have something to EAT. The way you can help or at least be heard is by contacting Representative Ray Pineau (pea-no). Ray is a hunter and fisherman and a quality person, and is co-sponsoring the bill. I am certain the attempt is there to clear up what has been a controversial program from the get go. The problem lies in that they have nothing to replace it. Ray is easy to talk to and will welcome your opinion, call or e-mail him with a polite message that we need to protect our deer herd by some method. Eliminating the only program we have with no back-up plan is not the answer. Representative Pineau can be reached at:
rapineau@megalink.net
Home phone 897-3898
State House message phone 1-800-423-2900
The sponsor of the bill is Representative Linda McKee, the same person, who last session virtually tried to eliminate bear baiting. It was a horrible bill that would make you have your bait at least 100 yards from your stand. Not only can we not shoot that distance, in the woods of northern Maine you can’t even see that far. It was defeated swiftly and hopefully I will never see legislation like that again. Unification and testimony from the MBA, MTA, MPGA, SAM showed the strength we have when working together. Also the foresight of the Joint Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife saw the magnitude of that misguided legislation.