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For the price of 10 gallons of gas, you may be able to hunt in Maine for an entire year, all game animals, all seasons, all bag limits. I’ll bet many of you burn up that much gas on the first day of deer hunting, driving to your favorite hunting spot. You certainly burn up more than that on a day of grouse hunting.

Yet some members of the legislature’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee are reluctant to support this proposal, afraid that too many hunters will object. Here’s the proposal, and the problem.

The proposal would eliminate nearly all of DIF&W’s 67 hunting licenses and permits, in favor of a comprehensive hunting license that would cost $38 for residents and $144 for nonresidents. That’s right, for just $38, you get it all. Add $17 and you also get a year’s worth of fishing.

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Tomorrow I plan to offer my thoughts on all the gun bills now being considered by the Maine Legislature. I've put all my experience and knowledge into this testimony and my recommendations. Please share these with your friends and your legislators. Thanks! - george

 My Testimony

The cover on my testimony is all you need to know about me. That’s my Dad, with his musket, and the message he asked me to deliver to you today. Our Constitutional rights are inherited. I was born and raised a Maine sportsman, taught to shoot, safely, as soon as I could hold up a gun. I recognize and revere my inherited rights, and I could not let my Dad down by failing to speak when those rights are threatened.

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Brook trout took a bashing today at the legislature, as a lengthy list of opponents turned out for the public hearing on LD 617, An Act to Protect the State’s Native and Wild Brook Trout and Discourage Illegal Fish Introduction. LD 617 is my bill, sponsored at my request by Representative Jeff McCabe.

OK, I’m the guy who got bashed today, but the bill did draw some great supportive testimony from Trout Unlimited, The Maine Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, Maine Audubon, and individual members of SAM’s Fishing Initiative Committee. IFW Committee members also seemed very interested in the issue and asked many questions of those who testified.

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The current edition of Wildfire tackles the gun issues now before the Maine legislature, with special guest Senator Anne Haskell, a veteran legislator who served for many years on the Criminal Justice Committee. That committee has scheduled public hearings next week on many of the gun bills we discussed.

Wildfire, the TV talk show cohosted by Harry Vanderweide and me, is now own owned and sponsored by Maine Audubon.

Wildfire can be seen on the Time Warner cable station (channel 9 in most places). Each episode runs for two weeks, beginning on a Wednesday night at 7 pm. The show can also be seen on Fridays at 6:30 pm, Saturdays at 7 pm, and Sundays at 8:30 pm.

You can also see the current episode and all previous episodes on Maine Audubon’s website.

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Public hearings today to expand turkey hunting opportunities, allow fox hunting at night, expand the areas where setback distances for beaver traps are eliminated, and launch a bear hunting study, were a good tune-up for my comprehensive moose bill, LD 177, sponsored at my request by Senator Tom Saviello.

My bill brought an interesting array of testimony both for and against. I was especially pleased that one of Maine’s finest guides, Hal Blood, who offers high-end very successful moose hunts, came today to testify for my bill.

Hal has guided 200 successful moose hunts, and reported he’d seen the moose population steadily increase over the years. “The resource in the past has been squandered,” he said.

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When Captain Chris Cloutier informed the legislature’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee last week that even two hunters are prohibited from driving deer, he not only redefined the law, but he put many Maine hunters in jeopardy.

I wrote about that issue, along with information provided by the Warden service on how the tactic is utilized in other states (including the fact it has not proven to be unsafe), in my outdoor news blog on the website of the Bangor Daily News.  Thinking about this issue since then, I’ve realized we are talking about two different hunting techniques.

Deer driving conjures up an image of a dozen hunters lined up walking through the woods toward a half-dozen shooters straight ahead and ready to blast any deer than runs toward them.

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I began my testimony at today’s public hearing with the cries of a loon - because the proposed ban on lead sinkers is all about loons.

LD 730, proposed by Maine Audubon and sponsored by Senator Anne Haskell, is titled “An Act to Protect Maine’s Loons by Banning Lead Sinkers and Jigs.”  The bill would make it illegal to sell or use lead sinkers and jigs weighing one ounce or less and measuring 2 ½ inches or less in length.

Before we got to LD 730, the committee hosted a public hearing on a bill to allow Sunday hunting for ducks during the second (late) season. No chance of that happening!

After the hearing on LD 730, testimony was heard on LD 775, a bill that would require all nonresident duck hunters to hire and hunt with a Maine guide. No chance of that happening either.