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When Commissioner Chandler Woodcock and the Fish and Wildlife Advisory Council took the very modest step in December of 2012 of banning the use of fish as live bait on 9 waters in northern Maine, it set off a stream of protests that led directly to the legislature where Senator Troy Jackson, the bait industry, and others offered legislation to reverse that decision. Troy’s bill was heard today by the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the room was packed.

Five members of the IFW Committee cosponsored the bill, indicating a real problem on this issue for Commissioner Woodcock and his agency.

Supporters of the bill spoke for about an hour and a half, and then opponents took over, taking another hour and a half. Stalemate there. It was especially good to hear the testimony of Dave Trahan expressing SAM’s opposition to the bill.

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We were packed like alewives into the small hearing room of the legislature’s Marine Resources Committee, hosting hearings this morning on a trio of contentious bills that would allow alewives to access a portion or the entire St. Croix River watershed.

I arrived almost an hour early and the room was already almost full. By the time I got to the sign up sheet for those who wished to testify, there were a couple dozen names ahead of me, most of them proponents of one of the three bills.

My testimony closely mirrored the column I posted on my outdoor news blog on the website of the Bangor Daily News on Friday. I encourage you to read that column if you have an interest in this issue.

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Commissioner Chandler Woodcock has made an unprecedented effort to reach out to anglers of all interests as he tries to move forward with a fisheries agenda focused on his primary interest: native and wild brook trout.

I have fished with Chandler, consider him a friend, and know that this one means a lot to him. And while I – as well as others – are frustrated with the slow progress on recognizing this great resource and doing what is necessary to protect and enhance it – I have no doubt that the Commissioner and his top staff will continue to move in this direction. Not fast enough for me. But hey, I’m not a real patient guy.

On all fronts, we are dealing with a tide of rushing fisheries legislation, proposals, working groups, ideas, and initiatives.

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As winter wanes, Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has yet to spend half of the $100,000 allocated by the legislature and governor to coyote control. And the project remains very expensive.

$241.25. That’s what each dead coyote has cost the agency. The latest report from John Pratte, Wildlife Management Section Supervisor, says that $47,282 has been paid to 46 hunters and trappers, resulting in 196 coyotes killed. Twenty-one volunteers in the program have done better, killing 261 coyotes.

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Well, it’s not a debate about guns for lawyers, it’s a gun debate for lawyers.

Specifically, the Cumberland Bar Association will entertain a debate about guns between Bill Harwood and myself on Thursday (March 21). Bill is a lawyer and also the lobbyist for Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence.

I probably should have my head examined to have accepted the invitation to debate a lawyer in front of a roomful of lawyers!

Darcy McElwee of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Portland invited Bill and I to debate at this annual meeting and luncheon of the Bar Association. The noontime event is at the Portland Regency. I am expecting a very nice lunch.

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When Senator Anne Haskell agrees to sponsor your bill, you are in luck. She is smart, savvy, diligent, experienced, and relentless. And she needed all of those qualities today as the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife hosted work sessions on two of my bills, sponsored at my request by Senator Haskell.

The committee’s 1 pm work session was delayed, while we waited for Deputy Commissioner Andrea Erskine to arrive (she was here earlier but left to make photocopies of something) – a good illustration of the point I made in my earlier post on legislative committee work sessions that are dominated by state agencies. We couldn’t even start without Andrea!

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The Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee, beginning at 1 pm in Room 206 of the Cross Office Building, will hear an interesting array of bills this afternoon.

LD 254, sponsored by Senator Troy Jackson, would establish yet another deer task force, this one focused on northern Maine. Perhaps this will give the committee another opportunity to assess the success of the Maine Game Plan for Deer, which is focused on northern Maine. Clearly, Senator Jackson is not satisfied with the plan.

LD 544, sponsored by Rep. Sheryl Briggs, a member of the IFW Committee, would allocate any-deer permits to landowners, and if there are more permits than landowner applicants, the rest would go to junior hunters. This “by request” bill is dead on arrival. The any-deer lottery already favors landowners.