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A state Hatchery Commission, after meeting 15 times and spending $500,000 on engineering studies and plans, recommended in 2002 that Maine quadruple the pounds of fish grown in the hatcheries of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and stocked throughout the state.

The Commission, chaired by then-Senator Chandler Woodcock (I was also a member), found that “there is increasing evidence that the state’s recreational salmonid fisheries no longer meet the expectations of many anglers. In addition, other New England states and Canada are heavily competing for the attention of these anglers and may be drawing anglers away from the state.”

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The legislature’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee was briefed this afternoon on the role of the legislature’s Office of Fiscal and Program Review, heard a presentation on tribal issues, and was introduced to the representatives of the interest groups with issues before the committee.

John Banks, the highly respected Natural Resources Director for the Penobscot Tribe, surprised even me when he said he’d been serving in this position for 32 years. It was my pleasure to work with John over the years I worked for the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine.

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On Thursday, the legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will get a briefing on Governor Paul LePage’s proposed budget for the next two-year period.

Scheduled for an appearance at 1 pm, Suzanne Voynik of the Office of Fiscal & Program Review will review the specific parts of the budget that apply to Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

What’s most telling is what she won’t be able to report. Prior to his election in 2010, Paul LePage promised, on his SAM PAC candidate survey, to submit a budget that funded at least 20 percent of DIF&W’s budget with General Fund tax money, and to oppose any budget that failed to do that.

He repeated this promise in a meeting with SAM’s Board of Directors, and in an appearance on the TV talk show Wildfire that I cohost with Harry Vanderweide.

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It’s time to expand the successful initiative of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to protect native brook trout in waters that have never been stocked (the so-called “A” list), by cleaning up DIF&W’s “B” list of brook trout waters that have not been stocked in at least 25 years and protecting trout in those waters.

An Act to Protect Maine’s Native and Wild Brook Trout, sponsored on my behalf by Rep. Jeff McCabe (a member of the Democratic leadership in the House, will require the agency to allocate the necessary staff and money to assure the accuracy of the “B” list, and apply the protective standards on the “A” waters to the “B” waters, including a ban on stocking and the use of live fish as bait.

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This week I am posting information on the six bills I have proposed for this legislative session. Today I’ll tell you about two of those bills.

DIF&W’s system of licenses and permits is too complicated and needs reform and simplification. Currently DIF&W sells 240 license, permits, and registration, 1/3 of them to hunters.

An Act to Simplify and Encourage the Sale of Hunting and Fishing Licenses, sponsored at my request by Rep. Mike Shaw, the House Chair of the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee, will create a task force to create a plan that reduces the number of licenses, permits, and registrations.

DIF&W’s online system (MOSES) is almost as old as its namesake and desperately needs to be updated and improved. This bill will require the agency to prepare a plan to do so, and submit it to the legislature with a request for an appropriation by April 1, 2013.

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This week I'm posting summaries of the six legislative bills I've submitted. Senator Tom Saviello is the sponsor of this one, certainly one of my most ambitious ambitious bills.

Now that DIF&W has reliably estimated the moose population to be 76,000 animals, far higher than previous estimates, this bill will use that estimate to increase moose hunting permits, by applying the allowable harvest percentages in each Wildlife Management District in the agency’s current moose management plan to establish new annual permit numbers. The result will be a lot more permits.

This bill will allocate those additional permits in ways that will increase the economic value of moose to the hunting economy, including auctioning 10 percent of the moose permits to Maine guides, allocating 15 percent to nonresidents, and establishing a guaranteed draw system for Maine residents.

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This week I am posting summaries of the six legislative bills I’ve proposed for the 2013 session.

An Act to Expand Turkey Hunting is sponsored by Senator Tom Saviello, one of the most respected legislators and someone who can work collaboratively in a nonpartisan fashion, something that is very important to me and to the process. Tom also represents my district in the Senate and is someone I have come to admire, respect, and look to for advice. I’m really pleased that he was willing to sponsor this bill, and one other that I’ll tell you about later in the week.

At the December Fish and Wildlife Advisory Council meeting, DIF&W Commissioner Chandler Woodcock said, “It’s time to rethink the turkey issues.” Well, I’ve done that already, and submitted a bill that will give the department a great opportunity to expand, not just rethink, the turkey hunt.