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It took only fifteen minutes for a legislative committee to turn months of good collaborative work by a Land Use Regulation Commission study commission into an ugly partisan donnybrook.

But the unusual appearance of the Dan Billings, the governor’s lawyer and political henchman, who joined a closed-door caucus of Republican members of the Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry, brought a quick and very unusual end to the debate.

Read my previous post for the good news about the recommendations of the LURC Commission, presented today to the ACF Committee by DOC Commissioner Bill Beardsley and study group member Sarah Medina of Seven Islands Land Management Company.

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When we last left the controversy over the Land Use Regulation Commission, both sides were hurling angry charges. Environmentalists charged that a legislatively created study committee was stacked in favor of the Governor’s proposal to eliminate LURC, which is the planning and governing body for 10 million acres of unorganized territories.

The Maine League of Conservation Voters felt so strongly that they sited support for the bill creating the study group as a key “wrong vote” in their year-end legislative rank card.

LURC’s Director, Catherine Carroll, poured on the gasoline, telling Tom Bell at the Maine Sunday Telegram, “I welcome and embrace the assault on this agency.” Carroll recently left her LURC position for a planning job in the Bureau of Parks and Lands.

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Eight of nine reports that Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife were required to present this session were delivered this morning in writing, accompanied by a verbal briefing for the legislature’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee.

DIF&W’s John Pratte provided an excellent briefing – the best I’ve heard from him in 3 deer plan briefings he’s presented recently, and I will report later on each of the nine reports – some of which will surprise you. Many call for more action, from stiffer regulations for the scents that hunters use, to increased funding.

A significant deficiency in the Maine Game Plan for Deer is funding, and Pratte’s report today provided a definitive listing of the new funding that his agency has been able to raise for the deer plan and the additional funds that will be needed in the future. Grants are the only significant source of funds so far.

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The 17^th annual Sportsman’s Congress, organized by the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, met today at SAM’s Augusta conference center.

Topics ranged widely from deer to landowner relations to fisheries and legislative issues. The Congress is a by-invitation-only event that was created to give the state’s outdoor leaders and organizations a look at the key issues on their agenda in the coming year. Three dozen outdoor leaders – including DIF&W staff – attended this year’s Congress.

The governor of the state attended and spoke at the first 12 events, until Governor Baldacci stopped attending in his second term. Governor LePage missed the Congress last year and this year, an unfortunate indication of his lack of interest in outdoor issues.

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The Farmhouse Inn and Restaurant in Rangeley is exactly the kind of place we hoped to find for you when we started writing this column: small, unique, with exceptional food, superb service, comfortable atmosphere, and wonderful hosts.

And it’s only a short drive away. We often travel 60 to 90 minutes to dine in Brunswick, Portland, Rockland, or Bangor, but seldom think about Rangeley, just an hour away from our home in Mt. Vernon.

Well, we’re thinking of it now, and the dinner we enjoyed in the Farmhouse’s cozy downstairs tavern is the reason. Wow!

Read More.

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While Governor Paul LePage dithers on DIF&W’s reorganization, we’ve got several interesting events coming up next week.

At 9 am on Monday morning (January 9), the legislature’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee gets a status report on the Maine Game Plan for Deer. If you want to know what they’ll hear, read my blog posts about the December meeting of DIF&W’s Deer Task Force (in the archives of this blog). I will be there and will post a report immediately following the briefing, although I don’t expect to hear anything new.

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Let’s hope The Lobstering Life doesn’t turn out to be a nostalgic look at an industry and way of life that once defined Maine.

This exceptional book, published in 2011 by The Countryman Press, is a gorgeous photographic presentation of lobstering. David Middleton and Brenda Berry are professional photographers whose evocative photos may cause you to want to drop everything to become a sternman on a Maine lobster boat.

Well, look a bit closer, because it’s not all gorgeous sunny days on the water! Check page 22, for example, called “winter storm.” Oh yea, they lobster in the winter. Or page 29, “steaming out at dawn.” Oh yea, they are up well before the sun. Or page 107, “unloading the catch after a long day out.” Oh yea, the sun has set before they return to the dock.