Atlantic Salmon Commission threatened by proposal

Out and About: Like most of Maine’s sportsmen, I’m opposed to Sen. Charles Pray’s proposal to combine six government natural-resource agencies, including the Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, into an umbrella organization called the Department of Conservation. My feeling is that, aside from creating more bureaucratic bobbing and weaving, a consolidation of that kind would result in fisheries and wildlife personnel being assigned to other areas of law enforcement.

Considering the pressures nowadays on DIFW wardens, biologists, technicians, etc., it’s obvious that fish and wildlife resources would suffer. We don’t want our game wardens, for example, to become “Environmental Patrol Officers,” the trendy euphemistic label attached to wardens in other states that have adopted resource-agency consolidation.

Well, sport, you know as well as anyone that “when it rains it pours.” Brace your feet. There is now a proposal in the works to abolish the Atlantic Sea-Run Salmon Commission.

If you’ve been following this consolidation scenario at all, then you’re aware of the Special Commission on Governmental Restructuring. The Sub-Committee on Physical Resources, one of the commission’s six working committees, is made up of Pat McGowan, Robert Cope, and Dick Anderson. Relative to the proposal regarding the ASRSC, Section G of the Physical Resources Committee’s Options For Discussion reads: “Abolish the Atlantic Sea-Run Salmon Commission and transfer its staff and salmon fisheries management functions to the Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.”

Right now, mark the following dates on your calendar: the Sub-Committee on Physical Resources will hold two public hearings during October. The first will be held in Portland Oct. 10, 7-9 p.m., in Room 113, Masterson Hall, University of Southern Maine. The second will be held in Bangor Oct. 16, 7-9 p.m., in Mathieu Auditorium, Schoodic Hall, Eastern Maine Technical College.

I cannot emphasize how important it is for every sportsman, environmentalist, conservationist, naturalist, etc., to attend one of those meetings and oppose the proposal that would be disastrous to the ASRSC and the restoration of Atlantic salmon to Maine rivers. All it would accomplish would be to dump the ASRSC’s funding burden in the DIFW’s already financially burdened lap.

Aside from monetary matters, the proposal seems inconsiderate of an important biological factor relative to Atlantic salmon. The species is anadromous – dwelling in the ocean, spawning in freshwater streams. Because the DIFW has no authority beyond inland waters – fresh water – transferring the ASRSC to that agency surely would create more problems than a wind knot. Salmon Commission regulations apply to fresh water and salt water.

The Atlantic salmon is a fragile natural resource that has endured man’s ignorance and insults to its environment only through the efforts of conservation agencies such as the Atlantic Salmon Federation, North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization, and others. It is a special creature that requires special – professional – attention if it is to survive. Maine is blessed with the only remaining Atlantic salmon rivers in this country. The restoration and management of those rivers is the business of the ASRSC, and has been since it was organized in 1947.

Don’t let the game of politics jeopardize the accomplishments of that agency or the survival of the precious resource it represents. Attend one of those public hearings and voice your opposition to this disturbing proposal.

Congratulations are in order for Gary Cobb, the “head guide” at Cobb’s Pierce Pond Camps in North New Portland. Gary recently was named the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine’s “Sportsman of the Year” at the organization’s first annual membership banquet.

Word is, the good-natured outdoorsman had a short acceptance speech prepared, but lost it somewhere between Pierce Pond and center stage. But because fishermen are masters at improvising, Gary made a few impromptu casts and got himself off the hook, so to speak. The Sportsman’s Alliance couldn’t have picked a better man or a more conscientious sportsman for its annual award.

Special Delivery: Back along, I fetched a letter written by Harold MacRae of Brewer from my mailbox. In his letter, the avid outdoorsman contested several claims made in regard to coyotes that appeared in a “Letter to the Editor” of the “Maine Sportsman.”

Harold wrote: “I am in the woods much of the time checking on deer and coyote sign. When a doe drops its fawn in June and you see coyote tracks next to the deer’s tracks, you can bet the coyote isn’t there for the fun of it. Even if the tracks indicate the coyote is walking, 5 to 1 says it’s after the fawn.

“I’ve seen three sets of doe tracks, each with a fawn, and in each set of tracks there were coyote tracks. I agree with the letter in regard to domestic dogs and disease and starvation in the winter, but not in late spring and summer. I don’t agree about water pollution, either. If that were the case more dead deer would be found. Mr. Coyote can be blamed for the lack of deer in some areas, he’s getting more than his share of fawns.”

How’d you do on opening day of bird season? More foliage than feathers, right? Look at it this way, the situation can only improve.