Remember when your mom or dad used to tell you to eat your vegetables? Ignoring your protests, your gagging and whining they’d admonish you: “Eat them! They’re good for you!”

There’s a process under way in Augusta that sounds about as interesting as vegetables do to a child, but trust me, you should know about this.

It’s a revision of the Bureau of Parks and Lands’ Integrated Resource Policy, and it is being done by an advisory committee of 36 which includes 10 specialists of the Bureau of Parks and Lands, four other state agency representatives and 22 others representing organizations and individuals.

In the basest of terms they will come up with a revised operating philosophy for the Bureau of Parks and Lands to cover the next decade – the playbook as it were for operating Maine’s 1.1 million acres of public lands.

The advisory committee, made up of a cross section of people representing various recreational intersts, has five subcommittees (technical working groups) looking at policies regarding recreation, historic and cultural sites, fisheries and wildlife, natural and geologic features and timber and renewable resources.

When the committee is through making its recommendations, said Tom Morrison, director of the Bureau of Parks and Lands, his staff will publish a draft policy that will then be fodder for public comment, probably this summer.

After the public comment period his staff will finalize its policy and it will become the guiding philosophy for the next decade.

Step back a decade or so. In 1985 the original Integrated Resource Policy was adopted with the help of a policy committee charged by the Legislature with the task of establishing a document for the Bureau fo Public Land by which public land and its resources would be managed in the ensuing decade. When 1995 rolled around the bureau wasn’t ready to update the policy, and the following year the bureau merged with Parks and Recreation forming the Bureau of Parks and Lands within the Department of Conservation.

It then made more sense to develop a policy for everything in the department, Morrison said, so in 1998 the advisory committee was established and various technical working groups were created to look at recreation, historic and cultural sites, fisheries and wildlife, natural and geologic features and timber and renewable resources.

Last Wednesday the five technical working groups presented their reports for the first time. Over the next several months their recommendations will be incorporated into the draft policy you and I may see by early summer, and on which we will get a chance to offer our nickel’s worth of advice.

During the committee presentations Wednesday there are some rough spots upon which there is disagreement among committee members. Their concerns were noted and presumably will be incorporated in the next revision and presented for committee consideration. The advisory committee plans to meet in March at a date to be announced.

There is concensus on the committee on several areas concerning general policies. One of those involves the philosophy of providing a variety of outdoor recreational experiences on public lands – hunting, fishing and trapping, maintaining remote and carry-in/remote boat access sites, remote swim beaches, trails for hiking, horseback riding, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, ATV riding, mountain biking, horseback riding and nature observation.

There is agreement on maintaining these opportunities for present and future generations, for improving scenic vistas (where it does not adversely impact natural features), for accommodating service dogs and pets where possible (consistent with state law), for allowing service dogs in all bureau facilities and hunting dogs (while actively hunting) on bureau lands, and for providing toilet buildings, drinking water and campsites that are accessible to the disabled.

And there is agreement on a new policy of identifying water bodies where personal watercraft, racing boats, hovercraft, airboats, party boats etc. are appropriate and where they are inappropriate. The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will be asked to enforce bans where appropriate.

When it came to considering a recommendation that a new “wilderness area” resource category be added to the bureau’s policy guidelines there was a pronounced division. On one side was George Smith, director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine who outright asked that the Natural/Geological TWG’s recommendation be thrown out. On the other was Jym St. Pierre, head of RESTORE the North Woods, who expressed consternation over Smith’s suggestion to throw out a year of the committee’s work.

A wilderness designation would encompass remote, undisturbed or restored natural landscapes and under such designation existing structures, roads, snowmobile trails, off-road vehicle trails or other roads or trails used for motorized vehicles would be phased out and the area restored to a natural condition.

Within a wilderness area one could hike, backpack, picnic, study wildlife, take pictures, tent camp, canoe, cross country ski or snowshoe. But you could not harvest timber, explore or mine minerals and gravel, build new roads, use motorized vehicles, build structures, hunt, trap, have dwelling units, campgrounds, alter shoreland, construct new water impoundments, docks or boating facilities, manage agriculture, apply herbicides or insecticides or other chemicals, store or apply septage or do wildlife and fishery management except non-chemical restoration practices.

It’s the possibility of having a pristine area where hunting is not allowed that bothered Smith. He wasn’t alone. As Morrison polled those in attendance it became evident that there was around a 9-7 split against the concept of having a wilderness designation in bureau policy.

On the other hand there was not a peep of dissension when it came to the concept of having permanently protected ecological reserves across the state where native ecosystem types could serve as benchmarks against which biological and environmental change could be measured.

These habitats would be adequate to maintain viable populations of species whose habitat needs are unlikely to be met on managed lands, and which would serve as sites for scientific research, long-term environmental monitoring and education.

Within these preserves non-motorized recreation would be permitted as would camping, hunting and fishing as long as their impact remains low and does not compromise the purpose for which the reserve is designated. The policy urges relocation of roads and motorized-use trails.

The TWG studying policies regarding restoration of native plants, animals and natural communities suggested a policy change that would encourage the use of native seed grasses and legumes in erosion control projects (difficult now because of the scarcity and cost of such seeds). It also suggested stepped-up cooperation with Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in developing aquatic habitat management projects, and enhancement of native species including the eradication of non-native species when natural resources or public health are threatened and when control is prudent and feasible.

The working group looking at recreation resources has proposed a few new policy guidelines including: seeking to provide a diverse range of fishing opportunities; designating appropriate swimming areas; identifying water trail opportunities; and providing trail opportunities at appropriate locations throughout the state. If it is included, the policy will not include designations of trails suggesting skill levels necessary for each such as beginner, intermediate or expert. Instead elevation changes, steepness, scenery, presence of bogs, streams, rivers and lakes, presence of unusual plant communities or connections to other trails would be noted.

Also suggested for policy would be the separation, wherever possible, of snowmobile and cross country ski trails, as well as allowing horseback riding on public access and management roads within public lands.

At its next meeting the committee will consider ATV use policy.

Jeff Strout’s column is published Tuesday and Thursday. He can be reached at 990-8202.