Land, water access focus of legislation

AUGUSTA – As more owners post their property, the single biggest concern on the minds of many Maine hunters and fishermen is access to land and water. At least four bills before the Legislature this year deal with ways to ensure access for fishermen to inland waters.

Rep. John Morrison, R-Baileyville, said Monday in a public hearing before the Joint Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife that his bill to establish a study commission on the issue was no longer necessary, because a legislatively appointed committee is already studying the same thing. However, Morrison said he wanted to keep the measure alive to highlight the importance of providing access to private land that leads to bodies of water.

The two other bills on access that were heard Monday deal with the free approach to waters that are stocked by the state, and fishing access signs. The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife already posts small signs directing anglers to popular fishing spots. The sign bill would provide for larger signs helpful to those unfamiliar with an area.

A fourth bill, LD 824, is sponsored by Rep. Joe Clark, D-Millinocket. It would provide free access to any great pond impounded by a dam and will be heard by the Joint Committee on Natural Resources at 9:30 a.m. Friday in the State House. A great pond is a body of water of 10 acres or more, or any inland body of water artificially formed or increased which has a surface area in excess of 30 acres.

Since Morrison introduced his bill, LD 514, a committee established by the Legislature to study access to private and public lands has received an extension for further study until Dec. 5. Morrison said that based on discussions he has had with that committee’s chair, Sen. Marge Kilkelly, D-Wiscasset, he thinks his bill is no longer necessary. However, he said he has kept it alive because of recent events that have threatened to deny access to sportsmen.

“The access issue is more acute than it was years ago,” he said. “With wild lands that are now privately owned, the public has a concern. I want to secure our interests and our way of life.”

The scare for sportsmen that occurred last fall, when the land around Spencer Lake in Maine’s Unorganized Territory was bought by Colorado billionaire John Malone, prompted Morrison to submit the bill.

Malone told the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in January that the public could use his 15,000 acres for recreational purposes, as long as his land is treated properly, but Morrison said he still wants the Legislature to take action to prevent any private party or government agency from buying up Maine’s inland waters and denying access.

Morrison also pointed to the example that occurred in Millinocket, where the Fin and Feather Club had an agreement to be able to use lands owned by Bowater Inc. for recreational use without resident day-use fees. In 1999, Bowater, which owned Great Northern Paper Co. at the time, sold 656,000 acres of its land to Wagner Forest Management Ltd., and the new owner nullified the agreement and imposed day use fees.

Abby Holman of the Maine Forest Products Council opposed LD 514, because, she said, Maine’s 10 million acres of working forest are already open to the public.

“The sponsor of this bill calls this land ‘wild land,’ but what we have is forestland,” Holman said. “Most of it is on its third or fourth harvest. The land is still open for public access.”

The bill concerning free access to waters stocked by the state, LD 825, has a long history of being defeated, but its sponsor, Rep. Joe Clark, D-Millinocket, said he would continue to submit it. Clark said stocked fish that are paid for by tax dollars should be accessible to fishermen without the cost of gate fees, however minimal.

“Let’s see, I’ve been here five years. My father was here 16 years. So for 21 years this bill has been before this committee in one form or another,” Clark said.

As in the past, the bill met with opposition from DIF&W. The department’s Deputy Commissioner Fred Hurley said the bill would mean that fewer water bodies would be stocked. As it is, many waters that DIF&W stocks are on private land and can be reached only by paying a gate fee to large corporations. Hurley said the stocking program in these cases remains worthwhile.

“As long as the public has reasonable and legal access, we stock waters,” Hurley said. “If those waters are no longer stocked, that will deny opportunity to a large number of Maine anglers.”

Hurley did support LD 742, which is sponsored by Matt Dunlap, D-Old Town. It would provide fishing access signs. So did the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, which asked Dunlap to sponsor the bill. SAM executive director George Smith said he would like to see signs “like they have in Montana.”

Others on the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee wondered how necessary such signs were when DIF&W already posts smaller signs around the state.

“Are you positive those signs in Montana weren’t tourist signs pointing in the wrong direction?” committee chair Sen. Dave Carpenter, R-York, quipped.

“They worked for me,” Smith said.

Deirdre Fleming covers outdoor sports and recreation for the NEWS. She can be reached at 990-8250 or at dfleming@bangordailynews.net.