Coming to terms with SAM and the Smith factor

There is no disputing the fact that the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine has proven over the years to be an effective voice for its constituents. Some media pundits have even gone so far as to identify SAM as a powerful lobbyist for Maine sportsmen.

As with any organization that involves people and politics, SAM has also had its setbacks and less than exemplary moments. A few years back, SAM nearly self-destructed when a faction of its board of directors failed to oust executive director George Smith. The faction of angry directors, instead of fighting on, resigned en masse in a self-indulgent gesture of protest. An attempt by the faction to seek legal redress through the courts was eventually dropped.

Smith, who has proven himself to be adroit at power politics, has worked tirelessly for SAM. He has either a) skillfully handpicked a rubber stamp board of directors that is perfectly willing to supplicate itself to its hired director, or b) Smith has genuinely earned the respect of his board and membership who trust him to establish the organization’s program priorities and set the tone.

Whichever the case, SAM as a voice for sportsmen, needs to engage in some serious reflection and self-evaluation. Of late, SAM’s public persona and a number of policy positions bring to mind Lord Acton’s famous admonition: “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Or, as one respected Maine Guide and outfitter, who is a former SAM member put it, “Smith is getting too big for his britches.”

A case in point is the recent SAM Congress, an annual SAM-sponsored gathering in Augusta billed as an annual outdoor forum for encouraging dialogue over significant fish and wildlife issues. As with other past congresses put on by SAM, this year’s gathering was more a running of the gantlet by Department of Fish and Wildlife staffers than a constructive exchange of ideas. According to the Bangor Daily News, “SAM’s executive director George Smith, led the charge against the fisheries division … Smith was relentless in his criticism.”

Each year the Fisheries and Wildlife staff is invited to serve as SAM’s main attraction at the Congress. And, like clockwork, the Fish and Wildlife folks show up only to be skewered royally by George Smith. Sheep being led to the slaughter – the price of public service.

While it can be argued that Maine’s sport fishery needs upgrading, Smith’s agenda and his approach is more complex than simply a wish to improve fishing in Maine. It is no doubt grounded in the same cynical motivations that seems to energize so many of Smith’s (SAM’s) public positions. Smith has developed the cynical art of creating controversy and then exploiting it for his own ends. Over the years, under Smith’s tutelage, SAM has capitalized on highly visible and controversial fish and wildlife issues to gin up SAM’s public visibility and thus attract new members.

A few years ago, SAM seized upon some shortcomings with the Maine Warden Service and fanned the fires of discontent until the issue loomed as a major public relations conflagration. SAM then used the issue to draw attention to itself, attract expanded membership and take credit for resolution of the problem. Equally cynical was SAM’s refusal to back a deserving pro-gun, pro-sportsmen congressional candidate merely because of Smith’s perception that the candidate’s polling numbers were not encouraging!

SAM has also lost a lot of respect among a number of Maine professional outdoor organizations as a direct result of its hardline positions on issues that pit natural resource protection against unfettered consumptive use. SAM’s positions on boat access at John’s Bridge and jurisdiction in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, not to mention the fall fishing question, hardly seem consistent with an organization that purports to be a “voice for sport conservation in Maine.”

The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine has not outlived its usefulness. It has been and can continue to be a rational, and effective voice of reason for the Maine sportsmen. But its leadership – specifically its board of directors – must, if it is worth its salt, assert its pre-eminence and strive to get beyond the political manipulation and cynicism that seems increasingly to undermine the integrity of Maine’s largest sportsmen’s organization.

V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program, “Maine Outdoors,” heard Sundays at 6 p.m. on 103.9, and former information officer for the Maine Department of Fisheries and Wildlife.