Last week, Maine’s top wardens spent a day learning how to implement their new community policing program, which will be aimed at finding ways to stop reckless snowmobile riders. Now they will take the first step in implementing that program.

Next week in Presque Isle, Rangeley and Greenville, Maine Wardens will work with invited members of the public to come up with ways to reduce the high incidents of alcohol-related snowmobile accidents. Then the wardens will ask the public to help them implement the new policing program, which is modeled on one used in Wisconsin.

“Fifty percent of our snowmobile fatalities are now caused by alcohol,” Lt. Pat Dorian said.

The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife received a grant of $4,845 from the Department of Public Safety to reduce alcohol- and drug-related snowmobile accidents through the community policing program.

Dorian said the program offers a “new twist to an old problem.”

At the meeting in his region in Greenville, teachers, bartenders, high school students and snowmobile club representatives will come up with ways to help change the perception of drinking and riding snowmobiles, Dorian said.

In Wisconsin, wardens have used community volunteers to stop poachers on Lake Winnebago by implementing a “sturgeon watch,” where people actively look for poachers targeting the valuable game fish.

Maine wardens hope people here will get involved to stop reckless snowmobile drivers.

“We’ll see if they come up with new and unique ideas. We’ll touch base with them if nothing else,” Dorian said.

Schoodic derby more than scrapes by

While ice fishing derbies around the state were canceled or barely scraping by in terms of tickets sold and fish caught during this mild winter, this was not the case in Piscataquis County.

The state’s oldest ice fishing derby at Schoodic Lake Feb. 16-17 had one of the largest turnouts, the most fish ever caught, and some of the biggest fish caught in the event’s 40-year history, according to director Murrel Harris.

About 4,000 people participated in the Schoodic Lake Ice Fishing Derby and 1,016 fish were caught, mostly because of the good weather, Harris said.

Last year, there were about 1,500 people registered and 562 fish caught.

“Some people said it looked like a small city out there,” Harris said of the 2002 turnout.

The largest salmon weighed 6 pounds, 11 ounces; the biggest togue weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces, and there were two brook trout caught that each weighed 2 pounds, 1 ounce.

Harris said you can never tell how a derby will turn out until the weekend. Two weeks ago, there was not the two feet of ice covering Schoodic, Ebeemee and Sebois lakes that there was by derby time. And Harris said that two days before the event, people were calling area merchants to see if it was canceled.

The lack of ice early on and the fact that the second Windham Rotary Ice Fishing Derby at Sebago Lake scheduled for this weekend was canceled, made the Schoodic derby suspect. There was not enough ice on 28,000-acre Sebago Lake to hold the derby, which was expected to draw 3,000 fishermen.

Elsewhere in the state, though the fourth Grand Lake Stream Ice Derby was held Jan. 26-27, the event had a low turnout with 400 tickets sold, just half of the 800 sold the first year, said derby director Buck Plummer.

Still, fishermen came from far afield.

There were 11 participants from out of state and more than 50 from the Bangor area or farther south, Plummer said.

The fish caught in the derby were not exceptional, with the first-place salmon weighing 3 pounds, the largest togue weighing 10 pounds, 14 ounces; and the biggest brook trout weighing 1 pound, 8 ounces.

Solutions offered for DIF&W

While the Joint Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife wrestles with a bill that would raise license fees in order to help fund DIF&W, many sportsmen have offered alternative ideas. And few have come forward with as many suggestions as George Smith, executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine.

At the committee’s first work session on the bill aimed at stabilizing funding for DIF&W, Smith presented a list of 27 ideas.

Some of Smith’s ideas for raising funds for the department were old ones, such as the proposals for creating a sportsmen’s license plate, allowing Sunday hunting (like 42 other states), restoring a spring bear hunt, or eliminating the “Maine-residents only day” that kicks off deer season.

However, some of Smith’s ideas were new ones that could get a second look by legislators, such as:

. Charging the public for the review of commercial development permit applications, rather than providing the service for free.

. Promoting the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray through L.L. Bean.

. Charging a registration fee for anyone using a vehicle or boat on public lands or waters.

. Offering a dove hunt.

Co-chair of the committee, Rep. Matt Dunlap, D-Old Town, said charging for permit applications was the most plausible of Smith’s ideas, but even that needed a careful look. Dunlap said his committee would not want to discourage the public from utilizing DIF&W.

He said some of the other ideas were not plausible, like creating a dove hunt or using L.L. Bean to promote the Wildlife Park.

“L.L. Bean wouldn’t be interested,” he said. “It doesn’t give the Maine guides a break on equipment, and it uses the ‘Maine Guide,’ on its gear as a promotion.”

Fisheries review moves forward

The independent review of the DIF&W fisheries division that is to take place this year is moving forward.

DIF&W Commissioner Lee Perry recently selected a five-member steering committee that will meet in March to discuss hiring an outside agency to conduct the review. The members of that committee are from a wide range of interests, representing hunters and non-hunters alike.

Those members are Dennis Smith of SAM, retired fisheries biologist Vaughn Anthony, Jeff Reardon with Trout Unlimited, Susan Hitchcox of Maine Audubon, and Skip Trask, representing the Maine Guides Association.

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