Pay to play in snow

In his letter to the editor, “Don’t fund sled trails” (BDN, March 20), Jack Leeman says that he doesn’t see any reason for using Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife funds to police snowmobile trails. I wonder if he realizes that $8.14 of every $33 resident snowmobile registration goes to DIF&W? In fact, of the $33 we spend as residents to register our snowmobiles, only $13.24 actually goes to the Department of Conservation’s snowmobile trails account. This money is then distributed to snowmobile clubs around the state to maintain and groom roughly 13,000 miles of trails.

The House of Representatives recently passed LD 633, a bill that would raise resident registration fees by $2 and nonresident fees by $20 (of which DIF&W keeps $5). This will raise approximately $385,000 for the snowmobile trails account. It sounds like a good chunk of change, but in fact it won’t even cover the increase in fuel costs that clubs statewide have had to absorb.

Maine has the lowest snowmobile registration fees of any state or province in the Northeast. In fact, it is cheaper for residents of New Hampshire to register their sleds in Maine as nonresidents for the entire season ($68) than in their own state ($77). If LD 633 becomes law, this situation will change, but the resident snowmobiler will still be able to register a snowmobile for less than what it costs to fill the sled’s gas tank.

If the state is to continue providing quality riding, something more meaningful than a $2 increase on the resident side will have to take place. It’s time to face the fact that if you’re going to play, you’re going to have to pay.

Rick LeVasseur

Chairman, Maine Snowmobile Advisory Council

South Twin Lake