The uncertain financial future of Maine’s fish and game department has state officials, legislators, and sportsmen puzzled. It is an issue that comes up in talk in trading posts and one that is being discussed at public hearings around the state this fall.

“Other states charge people more [for licenses] to bring money into conservation efforts. If it were me, I would charge nonresidents more, and raffle off more moose permits. The community is going to benefit,” said Mark Root of Ellsworth, a member of the U.S. Coast Guard and a Registered Maine Guide. He brought up the issue while discussing his moose hunt this week in Houlton.

To address the impending budgetary shortfall, the Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is holding three public hearings around the state on fee increases and to explain the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s budgetary woes.

DIF&W is a largely self-funded agency with revenue coming primarily from fishing and hunting license sales. It also receives federal money from an excise tax on hunting and fishing equipment.

But projected expenses for 2004 and 2005 will exceed revenue by just over $8 million, according to DIF&W.

Input from the public meeting will be used by the Legislature next session to determine how to help the department. The first meeting was held in Sanford a week ago. The next will be held at 6 p.m. on Oct. 24 at Ellsworth City Hall, while the last will be held in November in Presque Isle.

Rep. Matt Dunlap, D-Old Town, the committee’s co-chair, said people at the Sanford meeting expressed an interest in new programs and more youth activities, but wanted to provide these without increasing fees or by cutting department personnel, and he said that’s not possible.

DIF&W’s mission is to protect the state’s fish and game resources, but the benefits extend beyond those enjoyed by fishermen and hunters. According to a 1996 University of Maine study, fishing, hunting, and wildlife watching produced $1.1 billion annually.

AT board to fight commercialism

Members of the Appalachian Trail Conference say that the trail has become overrun with advertisements.

In many states from Georgia to Maine, businesses have put up colorful signs along the trail and even gone so far as to blaze side trails to their doorsteps.

In Maine, the state’s Appalachian Trail Club has discouraged businesses from advertising, but MATC board member Dave Field said more fliers and business cards are found on trees and signs at trail heads than there were 10 years ago.

Field, a University of Maine professor and chair emeritus of the ATC in Harpers Ferry, W. Va., said there are arguments both ways for businesses being allowed to advertise. He said the ATC does not want to mandate the kind of experience hikers should have, but it does want to preserve the resources along the trail, and advertisements have littered the path.

Field said when the trail was completed in Maine on Aug. 14, 1937, it wound through sporting camps from the Kennebec River to Katahdin. The trail experience here has changed since the path was moved farther in the woods.

At the same time, Field said there are more hikers passing through trail communities such as Rangeley, Millinocket, and Monson, and many local businesses want to cash in on that.

“It’s a bigger issue today. Obviously, if people see an advantage to advertising, there must be a fair amount of business,” Field said. “It comes down to what is the most unobtrusive way of giving people the opportunity to know what is off the trail.”

Because the corridor around the trail is a national park, advertising is banned. But what is not clear is if fliers are prohibited. The ATC, which oversees the 2,167-mile trail, plans to define more clearly what is understood as advertising when it meets in November.

Moosehorn welcomes hunters

The Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge in Baring will be open to deer hunting during the regular firearms and muzzleloader seasons.

Maurry Mills, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said there are generally six or eight deer killed in the hunt on the 25,000-acre refuge annually.

Mills said the refuge needs some deer killed to keep the population in check. While the deer herd in Washington County is not as dense as it is elsewhere in the state, Mills said when deer on the refuge are not taken during the hunt, they destroy the habitat for woodcock and other birds by overbrowsing.

The refuge will be open to deer hunting from Oct. 27, when firearm season begins with Maine Resident Only Day, to Nov. 24; and then for the special muzzleloader season from Nov. 26 to Dec. 1.

All deer bagged must be checked by refuge personnel and may be weighed and examined to help state biologists assess the herd.

The refuge is open one half hour before sunrise and closes one half hour after sunset. Hunters are not required to have an access permit.

More opportunities to fall fish

Fall fishermen should note that the waters where fishing was extended in October and November this year are not in the 2000-2001 fishing regulation book, because the new ponds and lakes were added in May.

You can get a copy of the list by calling DIF&W at 990-8000, or by accessing the Web site at: http://www.state.me.us/ifw/fish/extendedwateres.htm.

The last fishing report put out by state biologists in September reported continued slow fishing through the month due to the warm weather and extended drought. In the Moosehead Lake Region, for example, the surface water temperature remained in the mid to low 60s. As of Friday, surface temperatures of waters in the region were still in the low 60s.

So as the temperature drops in the next few weeks, the extended fall fishing in eastern Maine can only get better.

Deirdre Fleming’s outdoor notebook appears every Saturday. She can be reached at 990-8250 or at dfleming@bangordailynews.net.