Considering the controversy over the Maine Warden Service in the last legislative session, it’s encouraging to see the agency taking steps absent crisis to shore up its public image.

The wardens, whom some have claimed are too aggressive in the field, are circulating a survey to 2,000 randomly chosen Maine drivers. In conjunction with Unity College, additional surveys will be handed out and conducted by college students.

The survey asks questions from whether people hunt, fish, trap, boat or snowmobile, to whether any dealings participants have had with the Warden Service were positive or negative. The answers such a survey can provide to the wardens will be no doubt be useful, but especially so if the service both shares the results with the public and takes them to heart when forming new policies.

The extensive debate in the Legislature over the Warden Service came because many hunters and fishermen questioned the credibility of the service. They did not like its internal review process and wanted to curtail its authority. And while some of that mistrust was surely undeserved, it took two factors to create it: a perception and its reinforcement. The service was candid last winter about these problems and seems determined to overcome them.

The survey could be the first step toward bringing it back into favorable eye with most sportsmen. At the very least, it would better define the public’s perception of the agency and point to specific ways to improve service. That may seem like a small thing, but it could avoid a big fight the next time it appears before the Legislature.