Maine will be losing some more streams to dredge with motors

[placertogo]

I had to explain the situation behind this sign to several deer and bird hunters last fall and winter and also to several turkey hunters this month. I told them all to contact their legislator in Augusta.

 

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[MadJack_ME]

Roy, GREAT sign!
I'll be making some up for my 123 acres soon.

 

[timberjack]

We had a chance of having this tossed out of emergency committe as we were just 2 votes short. BUT, the club in their infinate wisdom decided to try to play nice with trout unlimited and come to a comprmise...........big mistake!!! Hard to believe they laid down instead of fighting!! I still cant believe they ever thought that was a good move,,,well thats the f#$$/in u get for the f$÷%%€in you got!! Gpaa is not the miners friend at all.
T.u lies, cheats, and has amazing political influance. I was sitting next to t.u's mouthpiece in maine, jeff reardon at the meeting and he was chatting with with the chairman of the enviro commitee asking him why he missed the dinner at the club the night befor,,,,,,,you just cant make it up!
compound that with the 2 lying state bioligists that testified befor the commitee.........
Join a club? Probably not till amra or the p.l.p comes to maine
if your going to fight for your rights you needto FIGHT!

 

[placertogo]

Jack,
These goons in Augusta seem to listen to everyone except Maine people when making decisions on legislation. The State depends on significant revenue from hunting, fishing, and trapping licenses, registration fees on ATV's, boats, and snowmobiles, sales taxes on equipment, guns, ammo, fuel, etc. and various other sources of revenue from outdoor recreation. What they forget is that much of this recreation is done on private land by the good graces of landowners. Even much access to waterways is across private land, although the Great Ponds Act allows crossing private land to access a "great pond" which is a landbound waterway of ten acres or more. Basically, gold prospectors were left alone until Trout Unlimited came into Maine and started raising a ruckus. The Maine Legislature is finding out that Maine people are not quite as stupid as they think we are. A number of us gold prospectors also own tracts of land that we have traditionally allowed to be used by others for their outdoor recreational pursuits. Perhaps we have been "invisible" because we have been "good guys for too long." The State wants the revenue? Let the State provide the land.
Roy

 

[placertogo]

Timberjack,
I agree with you. Maine Gold Prospectors pretty much rolled over and played dead last year on this issue. The "powers that be" claimed that if we did not agree to something (several specific streams designated "non motorized"), we would have lost all streams. We had a pretty good membership from many walks of life and I felt that, collectively, we could defeat the measure. The club leadership wanted us to be all on the "same page" which was basically give Reardon and Trout Unlimited what they wanted and they would leave us alone. Well, I knew they were not going to leave us alone. By the way, one of the BIG supporters of Trout Unlimited in Maine is LL Bean. Incidentally, you mentioned the "2 lying state biologists." I retired in 2012 after 36 years of Maine State Service, 34+ as a Probation and Parole Officer, and I can tell you that Maine State Government is chock full of liars and the worse ones are in the higher positions of authority.
Roy

 

[timberjack]

When this issue comes up in the legislature agine i would like to be involved with a groupe that wants to try to actually win. There can be no comprimises and unlike what happened last time you have to call a spade a spade,,, none of "you cant say that",,,,,,,,and when a member of the enviromental commitee asks a dredger "are there certin rivers like the ripid river that are so special that theyshould not be dredged?" It might be helpful to say something like many studies and commom sense tell us dredging has a positive effect on fish habbitat" instead of "well the rapid river is sooo special it should not be dredged,,",at that point in the tesitmoney we had lost....and what we have today wasa foregone conclusion........imho

 

[KevinInColorado]

Trout Unlimited are rotten to the core and very hostile to us prospectors in Colorado. They convinced one county to let them put "fish friendly structures" in a stream and that we needed to be kept 100 feet away in either direction. Crazy. Their strategy is to put so many of these structures in (just big rocks really) that we are completely pushed out. Well, we are fighting back! Don't give them an inch or they'll literally take a mile!

 

[placertogo]

Kevin,
I agree with you totally. And Trout Unlimited totally ignores the fact that we remove toxins such as lead and mercury from the streams. Whenever I am asked why I have decided to post my 80 acres of land here in Maine, I tell people they can blame Trout Unlimited.
Roy

 

[Timberdoodle]

Being at every meeting and talking with the committee members gave more than enough insight that whatever the bill contained and was passed out of committee was very likely to pass the senate and house. Our supporters on the committee (few they were) were looking for some compromise on our part and while we were able to remove about 80% of the closure areas listed, we had to give in to some to get the list on the bill reduced to this level. Even PLP recommended we compromise with the legislature since there is no laws related to private property and most of Maine is privately owned. The decision to compromise was a hard one, we could have fought the fight and rolled the dice on whether it passed as written closing 95% of the gold areas in western Maine or rewrite the bill based on some compromise and limit our exposure to closed areas. Since the bill was even vetoed by the Governor but overwhelmingly overridden by the legislature I believe it was the right choice. If we had taken a hard stance, there is no doubt in my mind we would have lost it all. Are we happy with the outcome-NO! Have we lost some areas - Yes. We can all Monday night quarterback what happened last year. The real issue's are still ahead of us in preparing for next years battle.
Just for clarification - The biologists who sent in Letters included a retired state biologist and a Professor from the University of Maine - both have strong TU ties. Our talks with our current State biologists have been supportive and we want their input for the next session. Calling the wrong folk's liars needs to be corrected.
I wish more folks got involved in fighting this battle. We could use the help.

 

[placertogo]

In the meantime, if any Maine gold prospectors have property that has traditionally be used for purposes for which the State receives revenue(Hunting, fishing, trapping, snowmobiling, ATV's, etc.), please consider posting it with the comment that it is being posted in response to the Legislature putting the (screws) to us. Many outdoor sportsmen are already whining to the Legislature about posted land so let's use this to our advantage. (In other words: "Sportsmen, if you want our cooperation, how about going to bat for us for a change.")

 

[KRIKITTS]

View attachment 1163118 In the meantime, if any Maine gold prospectors have property that has traditionally be used for purposes for which the State receives revenue(Hunting, fishing, trapping, snowmobiling, ATV's, etc.), please consider posting it with the comment that it is being posted in response to the Legislature putting the (screws) to us. Many outdoor sportsmen are already whining to the Legislature about posted land so let's use this to our advantage. (In other words: "Sportsmen, if you want our cooperation, how about going to bat for us for a change.")

You can remind them that they'll be coming after them next...

 

[timberjack]

My apoligies, the fishiries bioligists had or are both employed by the university of maine,,my mistake,,,still state emploies ...their letters to the commite were stunning...but i digress