At the first North American whitetail summit held last March in Missouri, stakeholder groups were charged with identifying issues they felt most threatened the future of deer hunting. Among the top was access or, more precisely, lack thereof. It’s hardly news.

In 1993, then-Gov. John McKernan formed a landowner/sportsmen relations council, which led to creation of a landowner relations specialist position in the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Since then the position has gone through several iterations from full time to part time and back.

Maine Warden Service Corp. Rick LaFlamme took the position in May, saying “I started by trying to build relationships between user groups and landowner groups, hoping to build back a rapport between us and outfits that felt we let them down.”

Much of the groundwork was laid with meetings with groups like the Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine, Maine Farm Bureau, Maine Snowmobilers Association, North Maine Woods, Maine Professional Guides Association and the Landowner/Sportman Advisory Board. Next came meetings with Maine Warden Service staff.

“We were trying to identify the common problems and what we can do as an agency to help strengthen relationships,” said LaFlamme.

Then there were more meetings, directly with landowners.

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“I covered the state from top to bottom,” LaFlamme said.

Numerous issues were identified but three stood out in the eyes of landowners.

“Litter was their biggest pet peeve,” said LaFlamme, “having to deal with all the trash left behind by others.”

Next was destruction of property that included trucks and ATVs mudding up roads and damaging crops. Third was a general lack of respect, not asking for permission or saying thank you.

Working with IFW Commissioner Chandler Woodcock and Maine Warden Service Col. Joel Wilkinson on the information collected, LaFlamme came up with three action items. One was a PR campaign that started with a letter by LaFlamme in this year’s hunting lawbook. Paraphrasing what he’d written in the letter, LaFlamme emphasized, “We need to start treating landowners as friends and partners or the way of life we’re familiar with will soon be over.” Public service announcements will be cycled around each user season with a recurring message: If you like to recreate in Maine, thank a landowner.

Consistent with the partnership concept, IFW is also working with stakeholders including SWOAM, MSA and the forest products industry to distribute bright orange trash bags that will bear the logos of cooperating partners as well as the motto: “Thank a landowner, pick it up.”

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Last but certainly not least, IFW is deploying landowner relations relief kits to what LaFlamme refers to as “boots on the ground,” the wardens in the field. With the help of sponsors like Cabela’s, Kittery Trading Post and L.L. Bean, IFW has already deployed 30 kits, and LaFlamme hopes that all wardens and supervisors will have one by late 2014.

“We believe these kits will solve 90 percent of landowner’s problems immediately,” said LaFlamme. The kits contain a variety of items including surveillance cameras, cables and padlocks, paint, staples, tape and an array of signs including “Access by Permission Only,” “No ATVs” and “Safety Zone,” to name just a few.

“The idea is that a warden responds to a service call from a landowner, takes out the kit and asks ‘What can we do to solve your problem right now?’ If we have what it takes in the kit, we’ll give it to the landowner.”

Meanwhile, those boots on the ground are doing their part in other ways. “From January to now we’ve had 400 documented landowner-related calls that wardens responded to and resolved in various ways,” said LaFlamme.

The task at hand represents a paradigm shift in the way land users recognize and respect landowners.

“Ninety-four percent of the land in Maine is privately owned. Land users need to understand that using that land is not a right, it’s a privilege. They need to start treating landowners as friends or the way of life we’re familiar with will be over,” he reiterated.

LaFlamme would like to see the outdoor partners program continue to grow. “We need to get local clubs to take some ownership in their towns in promoting this,” he said. “Anyone who uses the land, hikers, hunters – it doesn’t matter; you have to become a partner if you want to continue to be able to recreate in Maine.”

Bob Humphrey is a freelance writer and registered Maine guide who lives in Pownal. He can be reached at:

bhunt@maine.rr.com


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