I am a gold dredger, and my wife and I go to Maine’s northwest mountains. There is a law (L.D. 1671) coming out of committee to ban dredging.

Who’s pushing this law? Trout Unlimited, the Rangeley Region Guides & Sportsmen’s Association and other such groups. They say we hurt brook trout and Atlantic salmon.

The scientific study that was provided to the Environment and Natural Resources Committee was mostly done in California. But I think California has no brook trout or Atlantic salmon in their rivers and streams, so how could the committee rely on these studies? We gold dredgers produced lots of evidence to the contrary.

I believe it’s not so much about the fish but that these groups just don’t want to share the rivers and streams of our great state. Oh, yes, they say they’ll give us a few streams somewhere else to dredge, but they have no gold in them. So why go?

These big groups have so much money they think they can push us right out of this state. So it makes me think, what group will be next on their radar?

Please contact your representatives and tell them to vote “no” on this bill, because bullying in any form should be against the law.

Mark Kindlimann

Lisbon


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