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Membership News - June 5, 2009

Protecting Guides for 30 Years
1979-2009

1. MPGA Meetings:

• Board of Directors - Sunday, July 26, 2009 at 9:00 AM. Location is the Holiday Inn on Odlin Road in Bangor.
• Board of Directors - Sunday, August 23, 2009 at 9:00 AM. Location is the Holiday Inn on Odlin Road in Bangor.
• Board of Directors - Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 9:00 AM. Location is the Holiday Inn on Odlin Road in Bangor.

Members are welcome to attend all Board meetings.

2. Sales Tax on Guide Services:

MPGA opposes expanding the sales tax to include guide services and continues to work against it. If you wish to do something, call your State Representative and Senator (contact info is at http://maine.gov/legis/house/townlist.htm) and express your concern (Note: emails to legislators are often not effective).

Also, send an email to the Governor and express objection to any bill that taxes the services of guides, explaining briefly how this change would adversely affect you, and urge the Governor to oppose any legislation that includes this change.

Governor's Mailing Address:

Office of the Governor
#1 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0001
Phone: 207-287-3531

Governors Contact Form:

http://www.maine.gov/governor/baldacci/contact/citizen_services/share_views.html

Info on the bill that would tax guide services is available at: LD 1088.

3. Controlled Moose Hunt Info:

There will be a controlled moose hunt in Aroostook County in response to farmers' concerns about crop damage and to address the increasing incidence of moose/vehicle collisions along Routes 1 and 161.

As of June 3rd, 400 guides had filled out IF&W's application to be in the drawing. Only fifteen guides will be drawn, plus runners up in case some of the winners drop out. Each guide will receive three permits.

The hunt will occur between August 17 and September 19, 2009, and will be located in the towns of Limestone, Caribou, Woodland, Presque Isle, Fort Fairfield, Washburn, Westfield, Easton and Connor Twp. A total of 100 permits will be issued. Permit fees are $52 for residents and $477 for nonresidents.

Permits Allocated to Guides

Up to forty-five moose hunting permits will be issued to fifteen registered Maine guides. Each selected guide will receive three moose permits, one permit for each of three permittee's, who will be chosen at the discretion of the guide.

Guides who receive permits are required to guide their permittee's in agricultural areas designated by the Department within the 9 towns open to hunting, and to work closely and professionally with landowners. Of the three moose hunting permits issued to guides, 1 permit will be an any-moose permit, and 2 permits will be antlerless-only permits. Selected guides will not be eligible to personally possess or use any moose hunting permit issued for the hunt.

Each guide selected by lottery must attend a training session conducted by the Department on June 24, 2009 from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in Room 201 of the Christie Building at Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle before being issued the moose hunting permits. A guide who fails to attend the required training session will forfeit the permits; forfeited permits will be issued in turn to guides who were runner-ups in the lottery.

Application Procedure

Applications are only on-line, and must be completed by 11:59 pm (ET) on June 14, 2009.

The winners will be drawn on June 15. Winning guides will receive a letter indicating a requirement to attend a 3-hour training session offered by the Department. Upon completion of the training session, guides will be given a deadline for responding with the appropriate permit fees, and names, contact information, and hunting license numbers of each of their three permittee's.

If you are an eligible guide and wish to apply for a permit, you may do so at:

http://www.state.me.us/ifw/licenses_permits/lotteries/moose/controlledhunt.htm

4. Soft Plastic Baits:

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IF&W) is strongly encouraging anglers to protect Maine's fish by changing from soft plastic lures to biodegradable and food-based lures, to not discard plastic lures into any waters, and to attempt to retrieve any soft plastic lures that have become unhooked.

As reported in previous MPGA newsletters, fisheries biologists are reporting increasing numbers of angled trout and salmon with undigested soft plastic lures in their stomachs. According to John Boland, IF&W Fisheries Division Director, a discarded soft plastic lure consumed innocently by a brook trout from the bottom of a freshwater shoal likely remains in that fish's stomach for the rest of its life and may cause health issues such as ulcers and weight loss.

Research

Soft plastic lures are most commonly used by bass anglers, often in waters shared with trout and salmon. IF&W is cooperating in studies on the effects of soft plastic lure ingestion by trout and salmon, including one recent experiment at Unity College, which was conducted by IF&W Pathologist Dr. Russ Danner, Unity College Professor Jim Chacko, PhD., and IF&W Fisheries Biologist Francis Brautigam, and in another study currently underway at Southern Maine Community College.

The study conducted at Unity College found that 65 percent of brook trout voluntarily consumed soft plastic lures if they simply were dropped into water. "We found that fish retained the lures in their stomachs for 13 weeks without regurgitating them," according to Dr. Danner. "They also began to act anorexic and lost weight within 90 days of eating a soft plastic lure. The fact that these lures are occupying space in a trout's stomach limits the amount of space available for natural food."

L.L.Bean Responds

After August 1, 2009, L.L.Bean Retail Stores will no longer offer traditional soft plastic lures and will only offer biodegradable alternatives. These will cost roughly the same, are just as effective and durable, and breakdown naturally in water within 60-90 days and within 30 days in a fish's stomach. The new assortment of biodegradable alternatives also closely mirror the broad assortment previously represented by the traditional soft plastics L.L.Bean was offering.

According to L.L.Bean representative and Maine guide Mac McKeever, "We began making plans to do this back in Fall 2008, but IF&W's study really reiterated the importance of doing it as quickly as possible. I hope that their fantastic study will inspire people to consider alternatives and spawn additional studies in other states. In concert, it is my hope that L.L.Bean will set a positive example by only offering biodegradable alternatives. We're doing it because we have had a long history of environmental benevolence. We're doing it because it's simply the right thing to do."

5. Events Committee Activity

The MPGA "Events Committee" will be at three special retail events in June.

• L.L.Bean in Freeport on Saturday and Sunday, June 6 & 7 for the PaddleSports Festival.
• "Spring Running" on Saturday, June13 at Old Fort Western, and at the East Side Boat Launch, in downtown Augusta.
• Kittery Trading Post on Saturday and Sunday, June 27 & 28 for JuneFest.

Help is still needed at the Spring Running event in Augusta to staff our display and represent MPGA. We will be selling raffle tickets and talking with non-member guides about our new membership campaign.

The Events Committee also needs guides to become regular MPGA speakers and representatives at future events. Please let us know about your specialty. This is a great chance for some public exposure.

Please contact Don Dudley at ddudley@hughes.net if you are able to help or would like more information:

Visit the MPGA Website for more news and info.