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Membership News - July 21, 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. Events Committee Activity

Thanks to Wayne Dillon and Steve Wilcox for helping in June at the L.L.Bean PaddleSports Expo and to Steve Wilcox and Jeff Reese for helping at Kittery Trading Post's JuneFest. Both events were a big success.

The MPGA "Events Committee" will be at two events in August:

• L.L.Bean's "Moose Hunting Clinic" in Freeport on Saturday, August 15.
• L.L.Bean's "Fall Sports Expo" in Freeport on Saturday and Sunday, August 29-30.

And two events in September:

• Kittery Trading Post on Saturday and Sunday, September 26 & 27 to celebrate National Hunting & Fishing Day.
• L.L.Bean's "Hunting Expo" in Freeport on Saturday and Sunday, September 26 & 27 to celebrate National Hunting & Fishing Day. MPGA is sponsoring a "Deer Hunting" panel discussion on Saturday at 4:30 pm.

Trailblazer Adventure Sweepstakes

MPGA's Events Committee kicked off a special MPGA effort to help support the United States Sportsmen's Alliance by selling tickets to the USSA's "Trailblazer Adventure Sweepstakes."  First prize is $10,000 in cash or a two year lease on a new Toyota Tundra. Tickets are $5 each. Proceeds are split between the USSA and MPGA.

The Events Committee needs you to help sell these raffle tickets. Volunteer to help at our events or contact us for tickets and sell them to your clients and friends.

Please contact John Rust at john@maineguides.org if you are able to help or would like more information.

3. Events Committee needs Helpers in August

The MPGA "Events Committee" needs additional help at these two August events. Please let us know if you can help out.

1. L.L.Bean's "Moose Hunting Clinic"

We are still looking for several moose hunting experts to represent MPGA and answer visitors' questions about moose hunting. Saturday, August 15.

2. L.L.Bean's "Fall Sports Expo"

Helpers are needed on Saturday and Sunday, August 29-30, to staff our display, answer visitors' questions and to discuss the Association's activities and Maine Guides in particular.

Please contact John Rust at john@maineguides.org if you are able to help or would like more information.

4. Get Kids Involved - Join MPGA at the USSA's Trailblazer Adventure Program Charity Shoot on August 30

Please contact Jeff Bellmore at grtrips@adelphia.net if you are able to help or would like more information:

MPGA will participate in the "Trailblazer Adventure Program" charity fundraising event at Silverton Sporting Ranch in Canaan, on August 30. MPGA hopes to sponsor a five-man team for this sporting clays event. Team members, or their individual sponsors, are asked to contribute $200 each.

If you are a guide who owes much of your current business activities to the support Maine sportsmen have received from the United States Sportsmen's Alliance (USSA), then we hope you will join us at this event.

The Trailblazer Adventure Program was created by the United States Sportsmen's Alliance to help bring youth into the hunting and shooting sports. The USSA has actively supported Maine's sportsmen for many years. They provided a great deal of expertise, money and contacts that were so instrumental for winning the bear hunting referendum in 2004. The USSA has continued its efforts, and has again provided the expert attorneys to fight two anti-trapping lawsuits - one in 2008, and one in 2009. Without the USSA's support, guiding opportunities in Maine might be very different today.

5. Donate a Super Raffle Prize:

Donating a prize trip helps you sell tickets. Remember, you can win a custom engraved Marlin "Guide Gun" or L.L.Bean gift certificates when you sell Super Raffle tickets. Above all, the Super Raffle is our primary source of money that keeps MPGA active in Augusta.

Members who donate trips will have their prize info added to our Super Raffle website. Each donated trip is listed with a description and link to your own website.

Lock In Your Customer

If your customer wins a trip, MPGA wants them to return to your outfit! You can assure this by becoming a trip donor. It takes less than one minute to do this.

Contact Bert Goodman if you wish to donate a trip and need a Trip Donor Form - (207) 528-2320. Or simply CLICK HERE to download a Trip Donor form. PRINT it. Fill out the form by hand. Mail it immediately to:

John Rust
P.O. Box 459
Hampden, ME 04444

7. Guide License Requirement:

Under what circumstances must one have a guide's license? Aside from hunting, fishing, boating, snowmobiling or camping at an unimproved campsite, are there other activities where a paid person should have a guide's license? These are questions that haven't been fully discussed since the late 1980's.

As reported in our newsletter, MPGA has asked IF&W to discuss this issue and now that the latest Legislative session has ended the process will finally begin on July 27. Skip Trask, John Rust and Don Kleiner will participate in a review process along with IF&W, the Maine Warden Service, and other invited participants. We'll keep you up to date as we proceed.

6. Climate Change:

While most of us hope this summer's climate will change by bringing us some sunny weather, Maine's Governor and Legislature have already decided that Climate Change (aka "Global Warming") will have dire consequences unless the state starts doing something about it.

It is quite clear that, whether or not you believe the state's conclusion about dire consequences due to man made global warning, and whether or not you believe Maine can do anything to stop those changes, the Legislature is very likely to consider a variety of actions that will have definite impacts on our own lives, and possibly livelihoods.

In April 2009, the Legislature passed a Resolve directing the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to convene a stakeholder group to evaluate the options and actions available to Maine's people and businesses to prepare for, and adapt to, the most likely impacts of climate change. The DEP will submit its recommendations for how to respond to these changes to the Legislature in February, 2010.

The stakeholder group will build upon the climate impact assessment, "Maine's Climate Future," prepared by the University of Maine, which concluded that the climate is already changing in the state as a result of increased levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Even with the greenhouse gas reduction goals set forth in Maine's 2004 "Climate Action Plan," the report claims the state will see further changes in the years to come.

The stakeholder coordinating committee, which includes representatives of business, industry, and trade; public interest groups; and state agencies, has formed several working groups which will use detailed analysis, technical reports, and other documents to form recommendations for the committee, and ultimately the DEP, to consider. MPGA and many of our Natural Resource Network, outdoor recreation and Tourism partners are involved in the working groups. The second meeting of these working groups will be on July 27.

The DEP has provided access to documents, schedules, and other information related to the process and global warming at http://www.maine.gov/dep/oc/adapt/index.htm.

Visit the MPGA Website for more news and info.