The infant and anonymous entity that calls itself RESTORE-SAM, has begun what appears to be a campaign to solicit input from any concerned sportsmen, or citizens in general for that matter, on specific topic matters.
Earlier this month, I announced the formation of this group that insists it will remain anonymous while asking all curious sportsmen to only consider the issues that affect them most and not focus on who might be asking the questions or directing any discussions. This approach of anonymity has been controversial to say the least with some Maine sportsmen vowing to ignore RESTORE-SAM as they would have trouble with credibility.
I have to say that I have been one of those skeptical few but am determined to try to keep an open mind about the issue.
Within a few days of RESTORE-SAM making their announcement at the New England Outdoor Voice website, the debate over their purpose and effectiveness highlighted a few hunting and fishing message boards as well as become the topic of at least one Maine newspaper outdoor writer, Ken Allen.
With the controversy stirring heated debate in places where more heated debate wasn’t needed, it appeared that RESTORE-SAM wasn’t properly prepared to deal with the consequences of laying claim to want to bring the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine back to its roots.
On April 9th, only about 3 days after their announcement, I criticized the efforts of RESTORE-SAM in an article by stating that they have no means of communicating quickly and effectively with the masses of Maine sportsmen looking for answers. They still don’t.
It’s now 2 weeks since I wrote that article and only now has RESTORE-SAM awakened again in quest of input from Maine sportsmen. I found a post this morning again at New England Outdoor Voice from R-S, inviting members there to offer input to a specific issue that has faced Maine hunters for the past 30 years.
The post at the message board states the following.
Over the coming weeks and months we will be collecting information and opinion from the visitors to the website with the objective of writing a SAM Management Assessment Report (SMART) by this fall. The first subject we propose for debate is Sunday Hunting. Thank you to those that have sent in comments and ideas. Keep them coming. We will begin by asking the following question.
With SAM’s apparent failure to once again enact Sunday Hunting, do you think it is in the best interest of SAM members for SAM to continue to push for Sunday Hunting?
We have posted new content that can be found at: http://www.restore-sam.com/sunhunt.html or as a link from our main page http://www.restore-sam.com
restoresam
A quick trip over to the R-S website and they expound a bit more on the issue of Sunday Hunting and how the repeated attempts, 26 out of the last 30 years according to R-S, to enact a law allowing Sunday Hunting by SAM has hurt Maine’s hunting image and resulted in more land closures.
There have been 26 legislative attempts in the last 30 years to enact Sunday hunting. Each time it has been submitted for consideration, it has been rejected by the legislature. Statewide polls and surveys indicate that the majority of Mainers are opposed to Sunday Hunting. Many Mainers and specifically land owners strongly oppose the idea of Sunday Hunting.
We want to encourage the Sportsman Alliance of Maine to stop submitting Sunday Hunting legislation unless new statewide survey data indicates a shift in Maine viewpoints. The persistent efforts of the Sportsman Alliance of Maine have furthered the divide between hunters, landowners and non-hunting outdoors people. This has resulted in an increase in the amount of posted land in Maine and a loss of hunting opportunity for Mainers.
The continual pushing of Sunday Hunting as an issue is not in the long term best interest of the Maine Sporting Community. By using discretion and knowing what fights to pick and what fights to avoid SAM will be better positioned as an effective lobbying organization in the future. Sunday Hunting is an example of using up precious political capitol on an issue that SAM should know is not going to happen unless average Mainers change their views.
What would make their effort more effective is if they could provide links to back up some of the claims they are making. One such claim is that “Statewide polls and surveys indicate that the majority of Mainers are opposed to Sunday Hunting”. A simple link to where that information came from would help sportsmen in making better decisions.
Another claim says, “The persistent efforts of the Sportsman Alliance of Maine have furthered the divide between hunters, landowners and non-hunting outdoors people. This has resulted in an increase in the amount of posted land in Maine and a loss of hunting opportunity for Mainers.”
I think it would be safe to say that it is the opinion of R-S that persistent efforts of SAM have created a divide. Once again though, they claim that this effort has resulted in posting of land and loss of hunting opportunity. If this is fact, they should provide the resource from where this came from. If not, we can only assume it to be of their opinion or belief. Of course they don’t need to but it would assist them in their struggle with credibility.
R-S, in choosing to remain anonymous in this effort, has to do everything it can to gain as much credibility with Maine sportsmen. To do that they should use as much documented facts to support issues. We all know that polls and questions can be worded in such ways as to influence the responses of those participating. Perhaps a better approach for R-S is to pose a question as they did today and provide a link to a fact-filled page supporting the reasons both for and against why a persistent effort on Sunday Hunting has proven to be bad for Maine.
I don’t intend to be critical. It is my intention as I said before, to keep an open mind. It is part of my commitment in what I do, to improve outdoor opportunities for all sportsmen. If this effort can do that, I’m all for it. If it is going to further divide the community, I’m against it. I am simply offering some suggestions.
If you are interested in offering some of your own suggestions, comments, observations, etc., click on this link. It will take you to the Sunday hunting question with a link to contact RESTORE-SAM.
*Previous Posts on RESTORE-SAM*
RESTORE-SAM Off To A Poor Start
Group Seeking To RESTORE-SAM (Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine)
Tom Remington
