Hunting Works for Maine launches its new organization

logoFrom sporting goods stores to sporting camps and gas stations to country cafes, Maine hunters provide an important economic boost to thousands of businesses statewide. And that’s just part of the story you’ll be hearing from a new organization, Hunting Works for Maine.

Supported by national organizations including the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the Hunting Works initiative has been launched in 11 states, Maine being the 11th to join this important effort. Washington will be number twelve when Hunting Works in Washington kicks off later this month.

Rob Sexton, a national consultant who provided important advice and help in Maine’s 2004 and 2014 bear referendums, is organizing Hunting Works for Maine after spending two years building a very successful program in Pennsylvania. Rob has recruited chairs, organized an initial press conference, and already attracted more than 50 partners for Hunting Works for Maine.

The three chairs of this effort are Gary Hilliard, a businessman and legislator, Paul Reynolds, publisher of the Northwoods Journal, and Clay Tranten, a third-generation owner of grocery and convenience stores in the Kingfield and Farmington area.

At their July 21 press conference, Hilliard said, “As an entrepreneur and a small business owner, I have experienced firsthand the impact of a busy hunting season. I am excited to be a co-chair because I love hunting but also because I want to meet and talk with other stakeholders, so together we can educate the people of Maine about the many benefits hunting and shooting bring to our economy.”

That’s a pretty good summary of the organization’s central mission, focused on educating both the business community and the public about the positive impacts of hunting in our state, but the group will also play an important role in monitoring public policy discussions and decisions on hunting-related issues, and will keep its partners informed and active in those debates and processes.

There is certainly a good story to tell. At the press conference, the chairs reported that 181,000 people hunt in Maine each year, including 40,000 nonresidents, spending $213 million and supporting 4,000 jobs. And that’s not the whole story, because through our purchases of hunting licenses and permits, and payment of federal excise taxes on our equipment, we provide much of the money that funds the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s work to protect, manage, and sustain wildlife habitat and all the critters that live there – including those that we don’t hunt.

Perhaps this effort will finally convince the public – and Maine legislators – that public dollars should also go to DIF&W to help with this effort! We have had little success in that effort over the years, even though the public thinks some of their tax dollars goes to DIF&W and wants that to happen.

Hunting Works for Maine is focused initially on recruiting partners from the business community and hunting and shooting organizations. Participation is free and can be initiated by emailing info@huntingworksforme.com to alert Rob to your interest and receive additional information. As a partner, you will be alerted to important issues and opportunities, provided posters for your place of business, and offered opportunities to help sustain and build our hunting economy.

To get you started, I have posted “Frequently Asked Questions” about Hunting Works for Maine on my website, www.georgesmithmaine.com, in the Outdoor News section, and you can access that information here. Do it now!

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.