State Museum and Library host evening focused on Maine sporting camps

book cover                My book, titled Maine Sporting Camps, was published in May, with my hope that it will encourage readers to visit sporting camps on a regular basis for the very best outdoor experiences.

On Wednesday night, November 16, at 6:30 pm, I’ll be talking about the book and the history of our sporting camps at the Maine State Library in Augusta, an event hosted by the Kennebec Historical Society. Beginning at 5:30 pm the state museum will be open so attendees can see their amazing exhibit of historical firearms. I do hope you can join us.

When Michael Steere of Down East Books contacted me two years ago to ask if I’d like to write a book about Maine sporting camps, it didn’t take long to say yes. It was a great experience for me. I learned a lot, visited some wonderful camps, and even got involved in key issues of concern to sporting camp owners.

One of the things I learned, from the Maine Sporting Camp Heritage Foundation is that, “In 1904 there were at least 300 sporting camps in operation in Maine. By 2007, this number had dwindled to fewer than 40.”

I asked the owners of Maine’s sporting camps to tell me about their challenges and boy, did I get an earful. Right at the top of the list was the loss of hunters and anglers, with the blame being cast widely to everything from coyotes to loss of habitat to poor fisheries and wildlife management. The loss of deer hunters over the last five years has been particularly painful. Deer nearly disappeared in western and northern Maine after two tough winters, and our failure to protect critical deer wintering areas was a key factor.

Camp owners listed lots of challenges, including taxes and regulations, described by one camp owner as, “death by a thousand cuts.” Getting and keeping good staff (and not just at the remote camps) was a major problem. The cost and complexity of insurance was mentioned by many, as was rising food and other prices. A lack of advertising and marketing was high on many lists, one camp owner noting that “the state of Maine is focused more on the coastal areas for marketing of tourism and travel.” That’s true, but it’s caused by the fact that tourists want to visit the coast, and the state’s limited dollars must be used to let tourists know we have what they are looking for. And sadly, they are not looking to hunt and fish here.

Quite a few mentioned competition from online businesses that market private camps for rent, noting that those camp owners are not governed by the same taxes and rules. That issue was raised at the legislature this year but no action was taken. Others pointed to nearby development or logging that changed the experiences at their camps. And one camp owner blamed his problems on Democrats!

Many camp owners complained about technology. “The biggest (challenge) is technology,” one wrote. “We are a rustic sporting camp. We live in a time where most people are too caught up in their electronic devices… Here we believe that a vacation is a time to remove yourself from all of that craziness – from the things that cause stress and headaches.”

You can set aside all the stress in your life by visiting a traditional Maine sporting camp. And I’ll guarantee one thing: You won’t want to leave!

 

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.