Game on | The new chief of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine targets the State House
Photo/Amber Waterman
Tim Bell, the new head of SAM, has worked closely with his predecessor, George Smith
Tim Bell admits he’s not much of a sportsman — a little alligator and boar hunting, the occasional spiny lobster catch — so it wasn’t Maine’s fauna that attracted the Florida resident to his new post as executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, one of the state’s largest advocacy groups.
“I just had to get out of Florida — I spent 25 years there — and I was ready for a new challenge in life,” says Bell, who worked as a legislative aide, lobbyist and fundraiser for politicians and a physicians’ group before coming to Maine.
During his job interview before SAM’s nine-member board, he decided to be upfront about his lack of skill with a scope and a reel. “I hoped my legislative and fundraising experience would make up the difference,” he says.
It did. Three hours after his interview, Bell was offered the post, which he assumed on Oct. 4. Since then, he has immersed himself in Maine politics and law, getting acquainted with the movers and shakers who form the state’s policies on natural resources, and picking the brain of George Smith, the colorful leader of SAM for the past 18 years. “George has been great, we talk every day,” says Bell of his predecessor. “He’s been instrumental in making SAM what it is.”
The 14,000-member sportsmen’s group lobbies to preserve Maine’s natural resources, especially for recreational uses such as hunting and fishing. The group works to preserve not only a traditional way of life, but the $2.4 billion contributed annually to Maine’s economy from people who enjoy outdoor activities.
“If you just look at hunting and fishing, there’s a $498 million impact on the state’s economy,” says Bell, citing license fees and a report in Northwoods Sporting Journal. “If you couple that with the 800,000 people who observe, feed or photograph wildlife, that’s another $1.3 billion. Combine that with hunting, fishing, kayakers, boaters, ATVers and others concerned about Maine’s outdoors … you get the $2.4 billion.” To maintain that industry, SAM is proposing a constitutional amendment to allot one-eighth of 1% of state sales tax revenue to a dedicated fund to sustain the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The initiative, which the group hopes will appear on a ballot in 2011 or 2012, is SAM’s top legislative priority.
“IF&W is underfunded and overworked,” says Bell, noting almost its entire budget stems from license sales. “We’re working with Audubon and The Nature Conservancy to put this out there.”
SAM is also encouraging the hunting of coyotes to protect Maine’s deer herds, which have thinned over the past two winters from predation, weather and diminishing habitat. It is seeking a $100,000 allocation to IF&W for a hunter education program to increase coyote kills. Bell says while fishing licenses rose 11% between 2003 and 2009, hunting licenses have leveled off, “which has a lot to do with the deer population.” Overall, Maine sporting licenses have risen 4.5% over that period. “Other destination states for fishing and hunting have seen drops of 20%; we’re in pretty good shape by comparison,” he says.
To help ensure support for SAM’s legislative priorities, Bell carries in his pocket a questionnaire filled out by Governor-elect Paul LePage indicating his support of SAM’s sales tax idea. But he acknowledges he doesn’t really need it to start a discussion in Augusta.
“I cut my political teeth in Florida, and Maine is nothing like Florida,” he says, noting the governor there once called state workers “lard bricks” and partisan fighting was vicious. “What I really love here is the access of state legislators. The senators actually answer their own phones. In Florida, it’s unheard of to list the home phone number of lawmakers on the state website. I keep telling myself I’m not in Kansas anymore.”
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