BANGOR (AP) – With the blessing of state game officials, the Izaak Walton League is pushing ahead with a plan to boost the image of hunters by developing a “master hunter” certification based on testing in various skills.

The goal is to have the first master hunters certified in time for the fall 2005 deer season, said Debi Davidson of Wayne, president of the local unit of the national hunting, fishing and conservation group.

Hunters seeking the designation would be tested in such areas as wildlife biology, laws and ethics, and shooting proficiency.

“If you just try to influence the image without improving the hunter, that’s just window dressing,” Davidson said. “We want the image of hunters to be changed through actions.”

Davidson and other members of the league met with the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and Maine Warden Service late last week to pitch the idea. “We got the green light,” Davidson said.

Maj. Tom Santaguida, who will take over leadership of the Maine Warden Service next month, pledged to support the effort but cautioned that the state had only limited resources it can offer.

The idea also was welcomed by George Smith of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine.

Davidson hopes that many of the state’s experienced hunting guides and other leaders will pursue certification, but said that even for them it shouldn’t come easy.

“We want to keep the bar raised high enough that not just anybody can be a master hunter,” Davidson said.

Washington state has had a similar program in place since 1992. Although 7,750 people have started the program to date, only 1,700 have actually been certified. That’s less than 3 percent of the total Washington hunting population of about 275,000 people, said Mik Mikitik, hunter education administrator for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Mikitik founded his state’s program to help create a means for hunters to prove their responsibility and perhaps combat the trend toward landowners posting their property against hunting.

Twelve years later, he said, several landowners have allowed master hunters to use their posted land. That has slowly improved relations and opens the door to other hunters, according to Mikitik. “When it spreads over time, these individual impressions have a collective influence,” he said.

In Maine, Davidson hopes master hunters can help stem the rapid closing of land all over the state. But she doesn’t expect master hunters to get special privileges.

“In no way do we want it to be an elite program,” she said. “This is a way for hunters to give back to their sport.”

AP-ES-06-10-04 0217EDT