A listener called my Sunday night radio program, “Maine Outdoors,” this week with a statement and a question.

He apparently was a hunter who had returned to his native Maine after having lived elsewhere for a number of years. His words: “What has happened to Maine? I can’t believe it. There are no places left to hunt anymore. Old logging roads are blocked off with gates and rocks. No trespassing signs everywhere. We’ve got a problem.”

Truer words were never spoken. The Maine woods were once the most accessible in the country. What gives?

A letter drafted by a new group calling itself the East Branch Economic Protection Coalition cuts to the chase. “Things have changed a great deal in (Maine.) Now the forest products industry is downsizing and selling off their lands. Leases are threatened as new owners assume control. Access to those traditional lands is in peril and a very real threat is looming on the horizon, which could signal the end of a lifestyle that has come to be such an important part of Maine.

“In many cases the new owners have no understanding or regard for the traditional landowner relationship established between the small business community and a sporting public for almost a century and a half.”

This access crisis has gathered steam like a killer hurricane. The straw that broke the camel’s back was last year’s purchase of an entire 24,000-acres township by Roxanne Quimby, who has pretty much banned hunting, snowsledding and other traditional uses within her newly acquired township. According to the East Branch Coalition, more than 7 million acres of Maine forest have been sold by traditional owners in the past five years.

There may be a small ray of hope. The governor signed an executive order creating the Task Force on Traditional Uses and Public Access to Land in Maine. Chaired by Maine’s conservation commissioner, Pat McGowan, the task force must come up with recommended solutions by the end of the legislative session in June. The task force is made up of 21 members representing every conceivable group with a vested interest in land access.

According to SAM’s executive director George Smith, the governor has asked the task force to review the existing reports of two earlier legislative task forces with long names. (the Committee to Study Issues Concerning Changes to Traditional Uses of Maine Forests and Lands and the Committee to Study Access to Private and Public Lands in Maine.)

Boiled down, the new task force is charged with evaluating the extent of the problem and creating some potential mechanisms to insure the protection of traditional access and land use.

Although it is important to maintain optimism – for this is a problem of epic proportion – the track record of task forces in our state has been mixed. Task force is a powerful sounding name that conjures visions of large naval vessels steaming in formation toward a battle area. Perhaps the name provokes unrealistic expectations.

The land access task force is confronting a historic problem that impacts Maine’s lifestyle, culture and economy. It is hoped that the magnitude of the dilemma will drive the task force leader, Commissioner McGowan, and his membership to rise to the occasion with courage and vision.

The hurdle that lies ahead for McGowan’s group is complicated by a simple and long-standing principle not easily altered by legislative whim: property rights. If Roxanne Quimby chooses to ban hunters and snowsleds from her land, isn’t that her right? If the New Zealand Company that recently purchased 1.1 million acres of IP land wants to shut off traditional use, is it not their right as well?

Those are tough questions that defy quick and easy answers. Having watched so many failed attempts at group problem solving on major social issues over the years, I observe now with a jaded eye. When you get right down to it, there really is one and only one surefire way to trigger solutions for problems of this magnitude. Sooner or later, it all comes down to tax policy. Washington politicians and policymakers have learned that you can alter human behavior and redirect just about any economic or social goal with watershed changes in our incredibly potent state and federal tax structures.

For example, most people or organizations that own multiple land acreage are driven by economics. Roxanne Quimby may have social goals that seem, to her, lofty and altruistic, but she is also a business woman. If Maine levied a surtax of say $100 an acre or more on those timberland owners who denied traditional use of their property, the Quimbys of this world might reconsider their traditional-use shutdown. If not, the funds generated by the surtax could be used to fund the Land For Maine’s Future program.

There may be even more creative ways to protect traditional use of Maine land with strong, well-directed tax policy. You get the idea. If this is too punitive then simply accentuate the positive. Give significant tax breaks to all landowners in Maine, big or small, who allow unfettered access to their lands by traditional recreationists.

If McGowan does not have among his task force membership a tax expert, he might consider recruiting one.

V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WCME-FM 96.7) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected].