For sportsmen who worry about access to the woods for outdoor recreation, the recently announced land purchase by cosmetics mogul Roxanne Quimby is a bombshell.

Quimby acquired another 23,000 acres, bringing her wilderness holdings in Maine to more than 50,000 acres, or the equivalent of two entire townships.

As with her earlier purchases, this new wilderness tract, which is between Baxter State Park and the East Branch of the Penobscot River, will be off limits to hunters, trappers, and snowsledders.

Early public reaction has been somewhat predictable. Banner newspaper headlines proclaim, “Land deal angers hunters.” And why shouldn’t it? It was only a few months ago that our Maine State Legislature, in one of its most cowardly and undistinguished moments, approved the so-called Katahdin Lake land deal that will deny traditional users any access to 4,000 acres of historically accessible wilderness. This is land that has always been open to hunters, trappers and snowsledders.

George Smith, spokesman for the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine (SAM), maintains that with all that is going on, the state should not be using state money to enable the Kathadin Lakes deal. He believes that the funds should be used to buy up wilderness that permits traditional use. Maine’s Conservation Commissioner Pat McGowan expressed “concern” about the latest Quimby acquisition, and its potential impact on recreational access for sportsmen.

The Portland-area environmentalist crowd is using this land access powderkeg to agitate for a reconsideration of the National Park idea. Millinocket councilor Matt Polstein says that the Quimby deal is another in a series of blows to the local economy. Polstein, and the Bangor Daily News editorial writer, argue that the only solution is for sportsmen to raise money and buy land.

Let’s face it. The Maine culture war between the Portland preservationists and traditional Maine sportsmen is getting worse. We are, to quote a line from the old Merle Haggard song, “Rolling downhill like a snowball headed for hell.”

Can there be any question that sportsmen are losing the battle? Our state legislature abandoned us in the Katahdin Lake deal, as did our commissioners of Conservation and Fish and Wildlife. Although land access has been long recognized as the issue of the decade by sportsmen groups and Augusta policymakers, nothing remedial of any consequence has been done. McGowan’s task force on land access had very little to offer, except the same tired refrain being offered by Polstein and others: Spend more public and private money to buy up land for traditional use. SAM, which has in the past used its clout to affect positive change for sportsmen, has done little to stem the tide when it comes to this culture war.

Is there any hope? Money, lots of money, can solve problems. It’s too bad that sportsmen don’t have more multi-millionaires like Roxanne Quimby in their ranks, but that is not the case. In fact, most of us who hunt, trap, or snowsled have all we can do to pay for the licenses, milfoil stickers, special stamps and other state fees.

The solution, if there is one, must come from our elected leaders who shape public policy – governors, state lawmakers – and high profile sportsmen groups like SAM. The answer is right under our nose: tax policy. For proof that tax policy can shape private economic decisions by corporate landowners, we only have to look as far as Maine’s Tree Growth Tax Law. This law rewards taxpaying landowners who keep their land in trees.

A new tax law that rewards taxpaying timberland owners for keeping their land open to traditional use (hunting, trapping and snowsledding) is the solution. A group of courageous state lawmakers, or even a governor with daring and vision, could make it happen.

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].