Popham postcards? Mount Blue mugs? Two Lights tees?

Possibilities.

The state parks are going retail, and rental. A bill signed by Gov. John Baldacci this week clears the way for Maine’s state parks and historic sites to begin selling merchandise and offering rentals on equipment like kayaks and canoes as soon as this summer.

Department of Conservation Commissioner Patrick McGowan said the legislation didn’t include money for startup; he didn’t have an estimate of how much it would take to get the program going.

“What we see is a real good opportunity. If you’re a retailer and you have 2 million customers come through the door, you have a target audience,” McGowan said. “We’ve never looked at the parks like that, but we’re trying to be entrepreneurial.”

The to-be-determined merchandise – it could include patches, postcards, decals and mugs – would likely be sold from the same kiosks where people pay admission or check in now, spokeswoman Jeanne Curran said.

It will add to the experience of visiting a Maine state park, she said, by giving people the chance to purchase mementos.

New revenue, which will stay within the Bureau of Parks and Lands, will go toward park operations and programs, McGowan said. It would come at a time when other revenues, from sources like loon license plates and Poland Spring, which pays to pump water out of an aquifer near Range Pond, has been on the decline, he said.

He wasn’t sure, he said, how much it could potentially bring in. “If we could sell 10 percent of the people a T-shirt and make $3 to $5 . . . that’s pretty good revenue.”

Some goods and rentals will be rolled out before the Fourth of July, some after and some next year, McGowan said.

A provision in Rep. Jeff McCabe’s bill included using Maine vendors when possible. McCabe, D-Skowhegan, said the new law allows money from sales to stay with Parks and Land. It would have gone toward the General Fund otherwise.

“I don’t think it’s going to get any of the state parks rich,” McCabe said, but it could bring in tens of thousands for small projects and maintenance.