Maine’s Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Roland Martin, who is carving out his own mixed leadership legacy, is getting a break. He has been upstaged by the troubles of fellow resource leader Pat McGowan, Maine’s Conservation Commissioner.

Headlines in a recent Page One story in the Bangor Daily News shouted: “Feds probe state conservation head. McGowan allegedly helped hunt moose from plane.”

McGowan says the charges are ridiculous. We’ll know more later when the federal probe is concluded. The newspaper account was thorough and meticulously balanced. It is hard to tell from reading the news story where the truth lies. One thing seems certain; somebody has had a memory lapse. This federal probe, before it’s finished, has the potential to compromise the professional integrity of other key decision makers in the Augusta resource departments besides McGowan. Not since Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Roland Martin tried to use his position to “fix” a warden summons issued to a relative, has the governor faced such embarrassment. After all, he appointed these men to head up Maine’s two key resource departments. Their questionnable choices are a reflection of their ethical standards and, ultimately, the governor’s judgment.

McGowan said, “I didn’t do anything wrong here, whether it’s a rule, a departmental policy, or a game law.” It appears from McGowan’s comment that neither he nor the news reporter were aware that there is also a state law against spotting game for hunters from the air. The Maine hunting lawbook says under General Hunting Provisions: “Airborne Hunting. A person on the ground or airborne may not use aircraft to aid or assist in hunting big game.” At the federal level, the allegation against McGowan is serious business. We’re talking significant fines, confiscation of aircraft and even prison time.

So the year has not gone well for Maine’s Conservation Commissioner. He and his Department lobbied hard in opposition to the No Net Loss Bill pushed by SAM. In fact, on my radio program Maine Outdoors, McGowan said that the No Net Loss Bill was “disasterous public policy.” The bill requires that if the Department of Conservation denies hunting access in any area of public land it must, in turn, provide an equal amount of new hunting acreage. The state legislature got the message even if the Department of Conservation didn’t. The bill’s passage was also a much needed rebuke of other opponents of the No Net Loss Bill, the Audubon Society, Natural Resources Council of Maine and the Sierra Club.

McGowan, who is as personable a guy as you’d ever want to meet, is accumulating an irreversible legacy of leadership, just like every commissioner before and after him. He, like all of us, makes good choices and bad choices. And the bad choices get remembered in a cumulative way. The Katahdin Lake deal was poorly handled from the beginning. There was deception (press releases contained no mention of hunting prohibitions) and, before it was over, a hint of arrogance in high places. Ever since, McGowan has found himself in a position of having to mollify embittered sportsmen, convince us that – despite the Kathadin Lake deal – he is nonetheless a Maine sportsman at heart.

The irony is, as George Smith of SAM pointed out, “The bitter fight over the Katahdin Lake Project would have been avoided if this law (the No Net Loss law that McGowan strongly opposed) had been on the books.”

Putting it another way, much of this could have been avoided altogether if our two state resource commissioners had known better than to sell public land that allowed hunting and use the money to buy land where hunting would be disallowed. Both Commissioners, most especially Commissioner Martin, hold public posts that through constituency obligation and tradition are supposed to stand up and fight when Maine’s hunting heritage is on the line. The fact that they both chose not to will be part of their legacy of leadership, and an indelible chapter in Maine sporting history.

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].