Steven Wright is lucky to be alive.

He is the 53 -year-old Vermont deer hunter who got lost this month while black-powder hunting near Tumbledown Mountain in Western Maine. Wright, described in press releases as an “experienced hunter,” was by sheer happenstance discovered by a snowmobiler out for a late afternoon ride. Wright, who spent two nights wandering aimlessly in the woods during winter weather, was picked up more than 11 miles from his starting point. He was hypothermic and in bad shape, having fallen through ice into a pond during his ordeal. Of note is the fact that Wright, in all probability, never would have been found by warden search teams because he was found by the snowmobiler seven miles outside the four-square-mile search area model used by the Maine Warden Service.

“Experienced hunter”? Wright said he became lost because his GPS unit (Global Positioning System) was directing him away from his point of woods entry instead of towards it. Yet, the Warden Service concluded that the GPS was working fine. In fact, in a stroke of irony, the wardens used Wright’s own GPS tracking data to determine that, though he was found in a non-hunting zone, he did, indeed, start his hunt in a legal hunt zone. So no summons for illegal hunting was issued.

Like all woods searches, though, the search for Mr. Wright cost the state in excess of $20,000 and tied up a big group of wardens. A question rears its ugly head: Should Wright be charged for part or all of the cost of his search? There is a state law that enables the Maine Warden Service to recover its search and rescue costs if it is deemed that the party for whom they were searching was patently negligent (my term, not theirs). Over the years, the Maine Warden service has levied this recover-costs option only a couple of times. As far as I know, no money has ever been actually recovered. In some states, Alaska for example, the state collects an advance fee from all licensed hunters that is held in escrow for search and rescue funding.

Of course, every lost person scenario is unique. It’s tough enough to survive an ordeal like Wright’s without a state bureaucracy billing you for your plight. But there is a discernible sameness to too many of these lost hunter stories. The era of cell phones and GPS units seems to be creating a false sense of security. These devices are emboldening careless sportsmen who apparently think that an electronic device is a worthy substitute for basic survival planning and time-tested woodsmanship.

Should these “instant woodsmen” be held accountable? I put this question to a bona fide experienced woodsman who will remain anonymous, and whose opinion I hold in some regard. Here are excerpts from his response:

I think we can answer that with several basic questions.

1.) Was the hunter over 70, or under 18 years old? No.

2.) Was the hunter badly injured so he could not signal, build a fire, navigate etc? If so, he gets a pass. Wright was not.

3.) Was he equipped with appropriate survival gear for a December hunt in Maine? No.

4.) Did he have a communication device with him? No.

5.) Did he have navigation devices with him? Yes. Did he use them properly? No.

6.) Did the hunter make a serious effort to signal for help? Apparently not.

7.) Did the hunter stay put, near where he last saw his compadres? No.

8.) Did the hunter make safe, responsible, and logical decisions in his efforts to be located? No.

9.) Did the hunter break any fish and game laws that were not matters of life and death? Apparently not.

10.) Was he dressed for the weather? Apparently so, which is the only reason he’s still alive.

11.) Did the hunter take into account the lateness of the hour when he last left his pals? No.

12.) And last, within the context of a very stressful/panic-ridden ordeal, was the hunter’s behavior in resolving the situation consistent with a man of his outdoor experience? Was it comparable to the conduct of the average lost hunter? Did it reveal choices that were helpful/ beneficial to those who were looking for him? No. Of the 12 questions, I would say the lost hunter failed most of them!

The woodsman who offered the above analysis thinks that Mr. Wright should be billed by the state for services rendered.

The Maine Warden Service weighed this issue and has decided not to bill the Vermont hunter for the search-and-rescue operation. It would be interesting to turn this decision over to a panel of respected Maine outdoorsmen. What do you think?

The author 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].