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About Us.htm 205 Church Hill Road, Augusta ME 04330 207-622-5503 |
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What Is SAM? Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine The Sportsman's Alliance of Maine is Maine's largest sportsman's organization with 14,000 members and a full-time headquarters and staff in Augusta. SAM's staff works at the legislature, state agencies, and other forums on critical issues. SAM was organized in 1975 as a 501(c)(4) non-profit membership organization to promote conservation of Maine's wildlife resources and to be an advocate for hunters, anglers, trappers and gun owners throughout the state. SAM's members are activists who get involved in many events, projects, and programs which helps members have a real voice and impact on outdoor issues. SAM’s annual budget exceeds $450,000.
SAM Conservation Education Fund
SAM’s Conservation Education Fund is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable-educational organization that provides critical dollars for youth education, wildlife conservation, and public information and education programs, with an annual budget exceeding $100,000.
CEF projects include sponsorship of the TV talk show WILDFIRE, the Sportsman's Congress that brings the state’s outdoor leaders together once a year to examine pending issues, scholarships for young people attending the Maine Conservation School, and participation in dozens of other qualifying programs and projects. Some of these projects, including those listed above, are on-going, and others are one-time events and opportunities.
In the latter category for example, SAM CEF has purchased equipment to help the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife restore critical fish habitat in our rivers, and prepared a brochure on the issues that should be considered by municipalities that are preparing ordinances governing the discharge of firearms. SAM CEF organized statewide conferences on water access and ATV issues and created a video on catch-and-release fishing techniques.
SAM CEF is currently engaged in a number of new projects including the Hunting Heritage Program, Outdoor Kids Magazine and Website, Kids and Guns Safety Project, and Landowner Relations Project. Additional on-going projects include participation in numerous task forces and committees, including the Sportsman's Forest/Landowners Alliance, Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund, SAM Fishing Initiative Committee, and the Forest Legacy Program.
Sportsmen’s Land Trust
SAM established a land trust in order to participate in the growing land conservation movement in Maine. A grant from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund helped prepare the Trust’s articles of incorporation and bylaws and establish 501(c)(3) status. The mission of SAM’s Land Trust is to obtain ownership and easements that protect wildlife habitat and keep land open for public recreation including hunting. Currently the Trust owns three parcels in central Maine and is planning soon to accept a conservation easement on 2,000 acres in the area of Moxie Lake in western Maine. The Trust also plays an important role in working with other trusts and landowner organizations to resolve the many challenges of public access to and use of private and trust lands.
SAM PAC
Maine’s only sportsmen’s political action committee, SAM PAC participates in candidate and referenda elections, surveying, rating, and endorsing candidates for the legislature, Governor, and Congress. The endorsement of SAM PAC is highly sought and very valuable in courting the sportsmen’s vote. In 2005 SAM teamed with the Maine Audubon Society to lead a television campaign in favor of a new bond issue for the Land for Maine’s Future Campaign.
Fishing Initiative Committee
This is a permanent standing committee in SAM’s bylaws and consists of an exceptional group of avid anglers who have worked well together to initiate proposals and projects to improve fishery resources and expand fishing opportunities in Maine. Among the committee’s successes are: opened all stocked lakes and ponds to fall fishing, named the native Brook trout a state Heritage Fish with special protection and management, launched a partnership with DIF&W to grow larger Landlocked salmon, championed an outside professional assessment of DIF&W’s fisheries division that provided over 50 recommendations, and successfully lobbied for simplification of fishing rules.
Pickering Commission
This special committee is named in SAM’s bylaws and reviews all hunting, fishing and trapping laws, rules and publications and makes recommendations to simplify and clarify the laws and rules and improve the publications. The work of the commission has been very successful and many of its recommendations have been enacted and adopted. The commission was responsible for law changes that expanded the hunting day to one-half hour after sunset, allowed the use of camo orange, and simplified the deer tagging and registration system.
Deer Task Force
Retired DIF&W deer biologist Gerry Lavigne is working with this group of hunters to examine all deer hunting issues and create recommendations that address problems and expand hunting opportunities. The group is discussing issues from land posting to Chronic Wasting Disease to coyote predation control, with a special focus deer management problems in southern Maine.
“Perhaps the single most powerful special interest group in Maine.” - Al Diamond
“The fastest growing force in Maine.” - Harry Vanderweide
“This organization has become such a political force that politicians courted it hard and heavy before the last election. Indeed, this is one of the few – if only – large organizations in Maine catering to the outdoors that has experienced such success in the tight 1990s.” - Ken Allen
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