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Sportsmen Weigh in on Climate

November 23, 2009 - BANGOR -- A group of about 20 sportsmen gathered Wednesday by the banks of the Penobscot River to urge Maine's Senate delegation to help pass climate-change legislation.

The sportsmen said they want Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe to do more than merely vote for a bill to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

"Our hope is that the two Maine senators will take more of a leadership role in getting the Senate closer to capping emissions and, second, providing for habitat protection throughout the country," said Bucky Owen, former commissioner of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Snowe and Collins are in a good position to take leadership roles, he said.

"The feeling is that those senators are in such a pivotal role. Look at health care. Frankly, I really do think the Senate will follow them. We just ask them not just to vote for it, but to be in a leadership role and shepherd it through. (The Department of Interior) is already pushing the Beginning with Habitat Program. Maine was the first one to develop it on the national model," said Owen, who recently was awarded the Atlantic Salmon Federation's highest conservation award.

Representatives of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission, the Maine Chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Penobscot Indian Nation were on hand at the Penobscot County Conservation Association clubhouse to urge the senators to act.

Owen said he didn't know whether Maine's outdoor-sporting community would publicly address global warming again after stepping forward Wednesday for the first time.

Other Maine sporting and conservation organizations – including the Chewonki Foundation, Maine Audubon and the Natural Resources Council of Maine – recently joined more than 600 groups from all 50 states to ask the Senate to pass climate-change legislation.

By DEIRDRE FLEMING, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, November 19, 2009


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Regions: Bangor


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