Jorge: I sypathize with your situation, but the first thing I thought of is: Where's the paper? You know, the contract for the 99 year lease? And what about the other area......you have that secured with a contract, right? Without a written agreement, you are up the proverbial creek without a paddle, I think, unless there is some stipulation in the state constitution concerning prior use or some zoning laws. This is happening in other states as well, where wealthy interests swoop in and buy the land, then close it to hunting.

There has been a recent battle in the neighboring state of North Dakota, where the hunting regulations for nonresidents had to be limited to attempt to balance the rights of landowners and resident hunters. Of course, everyone was ticked off, and many land owners closed their lands to hunting. Money rules......sorry, but good luck.

Well folks some bad news to report. As most of you know, there is a referendum this November on the ballot in Maine to make bear baiting illegal. This assault, as is always the case, comes from outside the state and financed by the "green world" whose only goal is to eliminate the hunting industry. Fortunately the Governor of Maine, SCI a lot of Mainers have come out in opposition to this and it has a good chance of being defeated.

There is a more sinister and underhanded side to this conspiracy and that is the acquisition of of land by private individuals who are willing to pay upwards of three times the value of the land in order to own it and ban hunting. One entity in particular who owns a "health product" has targeted WMD area 10, some 160 plus thousand acres for purchase. An unscrupulous Canadian Timber company called Irving, sold out to this person after "raping" the land of most of the usable timber. Our hunting business has been in operation since 1895 and when we purchased it 4 years ago, we were "guaranteed" a 99 year lease and access to said property.

Well last week the new owners lowered the boom on us and we have effectively lost 50% of our hunting area and have been put on notice that they are planning to purchase the land on the other side of the eastern branch of the Penbscot River where the remainder of our bait lines lie.

Our placed is owned by five active suty and retired Marines Corps and Naval officers and we have a great deal of our life's savings invested in this venture. For obvious reasons I won't divulge the name of the company, but for those interested, you can email me and I can be more specific. The bottom line is that this looks like the begginning of the end of hunting in Maine and I only wonder who is next. jorge

Absolutely outrageous!!!

Nothing can bring me to the boiling point quicker! Personally, I think you should name the individual(s) and companies involved so we as consumers can call, write letters, and utterly refuse to have anything to do with their products or services.

Having hunted Maine many times I look at this sort of action as a VERY personal attack! I better stop now before I start putting into print what I am really thinking about the people behind such actions.....

I just can't stand people doing my thinking for me or subjecting me to their sense of morality via legislation....


Dave

Have you spoken to an attorney yet? Big business is likely to come out on top, somehow they always do, but maybe you would prevail on the contract?

There's nothing for us to do. When we initially went into business we had the clause in there, but the agreement has always been if the land was sold we would have to renegotiate. Further, the paper company told us they had no plans of ever selling the land and that was probably true. But, when they were offered several times what the land was worth AND they got to strip if before selling, they made out like bandits.

I'm with DavidC,

Start naming names and pointing out the "hidden" agendas! By allowing the paper comanies to first strip the land the new owners are showing their true hypocritical nature! Please email me their info and I'll write a letter to them and everyone else I can think of and I'll leave your name out of it.