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Saturday, March 2, 2002
Many boaters may lack stickers
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BANGOR — State officials anticipate that only 40 percent of boat owners on inland waters this summer will comply with Maine's new sticker law, which will raise money to combat milfoil and other invasive plants. Col. Tim Peabody, who heads the Maine Warden Service, said at a milfoil summit in Augusta on Thursday that town clerks and agents who sell hunting and fishing licenses, and will now sell the stickers, have no way to compel people to buy them. By a one-vote margin, the Legislature approved the program last year, with sticker prices set at $10 for residents and $20 for nonresidents. Anyone who launches a boat that does not display the triangular green-and-blue sticker into a lake or river faces a fine of as much as $250. Fines for launching a boat that is contaminated with invasive plant fragments or in a quarantined area range as high as $5,000. Peabody said that he and his wardens will meet next week to discuss how to enforce the sticker law and what to do when people are seen in a boat that lacks a sticker. He indicated that options could include ordering violators off the water, issuing warnings and allowing wardens to carry stickers that would be sold to people who don't have them. The new law commits money from the sticker program to hire as many as six new wardens to enforce it, but Peabody said he doesn't expect to raise a lot the first year. In addition to ensuring that boats display the new stickers, wardens will be expected to be on the lookout for boats and trailers that are carrying invasive plants. Peabody estimates that there are 129,000 boats registered in Maine, with 120,000 of them being used for recreational purposes. He also estimates that 40,000 boats from other states are used in Maine waters. The sticker revenue will be divided between the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, which includes the Warden Service. DEP will get 60 percent of sticker revenue, with Inland Fisheries and Wildlife getting 40 percent.
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