Hold the phone! Stop the tape! Roxanne Quimby is doing what?

She — or at least the organization that represents her and her vast land holdings — is opening 40,000 acres of her Maine woodlands to hunting this fall! That’s right. According to Quimby’s son, Lucas St. Clair, who heads up Elliotsville Plantation, Inc., in his mother’s behalf, the no-trespassing and no-hunting signs are coming down.  Hunter’s will be welcome this fall on some Quimby land. This is big news, for a  number of reasons.

Back in 2004, when the Human Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Wildlife Association of Maine (WAM) tried to eliminate bear hunting with the statewide bear referendum, Roxanne Quimby supported the anti-hunting initiative financially. At the time, I had an email conversation with Mrs. Quimby about her anti-hunting stance. There was no changing her mind. She  was unequivocally opposed to all forms of recreational hunting. Her personal beliefs made their way into her land-use policies as well.

So what is going on?

St. Clair told me that a while back a decision was made to cool the rhetoric and try to find some common ground with rural Mainers when it comes to Quimby’s quest for a National Park in this state. “We have not  abandoned our efforts for a National Park,” said St. Clair, “but are determined to find out what Mainers want and how best to pursue it.”

St. Clair believes in compromise. “Part of our land can be for a National park and part for a designated recreational area that accommodates all forms of traditional use,” he reasons. Quimby has an able and attractive ambassador in her son, Lucas. A pragmatist with personal charm, he grew up in Maine hunting and fishing with his sportsman father, Roxanne’s ex-husband.

“Do you ever have frank discussions with your mother about her anti-hunting zeal?” I asked him. “Yes,” he said,”she has her views and I have mine.”

David Trahan, executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine (SAM) remains skeptical.”Nothing has really changed,” he  says,” except maybe the packaging and the public relations. Quimby still wants to create a national park, which will not be good for Maine.”

Trahan believes that Quimby sees the next planned bear referendum as a way to undermine the bear guiding business and thereby neutralize significant political opposition to her park dream.

“What is EPI’s position on the next bear referendum?” I asked St. Clair. “Will your mother be donating money this time around?”

His response:  “There have also been questions raised about EPI’s position on a proposed referendum to ban the hunting of bears with bait, traps and dogs. Our position is simple: We believe that the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is the entity best positioned to use sound science to make decisions about how to manage wildlife populations through the setting of hunting seasons and methods of take. Maine has one of the most successful bear management programs in the country. The biologists and scientists at the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife have proven their expertise and their ability to continue to apply this expertise should not be hindered by legislation or referendums. Therefore EPI will not support this referendum.”

Read that carefully, again. It says that EPI (Quimby’s land management group) will not support the bear referendum!

To review. We have two zingers, news-wise: 1. Roxanne Quimby is opening 40,000 acres of her land to hunting this fall, and 2. Her organization will not support the bear referendum.

In the months and years ahead, Lucas St. Clair will pull out all the stops to win us over to his conviction, that Maine can have both a National park and a viable timber industry, that they are not mutually exclusive.

Time will tell. Meanwhile, you have to hand it to the guy. He sures knows how to get our attention. And with action, not just words.

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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, WQVM-FM  101.3) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected] . He has two books “A Maine Deer Hunter’s Logbook” and his latest, “Backtrack.”