Should you need a permit to hike?

I would have to say no. There are few things people can enjoy that a free. Why don't we just build walls around our beautiful state and charge people just for entering? It's all too much. If the areas that allowing hiking they should ask for donations. It's a lot nicer than saying give me your money! Seems that our whole state is starting to shift its natural way of life to how much can I get for this mind set. It's sad really.
Christine of Perry

Maine's fish and wildlife resources generate over $1.3 billion in economic activity annually. More than $800 million is spent by wildlife watchers. By comparison, Maine spends pennies on its fish and wildlife resources, most of that coming from license fees from consumptive users. Maine's fish and wildlife resources belong to all of us, and all of us should pay, whether or not we use this resource. If we fail to provide adequate management for our fish and wildlife and for the habitat they need to survive, we will only be hurting ourselves. It's time for this State to rearrange its priorities and start spending some of its resources where they will provide the most benefit. As an aside, of the hundreds of millions of dollars taken in each year in tourism, virtually nothing is spent by this State to maintain clean water at our public bathing beaches. Maine beaches without clean water are no different than Maine waters and woods without fish and wildlife. Perhaps the most equitable method of funding fish and wildlife management and habitat protection would be through a guaranteed percentage of the sales tax for a finite period, say ten years. A fund could be developed that would collect interest and pay for IFW in perpetuity. Those who cry and moan about paying taxes would not even notice a few dollars going to this fund, but they would notice if they had no wildlife to watch, hunt or fish for. It's time to start investing in Maine while we still have a Maine to invest in.

As a life long first responder. I find it thoroughly reasonably to subject the public to a "USER FEE" for any state funded "TRAIL" system. Trucks, autos & boats are now required to make a payment to this tax revenous government we have in the state of Maine. I have spent more than one night traveling through the woods ro retrievee someone who either through injury or stupidity found it necessary to require the recources of public monies and volunteers time to get themselves out of a jam. Currently the state is letting a contract to remove 85 miles of rail which could be rehabilitated in order to same the public highway system from even more use by heavy trucks. However the state in it's infinite wisdom has determined that its not economically feasable to rehab the rail bed for commercial use but that walkers and bicycles are perfectly justifiable expendatures. They state that we only need the railbed to hold that type of weight however what they did not mention is that the rail bed must be rehabed to hold heavy trucks in order to remove the rails and renovate all the rail bridges (thereby making the rail bed suitable for train travel)
in order to accomplish this work. This is public tax money being spent with no visible means of recovery at this point in time. The attraction of tourists is a joke and this appears to be just one more play toy for the sierra club types who buy up land in this state and hide it as a tax exempt private park under the guise of some land trust or other like entity.

I find it really interesting that the State of Maine and the U.S. Government are simultaneously trying to find new dollars to fund bank bail-outs, basic community services and public recreational access. One day the focus is on cigarette tax increases, the next day on cutting critical human service needs and now a tax on kayaking and hiking on public property. What with all the time and energy spent on coming up with the nickle and dime solutions, one might think that time would be better spent in finding ways to reduce corporate welfare payments (to companies making record profits:i.e.EXXON/MOBIl), ending billion dollar oil wars and refusing to rescue irresponsible financial institutions. Increasing the responsibilties of those who reap massive benefits from our material and human resources should have limits; required returns to the society/land that created opportunities should be mandatory.
Legislators working on ways for the entrenched rich who give little back to the vulnerable, the poor, or the working class (now possibly getting up to $8 an hour...yayyy???)need to be the new focus of our legislators work.

I find it really interesting that the State of Maine and the U.S. Government are simultaneously trying to find new dollars to fund bank bail-outs, basic community services and public recreational access. One day the focus is on cigarette tax increases, the next day on cutting critical human service needs and now a tax on kayaking and hiking on public property. What with all the time and energy spent on coming up with the nickle and dime solutions, one might think that time would be better spent in finding ways to reduce corporate welfare payments (to companies making record profits:i.e.EXXON/MOBIl), ending billion dollar oil wars and refusing to rescue irresponsible financial institutions. Increasing the responsibilties of those who reap massive benefits from our material and human resources should have limits; required returns to the society/land that created opportunities should be mandatory.
Legislators working on ways for the entrenched rich who give little back to the vulnerable, the poor, or the working class (now possibly getting up to $8 an hour...yayyy???)need to be the new focus of our legislators work.