The Humane Society of the United States, People for the Ethical Treatment Animals, The Fund for Animals and various other groups are working tirelessly, and spending lots of money to try and limit your right to hunt, fish, and trap.

In the good old days when Maryland was more rural, hunting and trapping were accepted ways of life. All one had to do was purchase a hunting license and you could sleep well at night knowing that the MD Department of Natural Resources would  protect your right  to hunt, trap, and fish. 

Fast forward to Maryland in 2003. The state is becoming increasingly more suburban/urban.  Many citizens have never been exposed to the outdoors, and DNR is serving a vast constituency of user groups ranging from horseback riders to mountain bikers.  If you want to ensure that you and your kids will still be allowed to hunt and fish in Maryland, today’s sportsmen needs to be politically active.  Many sportsmen in conversation could care less about politics and view it as something evil. The unfortunate aspect is that in today’s climate you cannot afford to be ignorant of the political process.

The rules and laws that govern hunting and fishing can be broken down into two camps, statutory and regulatory.  Statutory are laws that are passed by the state government and are found in the Maryland Annotated Code.  If something is in the code, it can only be changed via the political process by law in Annapolis. Examples of statutory law were the ban on Sunday hunting in Maryland and the cost of your hunting license. In order to remove the ban on Sunday hunting in Maryland and increase the cost of your hunting license, changes would have to come via the law making process.

 The regulatory process consists of areas that Maryland DNR has authority over. In essence, if it isn’t covered by statue, DNR has a say in it. An example of the regulatory process is setting of season dates, weapons, and bag limits.  Every two years DNR has meetings to discuss different hunting proposals. Public meetings are conducted and comments are taken via the mail and internet.  To keep abreast on the latest happenings at MD DNR, you can access their website at http://www.dnr.state.md.us/.

On occasion the legislature wishes to extend their authority and create laws on issues that are dealt with through regulation. In most cases it is usually better to have issues dealt with in the regulatory arena then the legislative arena.

An example of this scenario is the use of crossbows during bow season for non-handicapped hunters.  A bill was introduced to mandate the use of crossbows by non-handicapped hunters.  Regardless of your opinion on the issue, this was an issue that was regulatory in nature. Sportsmen statewide wanted to work with DNR to retain a say in the decision making process. Legislators acquiesced, and DNR along with input from sportsmen helped craft the new crossbow regulations for this year. 

Every year the Maryland General Assembly gets together in early January and works until April. During that short time, the Legislature hears testimony on several thousands bills with only a few hundred actually making it to governor’s desk. If a bill makes it to the governor’s desks he can either sign them into law or veto them.

Maryland has two distinct legislative bodies, the Maryland House of Delegates and the Maryland State Senate.  The House of Delegates is comprised of 141 members and the State Senate has 47 members.   At the top, are the Speaker of the House, Mike Busch; and President of the Senate, Mike Miller.  The Speaker and President are voted in those position by their respective bodies.

Maryland is made up of 47 individual legislative districts.  Each district elects one Senator and one to three Delegates depending on the population of the district. Areas that are sparsely populated like Western MD and the lower shore have one delegate, while areas like Montgomery and Baltimore County have 3 delegates.  If you don’t know what legislative you live in, you can go to http://mdelect.net/ and type in your address. You can also call the State Board of Elections toll free at 1-800-222-8683. 

In order for a bill to become a law in Maryland it must go through several different stages.   First a legislator crafts the language of the bill.  After getting a draft of the bill the sponsor looks to see if he can get other legislators to sign on a co-sponsor.  The bill is then assigned to the committee that hears bills that deal with the issue. For sportsmen, most bills are heard in the House Environmental Affairs committee and in the Senate Health, Education and Environmental Affairs Committee.

The bill is then assigned a hearing date in that committee.  The hearing date is when the public has an opportunity to speak their mind on the legislation.  All during this time opponents and proponents of the legislation are lobbying on the bill.  It is important to know that the majority of the legislative process is done in the committee.  Bills live and die in committee. If you can get a bill out of committee you have a change of getting it signed, if it does not make it out of committee it is dead. 

Committee chairpersons wield exceptional power in deciding whether or not a bill will move forward in committee or die.  It is up to the chairperson to call on a vote on a bill.  A bill can either be voted for, against, withdrawn by the sponsor, or never be voted on by the committee. If they never call for the vote the bill just “sits in the draw” and dies. 

In order for a bill to move forward it must first pass vote in committee, if it passes committee it is sent to floor for second reading. During this process changes are made in the language, items are added and deleted.  The bill is then voted on by the entire chamber on second reading, if it passes second reading, the amended version is then voted on once again on third reading. Once it passes third reading, it is sent to the other chamber where the whole process is repeated.  If one chamber makes changes to bill that has passed in the other chamber, a committee between the house and senate gets together to iron out the differences. Then the committees must agree to the changes and then both chambers. As you can see, this is a lot to get accomplished in a short time.  With today’s computer driven society you can track bills, votes, their status, language, amendments and how the votes went by going to the general assembly website at http://mlis.state.md.us/. 

Maryland is fortunate that for the last 3 years we have been one of a few states to have a Legislative Sportsmen Caucus.   The idea of a caucus is to organize politicians who have a common interest on a topic or issue such as hunting, fishing, and trapping.  The caucus is non-partisan and contains members from both parties. The caucus is inclusive to all politicians regardless of political affiliation and crosses geographical lines.  The purpose of the caucus to preserve and promote the traditional rights of American citizens to recreate, hunt, fish, trap, and pursue outdoor activities.

The caucus is non-binding and still allows politicians to vote as they see fit. The end result is to create a dialogue among politicians and sportsmen to not only protect what we have but to expand.   The caucus draws its strength from numbers and remember when it comes to politics numbers is what counts.  Currently in Maryland 71 out of 188 of our elected officials are members of the caucus.  A list of the caucus members can be found at http://www.marylandsportsmen.org/annapolis03/caucus.htm.

The most important thing you can do as sportsmen is make sure that you and your buddies are not only registered to vote, but that you actually do. It never ceases to amaze me when I hear people complain about a law and ask them if they are registered and they just shake their head and say no. In order to effect change, you must be part of the process.  If you are not registered you can download the form at http://www.elections.state.md.us/ and mail it in. Your can also register to vote at the MD Department of Motor Vehicles. Many people do not register to vote because they feel it will prevent them from being called to jury duty.  This is no longer the case.  People are called to jury duty via their driver’s license. 

The second most important thing you can do in know who your elected officials are in Annapolis.  You can find out by going to following MD state archives site at http://mdelect.net.   I cannot stress the importance of calling your legislator about issues that concern you.  A phone call (all legislators have a local and toll free phone numbers), letter, or even an e-mail lets your representative know that you are concerned about an issue, active, and paying attention. While they two of you may not agree on an issue, it is still important that they hear from you.

The old adage that there’s strength in numbers is especially true when it comes to politics.  Having one voice on an issue is good, having 10 people speaking on an issue is better, and having several hundred will grab some attention.   Organizing numbers on an issue is fairly easy.  Whether it be the group of guys you hunt and fish with, or the members of your rod and gun club, chances are you have a potent political force on the local and state level.

There are several organizations here in Maryland are active in Maryland and are working to protect our resources and ensure that our sporting heritage will be passed onto the next generation.   The Maryland Sportsmen Association is a statewide group of sportsmen that work with legislators and MD DNR to protect and enhance sportsmen’s rights. Their website is www.marylandsportsmen.org .  If you are strictly a bow hunter, the Maryland Bowhunters Society works for sportsmen and bow hunters specifically. Information on MBS can be found at http://www.bowsite.com/mbs/.  For trappers here in Maryland, the Maryland Furtrappers are working to ensure the trapping remains as a wildlife management tool. For more info go to http://www.geocities.com/mdtrappers/.

Regardless of whether you wish to get active on the personal level, with a group of individuals, or with a state wide organization, with today’s climate sportsmen cannot afford not to.

This article was written by MSA President, Steve Huetnner, and originally appeared in the August 2003 MSA Newsletter.