New Hampshire Registration?

[Fitz]

New Hampshire Fish and Wildlife needs money so there is a movement afoot to register paddlecraft. Apparently, they didn't notice the public outcry in Maine last year.

There is a meeting on 19 Oct. to discuss it at F&W.

Send your thoughts and concerns here:

Lee E. Perry
Executive Director
New Hampshire Fish and Game Department
11 Hazen Drive
Concord, NH 03301
603-271-3511
fax 603-271-1438
director@wildlife.state.nh.us

 

[Dave Wermuth]

Canoe Registration revisited

As it should be from time to time, discussing canoe registration, that is.
Some States have it. Pity. Some states had it, Michigan. My home state passed it years ago. We had it repealed. You may have to circle the legislature and hold hands with an aluminum canoe owner and sing "We shall overcome." Once we learned of the new law in Mi The canoe (and Kayak) owners got together. Found our way into 'Canoe Magazine' even. 1986 I think. The trick was to be organized and lobby the law makers with sound reasoning and good facts. We got the ear of a kindly, sensible representative who introduced a new bill exempting canoes/kayaks. Sail boards were already exempt because one of the lawmakers had a kid who sailboarded, so the story goes. We the people, in order to paddle a more perfect canoe, do hereby set forth these freedoms.
I need to get back to work on the 18'er. They're goin' to lock me up. Ha.

1) Organiz
2) Lobby

WE were fortunate to have a nice big river near the capitol. So we paddled our canoes for the TV station and fun, and portaged a few blocks thru downtown Lansing all the way to the steps of the Capitol Building. Crosswalks, city streets, canoe laden pedestrians.
No polution from motors. No erosion from wakes. Those types of arguments. No benefit of marinas that provide services to the power boats that are paid for by registration fees. etc.

Good Luck.

 

[Dan Lindberg]

We've had canoe registration here in MN for many years.
Few craft get on MN water without paying the state a fee (small seasonal duck boats and maybe some antique craft come to mind).

Last summer I started an effort to try to exempt old canoes from the registation, and talked with a guy from the DNR a few times about it.
We ran out of time and will have to take it up next year but.

He had a number of valid arguements for registering canoes/other paddle craft, including; providing the DNR with numbers of folks who do canoe/kayak/paddle etc, provide funds for canoe trail (river) improvements, ie, carry down landings, on river camp sites, mapping services, etc.

Here in MN canoe registration isn't going away.

He also was not positive about exempting old canoes/paddle craft from the registration, it will be an uphill battle.

His rational was that the current "driver" for (motor) boat registration was the Coast Guard regs, which currently exempt some craft, (I believe non-motorized) BUT he/they were/are expecting a revision soon (1-2 years?) that would remove the non-motor exemption in the CG reg, which would then "require" the states to register all watercraft.

As for getting the old canoes exempt, we currently have an exemption for old snowmobilies (yes, all snowmobilites must also be registered.) if they are older then a certain date and used either in club event/parades/infrequently.

We wrote the "old paddle only" exemption copying/mirroring the snowmobile exemption and used some of the existing water craft exemption language.

But getting it to pass is another matter.

Dan

 

[Dave Wermuth]

Well, I like the idea of using the fees for canoe related improvements. I suspect the general fund and power boaters in Mi would realize that benefit. Taxes paid for the boat when purchased should provide revenue to benefit the canoe related activity. So why tax again? I think good rational arguments could be made both ways. the part of me with the bad attitude would say that the government is simply looking for another way to get money. I wonder if they've ever thought of registering fly rods? Anyway, the part of me with the positve atitude acknowleges that taxes are needed for to provide services to the taxpayer. So maybe it's not quite so simple. I'd rather not pay/register and rather not put numbers on my canoes. I already pay my share of taxes. And does the government really need to know how many canoes, canoeists there are? Homeland security? In michigan all livery canoes are required to be registered as well as those with motors. So, I guess in the overall sceme of things it's no hill I'm willin' to die on, but if I can have the hill without having to die on it, well I'd vote fer that. But getting it to pass IS another matter, Right Dan?
Regards, Dave.

 

[Fitz]

Bird watching

Well, I posted this because I came across the information and thought members would want to know. It also stunk highly of the same Maine registration effort that was met with public outrage last spring. This proposal, like the Maine attempt, also mentions fees for bird watching and hiking.

Jeez, we were out paddling last weekend and saw quite a few birds. How much does that cost ??

Also, I've paddle a lot in NH. The only time I've ever seen fish and wildlife is out on power boats "patrolling" on nice days on big lakes.

I'm sure they do good work too, but maybe start by trimming some waste and managing funds they do have more effectively. They have a great TV Show.

They see kayaks on every other vehicle and $ come to mind.

 

[Larry Meyer]

Personally I froth at the mouth about this sort of thing. We’re getting to the point where everything we do is registered, taxed, measured, and reported.

With respect to the argument that boat registration fees will fund improvements for paddlers. A. have you ever tried to find out how your state government spends the money it now has? And B. what every head of a state bureaucracy wants is their “own” revenue stream so their office can keep growing isolated from review. C. it costs money to collect money—how much is it going to cost just to set up and administer registration fee collection? What will be left over for “improvements?”

Just look at what’s going on with the way many states are switching their campground registration systems over to big centralized online registration companies. You call somebody in Bangkok who’s never laid eyes on the campground and reads you data off her pc. Ridiculous. But likely profitable for the company and the state. Then the state whines about trying to create jobs in the state, when they’ve just shipped jobs out-of-state.

Ah well, I’m going to lie down and cry a while.