AUGUSTA — Maine’s agriculture Commissioner Walter Whitcomb on Tuesday shared new details of a plan that would restructure the state’s Forest Service, including the elimination of between 12 and 13 forest ranger positions.

Whitcomb told a joint meeting of the Legislature’s budget-writing Appropriations and Agriculture committees that the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Conservation wanted to separate rangers’ firefighting and law enforcement responsibilities. The department also wants two new positions to focus on resource protection in anticipation of another destructive investigation of spruce budworm or other invasive insect species that can spell trouble for Maine forests.

Whitcomb said the total number of actual positions that were being eliminated within the Department of Conservation was 3.5 full-timers, and that many of the reductions in staff proposed under the department’s 2016-17 budget are positions that are currently vacant.

State Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, a member of the Appropriations Committee, questioned how a revamped Forest Service with just six full-time officers with law enforcement powers were going to respond to the 4,000 calls a year for law violations currently handled by about 55 rangers.

But Whitcomb told lawmakers the numbers previously cited by different Maine media were, “fascinating” to him and he was anxious to see what they were based on.

“The numbers that we have used are far different than those that I see quoted in the press,” Whitcomb said. He said the No. 1 law violation that rangers are involved with is complaints on littering.

“The number of calls that had to do with specific law enforcement are dramatically less than the number you just described and others I have seen in the press,” Whitcomb said.

The proposal to eliminate rangers came on the heels of a legislative bid in 2014 that saw a bill passed that would have allowed the state’s forest rangers to carry firearms, like other Maine law enforcement officers.

But a veto of the bill by Gov. Paul LePage was sustained by the Legislature, effectively killing it.

In his veto message, LePage said lawmakers failed to provide the funding to train the rangers and to provide weapons and ammunition to them.

Rangers cited the need to carry firearms because they are often in dangerous situations in the woods, including when they encounter illegal drug operations or are enforcing logging laws against hostile individuals who may be armed.

Ed Archer, president of the Maine State Law Enforcement Officers Association, the collective bargaining arm of rank-and-file rangers, told the Bangor Daily News this month that his organization was blindsided by the budget proposal.

“We had no lead in to it, so that concerned us,” Archer said. “We had no idea (the administration was) going in that direction.”

Meanwhile, a Facebook page set up as the Maine Forest Rangers Association community has suggested the slashing of ranger positions is retaliation by LePage for the rangers seeking the ability to be armed. It’s an allegation Whitcomb has rebutted.

Among other things, Maine’s forest rangers are responsible for fighting wildfires, investigating forestry violations that include arson and timber theft, and enforcing timber harvesting laws. They also inspect active logging operations.

But Whitcomb said Tuesday that a shift in focus would push the rangers’ law enforcement role onto the new law enforcement officers and that efforts were underway to put rangers in more of a coordinating role when it comes to fighting forest fires in Maine.

While some lawmakers questioned whether the state would have enough rangers to combat fires under the new plan, Whitcomb said each summer Maine has enough rangers so the state frequently sends teams to help fight wildfires in other states. 

“We have left a number of (job) vacancies for a number of reasons and are still capable of sending two up to three crews out of state in the middle of the summer to fight other fires would suggest there is a variability in the workload to say the least,” Whitcomb said. 

He also said the state does receive revenue for those efforts from other states and the federal government and that the rangers are better-trained and able to help train other local firefighters in wild land firefighting.

State Sen. Jim Dill, D-Old Town, a member of the Agriculture Committee, wanted to know if the intent was to convert some of the 13 rangers who would lose their jobs under the restructuring to the new conservation law enforcement positions.

“I would certainly hope that a lot of those individuals would be at the top of the list in terms of applicants,” Whitcomb said. He said there would be some heightened requirements for qualifying, but the department intended to use state civil service rules in the hiring process.

“It is shifting responsibilities,” Whitcomb said. “It’s portrayed around this building occasionally that every ranger wants to be armed. I know that not to be the case and I think you do too.”

While Whitcomb downplayed the potential lost ranger positions he also told lawmakers there was little doubt the proposal before them was a significant change in the way the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry would be operated and staffed.

As part of an overall budget proposal being offered by the LePage administration lawmakers will spend the next few months holding hearings and work sessions on the proposals and could adopt or reject all, part or none of them.

sthistle@sunjournal.com