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Jun 2019 22

Nate Webb takes over as Director of Wildlife

By | Wildlife Conservation | 0 Comments | 3 min read

Nate Webb has researched and hunted animals I can only dream about; wolves, cougars, grizzlies and even Big Horn sheep. I first met Nate when we worked on Maine’s bear management plan for MDIFW. An avid outdoorsman, Nate is incredibly knowledgeable about all things wildlife in Maine and beyond. So, I was not surprised when I saw the notification that he had been named the new wildlife director of the department. I sat down with Nate to go over some of his goals and reflect on all of the impressive animals he has studied so far in his career. I asked him the question “Now that you are the wildlife director, what’s on your priority list?” and we went from there. “I want to make sure that we are working towards the broader vision for IFW...

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Mar 2018 29

Thank you, George!

By | Maine Hunters | 0 Comments | 3 min read

My friend George Smith publicly announced that he had been diagnosed with ALS early this year.  When he told me in late last summer, I was shocked and saddened. I can't imagine the Maine outdoors without George in it.

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Sep 2017 1

An increase in trespassing

By | Wildlife Conservation | 0 Comments | 3 min read

Trail cameras are addicting. You buy one, get some pictures then decide that you should have another one at a certain intersection and the next thing you know, you are like us and have almost 10 out in the woods, trying to pattern your deer. That excitement of pulling those memory cards quickly vanishes when you see things that don’t belong on your property.  In the past couple of months, we have had lots of activity on the trail cameras; a car driving around in the newly planted clover and a man walking through a highly traveled deer intersection.  Both men had to make an effort to get where they were; this was not just an 'oops, I took a wrong turn.'  We had posted signs up already and clearly that was not enough...

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Jan 2017 25

Learning to eat wild game

By | Eating Wild Game | 3 Comments | 3 min read

I wrote the following for the Northwoods Sporting Journal. What are your thoughts on eating wild game and teaching kids about where their food really comes from? On the Monday after rifle season began, my three year old’s preschool asked him what he had done over the weekend. Straight faced, he looked at her and said, “Daddy shot a deer and I ate the heart” and walked off to play with his friends. She looked at me in disbelief and all I could do was smile and nod. The excitement of getting a deer was at its peak for him when we drove into the driveway with my husband’s deer. That same three year old rubbed his hands down the back of the deer, held onto its antlers and when we hung it in the barn, he stuck his head almost inside the...

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Dec 2016 19

United, we win.

By | Wildlife Conservation | 2 Comments | 4 min read

United, we win. The more involved you get with something, the more frustrated you can become when priorities shift, you see behind that iron curtain and you lose sight of what’s important and made you get involved in the first place. It’s hard to get reenergized and motivated sometimes, especially when there are so many divides. I have been partly amused and partly disheartened to read articles that my fellow outdoor writers have written about how they miss the ‘good ole days’ of hunting when women were home with the kids and not out in the woods.  I hate to break it to you, but women are the only way that the next generation of hunters are going to take to the woods.  WE are teaching our children why it is so important to...

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