By Wildlife Biologist Mark Caron Increasingly MDIFW Regional Wildlife Biologists have been conducting prescribed burns on some of the wildlife management areas (WMAs) found throughout the state.  Also known as ‘controlled burns’, this habitat managemen

By Regional Fisheries Biologist Liz Thorndike Smelt dipping in Maine is a springtime tradition for many, and depending on where you go and the conditions, these smelt runs can be sparse, or if you are lucky, the brook can run black with smelts. One night a few years ago, I captured this video of rainbow smelts spawning, when the brook ran black with smelts. Smelts are widely utilized and highly valued here in Maine.

By Regional Fisheries Biologist Gregory Burr [caption id="attachment_3442" align="alignright" width="400"] Jim Hogan, Beech Hill Pond – 37 ½ inches, 22 pounds[/caption] For years, many of the famed trophy lake trout (also known as “togue”) waters Downeast languished in small fish obscurity.  Lakes like West Grand, West Musquash, Tunk, Branch and the current lake trout state record ho

By Lands Management Biologist Eric Hoar Inland Fisheries and Wildlife manages for all wildlife, both game and non-game species.  One of the tools the Lands Program employs to create or enhance wildlife habitat is timber harvesting.

In what felt like a blink of an eye, we finished up our tenth year of monitoring great blue heron colonies with the help of Heron Observation Network volunteers. These citizen scientists often braved mosquitoes and black flies and hiked through thick swampy forests to get a good view of great blue heron nests, which were often in snags in the middle of a wetland, sometimes in what felt like the middle of nowhere.