MDIFW Blog
Maine’s Hunters and Trappers are Conservationists
By Wildlife Promotional Coordinator Lauren McPherson
Maine Warden Service & Friend and Friend Inc. ATV Partnership
By Maine Warden Service Corporal John MacDonald
Thanks to a continued partnership with Friend & Friend Inc. in Ellsworth, the dealership is lending the Maine Warden Service a new recreational vehicle to assist game wardens in the course of their work. As part of the Kawasaki User Relations Loaner Program, a new recreational vehicle has been made available at no charge to Maine Game Wardens.
Is Your Catch Stocked or Wild?
The crisp morning air fills your lungs with oxygen and your soul with serenity and anticipation all at once. The water is flat and calm, depicting a perfect mirror image of the brilliantly colored foliage intermixed with deep evergreen that skirts the lake and makes you feel like you just fell into a watercolor painting. Each time you cast the line your heart jumps a little with anticipation of a bite and a sense of wonder surrounding what you might pull in from the depths.
Join Judy Outside: Fall Migration
Sunday morning, I was vacuuming the living room, and over the drone of the vacuum I heard the telltale song of a black-billed cuckoo… “cu cu cu cu”…“cu cu cu cu.” I paused for a second, and thought “did I just hear that?”
Three Black Bear Recipes to Try
You may have heard a myth that black bear meat isn't as palatable as other game meat... But with proper care and the right recipe, it may just become your favorite game to eat with friends and family!
K9 Luna and K9 Gordon are Certified!
We have concluded our 10-week basic search and rescue K9 detection school with our two new K9 teams, Warden Michael Latti and K9 Luna along with Warden Preston Pomerleau and K9 Gordon. Both teams recently passed their field certification tests in obedience, article search, tracking, and air scent searches. Along with the field proficiency standards, each handler must successfully pass a written test outlining the fundamentals of their training, K9 health, and deployment strategies.
Try turkey hunting this fall!
The fall wild turkey hunting season begins on September 14! With a bag limit of up to five turkeys in some Wildlife Management Districts, there is plenty of opportunity for wild turkey this fall! We've got some tips to get you started.
K9 School: Evidence Search
The last discipline we introduced to K9 Luna and K9 Gordon were evidence searches or “article searches.” Evidence searches are used to locate anything from a hat to a firearm and everything in between. The K9s have been trained to indicate on anything with human scent. This is an extremely useful tool for fish and wildlife enforcement. The more common articles that we search for are shell casings, shotgun shells and wads, knives, and other outdoor equipment.
A New Fishing Tool: FLOAT
I’m sure many of you have hit the road at the crack of dawn to start a fishing trip and realized you didn’t have your fishing lawbook. Did you go out of your way to stop by a gas station or town office hoping they’d be open and have a copy? Or turn around to head home and waste even more of your precious fishing time? To me, neither of those options are ideal, and I’d rather not worry about remembering the lawbook along with my fishing gear, life jackets, snacks, sunscreen, bug spray…the list seems endless. I guess I could put a copy in my boat that never leaves the boat and remains in pristine condition? Yeah right!
Racing to Save Maine’s Black Racers
His leap was like something from a football playback, but instead of cradling a pigskin, he was lunging toward a flash of black rocketing through the tall grass, living up to its name, the black racer. I never expected catching snakes would require such agility, speed, and coordination. I used to catch snakes as a child, usually for my mom or step-mom who would burst out in a screech while gardening, yelling for me to remove it. I would gladly oblige, taking the time to check over the snake and bring it into the woods to be released. But I never had the speed nor the commitment to bound through the air, landing on my side, surely losing my breath after falling to the hard ground.
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