You’ve got to give them credit. The Maine League of Conservation Voters (MCV) has stayed the course, issuing its 25th Environmental Scorecard on September 6.

This year MCV has offered a new twist – a free iPhone application, available along with the scorecard itself at 2011Environmental Scorecard. The online version is interactive.

On the same day he announced appointments for a group charged with recommending reforms for Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission, Governor Paul LaPage was quoted in the Bangor Daily News as saying LURC “will not be in the hands of the state. It’s going to go back likely to the counties.”

The Governor may be in for a surprise. He certainly is premature in announcing the the recommendations of a 13-member study commission on LURC's future before the group has had a single meeting!

The Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine has launched a project to create a strong partnership between Maine’s private landowners and those who use their land for recreation.

Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has created a landowner relations position, following the expiration of a similar position at the Department of Conservation.

As Maine’s tradition of public access to and across private land continues to evaporate, the importance of maintaining a good relationship between landowners and recreationists is paramount. So far neither state agencies nor recreationists as a group have been able to foster the type of relationship and program that will sustain this tradition of neighborly access.

Chandler Woodcock, the commissioner of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, made a brief appearance on August 9 at a Bangor meeting of the Landowners and Sportsmen Relations Advisory Board.

This advisory board was created in 2002 to actively participate in landowner relations programs at state agencies. A report on the board’s August 9 meeting — and a look at the sorry history of the board and its predecessor — can be read on my personal website.

The crowd at the July 4th parade gets out of hand in North Anson; three Maine game wardens are among the law enforcement officers who respond.

A Prentis man allegedly sets a fire marshal’s car on fire; game wardens answer the call.

A Rockland man suspected of assault escapes in a kayak; sheriff deputies seek assistance from game wardens who are already on the lake policing the Concert on the Cobbossee.

An elderly woman wanders off from a retirement community in Hamden; game wardens arrive with a couple of dogs and a boat to search the nearby river.

When Randy Cross appeared a few years ago on Wildfire, the TV talk show hosted by Harry Vanderweide and me, he rolled up his sleeves to show viewers his scars. Each one came with a story about a captured bear. Cross is a great storyteller, and he has lots of stories to tell!

It’s a great time to be a birdwatcher in Maine. From the release of a spectacular new bird identification guide, to creation of a new eBird server, there’s a ton of information available to get you started on a great new outdoor experience or to serve your expanding interest in birding.

Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has begun publishing an informative weekly report available by email or on the department's Web site. (Short of funds, the department is unable to mail it to you.)

The weekly report is full of interesting information with special sections from the Wildlife and Fisheries Divisions, the Warden Service, and the Commissioner’s Office, plus a section of photos.

Two words come to mind when I think of Sandy Ritchie: passion and integrity.

Sure, Sandy has brought exceptional organizational skills to every task she’s been assigned during her thirty-year career at Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. But it’s her passion for her work as a wildlife biologist, and her integrity, that have made her a star in that agency.

And it’s obvious she loves her job. “If I didn’t have a mortgage I’d have done this job for free,” she told me.