Comments from astonished sportsmen have poured in about two women who were rescued by a Maine game warden after getting lost while snowshoeing last Sunday in Harpswell.

To be kind, I will not name the women, for reasons that will be obvious in a moment, although their names did appear in reporter Seth Koenig’s account of the rescue in The Times Record on Valentine's Day.

This story was not a valentine to sportsmen.

This year’s Milfoil Summit, scheduled for February 25, offers you a good opportunity to hear directly from Maine’s new commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, Darryl Brown, who will present “his vision for the DEP.” Should be very interesting. And the commissioner will take questions. That should be even more interesting.

 

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Environmentalists may be swimming upstream against a strong current in the River LePage, but they’re still in the water, finning as fast as they can.

Fresh off their extreme disappointment with the governor’s proposed environmental reforms, The Maine Environmental Priorities Coalition hosted a legislative breakfast and press conference last Thursday to present its 2011 Common Environmental Agenda.

A huge animal killed by a car just south of Bryant Pond on Tuesday night may have been a wolf or wolf-hybrid.

Wednesday’s blizzard didn’t stop a few industrious individuals from tracking down the story and spreading it to others, including me.

Tom Remington of Skinny Moose Media emailed me at 9:49 a.m. Wednesday as snow accumulated outside my home/office window.

When the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine announced last week that former Secretary of State Matt Dunlap had been hired as the organization’s new executive director, many in and outside the State House breathed a sigh of relief.

While many asked what happened to Tim Bell, SAM’s executive director since October 1, 2011, I’ve been very circumspect in my responses, out of respect and concern for the organization I led for eighteen years.

Darryl Brown got grilled in Augusta Tuesday afternoon, and by my estimate, he is now well done. Or should I say he’s done well?

Governor Paul LePage took his case for the business environment to those who most value the other environment – the one outside your window – on January 20 at the Augusta Civic Center. Over 500 environmentalists turned out, many of them worried by what they’d been hearing from the new governor about rolling back environmental rules and protections.

Seventy-five people from the recreation and landowner communities and state agencies convened for a landowner relations conference on December 9, 2010. The Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine (SWOAM) and Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine (SAM) hosted the event, with funding help from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund and the Environmental Funders Network. Edie Smith of Maine Directions in Winthrop organized and moderated the event held at SAM’s Augusta conference center.

“The year 1805 will long be remembered on account of the advent of the wolves from Canada to the State of Maine and other parts of New England. They came in droves, and their howling was a terror to everyone.”

This important event may not be remembered these days, but it won’t be forgotten either, thanks to a valuable new book, Early Maine Wildlife, by William Krohne and Christopher Hoving, published in 2010 by the University of Maine Press.

Most members of the legislature’s Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife joined Governor Paul LePage in endorsing the ambitious legislative agenda of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine in a candidate survey distributed by SAM’s political action committee prior to the November 2010 election.

IF&W Committee members are: Senators Thomas Martin, Dave Trahan, and John Patrick; and Representatives Paul Davis, Ralph Sarty, Dale Crafts, Eleanor Espling, Stacey Guerin, Stephen Wood, Herb Clark, Jane Eberle, Sheryl Briggs, and Michael Shaw.