From my monthly Quotable Sportsman column in The Maine Sportsman, here are some of my favorite quotes of 2011.

"Working on fairy shrimp in vernal pools while the deer population crashes or you have no clue how many moose there are in the north woods is simply inexcusable."
- Don Kleiner of the Maine Professional Guides Association, criticizing the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife at SAM’s Sportsman’s Congress, January 7, 2011

"I threw a rug. It completely ignored me… I’m glad the kids were in school."
- Stacy Simmons, who photographed a wolf hybrid that escaped from her next door neighbor’s controversial refuge in Bristol. The most disturbing photo showed the wolf hybrid gazing into the open door of Simmons’ school bus. J.W. Oliver story, Lincoln County News, September 28, 2011.

"Our hope was we could move them to this Shangri-la island away from the jets and breed them and move them."
- Wally Jacubus, mammal group leader for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, on his agency’s effort to move a colony of 15 cottontail rabbits, on Maine’s endangered species list, from the Portland jetport to a Kennebunkport island. Thirteen of the rabbits died after being moved. Beth Quimby story, Maine Sunday Telegram, September 4, 2011.

"We’re calling to notify you there is a bear in your front yard."
- Police message to residents of a Portland neighborhood. David Hench story, Portland Press Herald, September 24, 2011.

"It was getting to be 7 o’clock and you don’t want school buses and firearms on the scene."
- Portland Lt. James Sweatt, explaining why game wardens shot the 120-pound bear. Same story.

"I welcome and embrace the assault on this agency."
- Catherine Caroll, Director of Maine’s Land Use Regulation Commission, on a study group’s examination of a proposal to eliminate LURC and transfer its duties to Maine counties. Tom Bell story, Maine Sunday Telegram, August 21, 2011.

"I have been kind of shocked to see that members of the tea party have chosen to make this their fall-on-the-sword or die-on-the-hill issue. The tactics are very very aggressive. Very nasty emails, phone calls. The tone has been upsetting me."

- Senator David Trahan, commenting after his bill to give the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife a small percentage of sales tax revenue fell two votes short in the Senate after passing in the House. Steve Mistler story, Lewiston Sun Journal, June 29, 2011.

"My last job will be my best job."
- Chandler Woodcock on his new job as Commissioner of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Deirdre Fleming story, Maine Sunday Telegram, April 10, 2011.

"I absolutely believe that the federal government should put people before eagles. We’ve gotten to a point in our society where people don’t count. People pay taxes, eagles don’t."
- Governor Paul LePage, in response to a question about moving an eagle’s nest from a roadway. Rebekah Metzler story, Kennebec Journal, May 21, 2011.

"I live in Thomaston, just a half mile outside town, so I’m not in the country, but this past winter I had an ermine in my house, a fox, a deer, and a rabbit in my yard, and my neighbors saw a bobcat. You can’t get that in Dallas."
- Melody Wolfhertz, the owner/chef of Rockland restaurant In Good Company, who returned to her hometown and state after high profile jobs in Washington D.C., Aspen, and Dallas restaurants. Virginia M. Wright story, Down East magazine, June 2011.

"The reality is, in three minutes on this smartphone, I could probably get more information than 1000 billboards could provide."
- Pete Didisheim of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, testifying against a bill to relax Maine’s ban on billboards. Rebekah Metzler story, Kennebec Journal, April 27, 2011. The bill failed.

"It’s the first winner we’ve had who bought a Barbie dollhouse with the money."
Tom Noonan, Sebago Lake fishing derby director, on Dover-Foxcroft kindergarten pupil Brooklynne Blocker’s first place 4.29 pound pickerel. She caught her $1000 fish in Newport’s Sebasticook Lake. Diana Bowley story, Bangor Daily News, March 2011.

"He was in fish heaven."
- John Belvin of The Junction Store in Brownville after finding a mink in his tank of live bait. Lewiston Sun Journal, February 2011.

"It is absolutely not the exit I anticipated. Never in my calculations did I envision the election of a governor who would go after essentially all that the NRCM and I personally have worked for a full generation."
- Brownie Carson, who retired in 2010 after 27 years as executive director of the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Bill Nemitz column, Maine Sunday Telegram, January 30, 2011.

"It’s a very emotional debate. People do it and swear it’s positive for deer and it doesn’t matter what the science and the department say. That is a battle we are not going to win."
- DIF&W deer biologist Lee Kantar, about deer feeding, a practice the agency discourages. Deirdre Fleming column, Kennebec Journal, February 13, 2011.

"If they drove by and saw a deer in the back of the truck, they’d stop and talk with whoever had shot it. Men make a big deal about some things."
Tammi Winchenback, manager of Pushaw’s Trading Post in Hope, on the nine 200-pound bucks tagged there this year. Deirdre Fleming story, Maine Sunday Telegram, December 12, 2011.

"In the public meeting, a man from New Jersey asked why we don’t stock walleyes or pike. He said they love it in New Jersey. So I had to keep everyone else quiet, because at this point they’re going to kill this guy. And I said, 'Quite honestly, you’re probably the only one in this room who thought of New Jersey as a fishing destination.' That pretty much diffused the situation."
- Robert Van-Wiper, DIF&W Regional Fisheries Biologist. Deirdre Fleming’s Freshwater Fishing column, Kennebec Journal, August 8, 2011.

"Oh my God. He’s wearing a life jacket. If you have to wear a life jacket to ice fish, maybe it’s not worth it."
- Warden Rick Clowry, observing an ice angler in the middle of Wyman Lake. Chris Cousins story, Bangor Daily News, January 2, 2011.

"The reality is there is scarcely any money to help repair a complicated problem that took 10 years to develop and could take twice that to fix."
Deidre Fleming column about Maine’s Game Plan for Deer, Maine Sunday Telegram, March 27, 2011.

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