The Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund Board awarded $325,000 in grants to 36 projects on May 3, a substantially diminished pot of money than was available in the past. This fund gets its money from an instant lottery game and the board awards the profits from the game to wildlife conservation and outdoor recreation projects twice a year.

Governor Paul LePage initially wanted to veto the $5 million bond for the Land for Maine’s Future, but Carlisle McLean, LePage’s policy staffer for environmental issues, and David Trahan, executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, helped convince him to allow the people of Maine to vote on the proposal. Even if the bond (along with three others LePage decided not to veto) is upheld by the voters, however, the governor has said he doesn't plan on spending the money until the state has made a significant dent in its debt.

Everyone wants to know more about Maine boaters. Both the state and federal governments are surveying Maine boaters. The feds want to know where you go, what you do in your boat, and what you want and need in the future.

A total of 68,000 boaters in the five New England states and New York received a mailed invitation to participate in a federal online survey conducted by SeaPlan, an ocean research nonprofit group. It’s designed to provide data to the feds to “create a balanced approach to using the country’s ocean resources.”

To veto or not to veto? That’s the question for Governor Paul LePage when he returns to Maine this weekend. The legislature’s endorsement of a group of bond issues leaves only the governor standing in the way of giving the people of Maine a chance to vote on those bonds, each designed to address a problem and boost our economy.

Each bond was presented to legislators and voted on as a separate bill, so the Governor can pick his way through them, signing some and vetoing others. I’ve heard that he may veto all of them.

When God was designing a warbler, He tried a lot of different color schemes, and apparently had trouble choosing one. So Him being God, he used them all!

Consider the Wilson’s Warbler: bright yellow face and belly, greenish top, black cap and eye. Or the Northern Parula: blue head and wings with striking white wing bars, yellow throat, black and rusty chest bands. Wow!

While millions of Animal Planet TV viewers got a glimpse of the things Maine game wardens do in the series North Woods Law, I’ve collected the 2011 data to find out just how much time they’re spending on the traditional job of enforcing hunting, fishing, and trapping laws.

The quick answer is: not enough.

Representative Gary Knight took a beating on the so-called Takings bill when it came to a key vote in Maine’s House of Representatives. Knight is a very capable legislator who chairs the Taxation Committee. And he was very angry after changing his vote on the controversial bill to break a tie and send it on to the Senate.

When my binoculars focused on a Blackburnian Warbler in the front yard of our Mount Vernon home, I was hooked.

For years we watched our neighbor, Dona Seegars, binoculars plastered to her face, walking our property in the spring. When she finally got Linda and I out there with her, seven years ago, the number of warblers on our property amazed and thrilled us. And my first look at the wondrously colorful Blackburnian made me a bird watcher.

Invasive nonnative fish and plants have changed my life. Some have changed things for the better, others not so much.

Young Gabe Jacobs (in the accompanying photo) will enjoy catching whopper northern pike in the Belgrade Lakes - but never experience the spectacular landlocked salmon fishing there that I once enjoyed. Some idiot dumped northern pike into the Belgrades. These voracious predators have changed that lake system forever. My salmon are gone.