When son Josh suggested a Father’s Day weekend fishing adventure, I was ecstatic. Josh lives in Massachusetts and doesn’t get much time off, so he doesn’t get much chance to fish – especially with his Dad. Our north woods camp was too distant for a weekend trip to Maine, so I suggested the Rangeley region. […]
The legislature extended the ban on deer feeding, while rejecting a bill to allow hunters to bait deer. And don’t worry, the deer won’t starve because of these actions. LD 767, sponsored by Representative Lance Harvell of Farmington, extended the prohibition on deer feeding. The bill was enacted and signed into law by the governor. […]
The restoration of Arctic charr in Big Reed Pond is a very big story. After years of waiting to find out if the restoration worked, I feared failure. But on Saturday, DIF&W issued a press release announcing that their fisheries biologists have finally determined that the charr are naturally reproducing in the pond. Hooray! Charr […]
Wild boars entered Maine from New Hampshire and game warden Mike Bowditch was sent into the woods of southern Maine to find and kill them. Mike’s girlfriend Stacey Stevens, a wildlife biologist, accompanied him and shot two sows that popped up in front of them trailed by a dozen baby pigs. One of the sows […]
The landowner relations program at the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife got a major boost this year. LD 1391 nearly tripled the program’s funding, recognizing that this program is critically important to all of us who enjoy recreating on private land. If you need to know why this is so important, please read farmer […]
The attack of a rabid raccoon on 21-year-old Rachel Borch of Hope reminded me of all the wild critters that I have encountered in the wild and in our home. Fortunately, none were rabid. Rachel’s story has gotten a lot of press. She was jogging in the woods when the coon attacked her, and she […]
The law prohibiting shooting a gun that’s resting on a motor vehicle – or even resting the gun up against a motor vehicle – has been changed. I remember a hunter who got a summons for leaning his loaded gun up against his truck while he had lunch. So we owe Representative Joel Stetkis a […]
I hope you never experience a rafting trip like this one. In her new novel, The River at Night, Erica Ferencik sends four ladies on a north Maine woods rafting trip that turns into a disaster – and that’s putting it mildly. As the ladies raft turned upside down and dumped them into the cold […]
Since Linda and I started our Travelin’ Maine(rs) weekly travel column 6 ½ years ago, we’ve been blessed to discover many hidden (and some not-so-hidden) gems. We’ve been particularly impressed by the historic inns in Rockland and Kennebunkport, and were pleased when they joined together in a new website, Inns Along the Coast, featuring lots […]
It was probably a bit ambitious for me to propose eleven bills at this year’s legislative session. It turned out to be a very tough year there, and not just for my bills. We’ll be lucky I guess if they can agree on a new budget. As usual, most of the 1800 or so bills […]
George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.
