From mountain lions to buffalo, news from other states is fascinating

mountain lion shot by Oscar Cronk now at LL BeanI always enjoy the State-By-State section of USA Today newspaper, which features one story from each state. The November 7 edition featured a lot of fish and wildlife stories.

In Idaho, state officials constructed a safer feeding station after 43 elk died there last winter, 11 of them killed by a mountain lion. And in Wyoming, 10 buffalo were released on the reservation lands of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, the first buffalo to walk those lands in more than a century.

In Alaska, a couple reached out to their community for help in finding their Moluccan cockatoo, a pink bird named Keta. I thought they should have headlined that one: Catcha Keta if you Can.

New Hampshire held a hearing on removing the Bald eagle from the endangered list, while in New York, three men were accused of poaching salmon from a creek during the annual salmon run. They had several garbage bags full of fish.

In Vermont, farmers are riled up over proposed rules to strengthen the buffers around Lake Champlain and other waterways.

In Delaware, a humpback whale was found dead, entangled in fishing gear. And a lost hunter in Wisconsin was located using cellphone pings.

Alas, the news from Maine was not very positive. In Bowdoinham, a man was charged with boating under the influence after he hit an island in the Kennebec River.

PHOTO: a mountain lion shot by Oscar Cronk of Wiscasset, now on display at LL Bean.

George Smith

About George Smith

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.