New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

Thirty years and counting at NH Fish and Game.

Thursday 11/30/2006

As of this week, the week after Thanksgiving, probably tomorrow Friday December 1st, will mark thirty years I have worked at the New Hampshire Fish and Game department. I transferred from working as a prison guard in the kitchen of the NH State Prison a few days after the holiday in 1976. I went to work as a guard so I would be on the state payroll and to be working in Concord so I could pester the folks at Fish and Game at least weekly about any openings. Although I had graduated four years before, jobs at Fish and Game Departments were as scarce as they still are today. I wrote to nearly all 50 states after graduation and applied for any similar positions in the federal system when ever I learned of them. I had worked my way through collage in construction and had NO experience. Four years of trying had not paid off. But I would never give up. It was my life's dream to be a biologist and I was bound and determined to get a job as a biologist. In fact when I was very young I would tell my parents that I wanted to be a forest ranger that worked with animals as I didn't know the tern wildlife biologist. I moved to Allenstown in 1973, the year after graduation, to be closer to Concord so I could stop in at least monthly at the Fish and Game Department to see if there were any openings.

At last Fisheries chief Dick Seamans hired me as a full time, but a temporary position, as a fisheries bio-aid under the large lakes bass study program that fateful November.

And what a career it has been. Definitely an E-ticket! My mentor the first few weeks was Leigh Welcome, the large lake bass project leader. He had been a classmate of mine at UNH, only he was a bio major. We got right into netting landlocked salmon that first week.

By October of 1979 I wrangled my way into the Fish and Game's first bear biologist position, which was a full time permanent position. Henry Laramie hired me and I will fore ever be grateful to him. Henry didn't just hire me, but went right to work training me. Day two on the job Henry and I headed up to the Plymouth State collage campus to relocate a large bear from a tall oak in the center of the campus.

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department is so small that over time you end up working on practically every project. From clipping and stocking fish to tagging deer, moose, turkeys, lots of bears, ducks and geese and just about every other critter going, I have had some small roll or another. I have enjoyed a career working with some of the finest people I have ever met, to a person dedicated and passionate about the Department and the fish and wildlife of this state. It has been far more than I had ever dreamed it could be. And most days still are. And I don't think it will end any too soon.

I was reading a report today about the number of ospreys nesting in NH this year. A record number, although only 32 of the 54 nests were successful due to the rainy May. But a glance at the table shows only 6 nests in 1980 and 54 this year. During my 30 year career the deer population has nearly doubled from about 45,000 to 85,000 this year. Moose were certainly only a couple hundred in 1976, now there are 7,000. Black bears numbered 1,200 or so, and were on a downward trend. I helped turn that around and now the number is pegged at 5,500. Turkeys too have taken off. From only 25 released along the Conn. River Valley in 1975 that number has soared to 35,000. Bald eagles and falcons were absent. Now there are a dozen nesting pairs of each.

It truly has been a wonderful time to be a wildlife biologist in NH. I can't imagine doing anything else with my life. Here's to 30 years and counting!

Oh yes, it got into the mid 60's today. I did get out into my deer stand for 45 minutes at the end of the day. A balmy south breeze made it feel more like summer than the last day of November. The Suncook River looks pretty gray, but the field beyond is emerald green. Comparing the picture of this year's Suncook River picture to some of the last three at about this same time sure is a contrast. Looks like some December-like temperatures are due in here by early next week. Still no snow in sight. Go figure.