Solving Problems with Nature - Naturally
ERIC P. ORFF
Certified Wildlife Biologist
Wildlife Author - Wildlife Lecturer -
Wildlife Photographer
Non-Lethal Control of Bats since 1983
nhfishandwildlif@aol.com
Wildlife
DICK PINNEY'S COLUMN 01/02/04
Some of my readers may be curious about the Dickster's outdoor activities of the last year. Whether or not you are among that group, we're going to tell you anyway! We started the year out with some great cross-country skiing. Yup, this old frame can indeed carry my eighth-of-a-ton body over hill and dale on a pair of those skinny skis! But don't ask my to do anything fancy and once in a while when I fall, we may need a bit of a help to get back on our feet.
Jane and I do most of our skiing right around the Town of Greenland, with one of our favorite places being land that is along Great Bay that was recently purchased by the Great Bay Estuarine Reserve. It's not a long ski, but provides woods, fields, old roads and views of the Bay. All of the Reserve's lands are open to hiking and skiing. Our other favorite place is the Winnicut River valley, where there's a lot of open fields, Christmas tree plantations, woodland trails and tons of wildlife, especially deer and coyotes to keep us interested. This area is part conservation lands but is by permission of the owners.
Our dog Balm usually accompanies us on our ski tours and never has been a problem as far as chasing after wildlife (unless it's a partridge or pheasant). We have skied with dogs that did give chase to deer. That's not only not fun but also quite illegal. Those dogs, usually owned by friends, don't get another chance. We've been lucky that Balm was easily trained to not chase land animals.
We did some ice fishing, with a couple trips down to James Eddy Smelt Camps in Dresden, Maine and some freshwater fishing here on our local ponds and up into the White Mountain foothills. The smelt fishing is an easy situation. We call ahead to Sharon James to reserve a rental shanty (207-737-2596) They give you a time when the camps open for the day's (or night's) fishing. Your shanty is heated and lit and your bait is provided. These shanties will fish up to six people, but a party of four is about right. Sometimes it's just Jane and I that go and other times we go with other couples. This is a great social occasion and we've always come away with plenty of fish to eat. Last year's freshwater ice fishing was done mostly with rainbow trout in mind, fishing some of the ponds that are on the stocking list for rainbows. The limit is only two fish but most of the fish you catch are enough to feed one person, so if you catch two and keep them, there's your meal for you and your spouse.
One of the things that we miss each year is the big Merideth Rotary Ice Fishing Derby. It is held on the same weekend (first in February) that the annual convention of the New England Outdoor Writers is held. Hey, you can't do everything! My son Spudz has done the Pinney family proud, usually being in the money in this derby. Our first open water fishing was done last year on the Merrimack River, fishing for the brood stock Atlantic salmon. Soon the river was flooded and was not fishable for a while, so we picked on Winnipesaukee landlocked salmon. Boy, they were big and wonderful last spring-a tribute to our state's fishery managers' patience and skill! Our first-ever trip to our Maine camp to fish the ice-out on the Fish River Chain of Lakes turned into a blast! We had native brookies to 19 inches and landlocks to about the same size. One day Brad and I had five brookies with none smaller than fifteen inches! Most were caught on stick baits or streamer flies, trolling. We did a little pond fishing for trout and hoped to be able to do our regular first week in June fishing on the Connecticut River where we've caught some monster rainbows and browns, but the river was in flood and the fishing was terrible. The coming of the stripers into the Piscataqua River and Little Bay made up for that. We had some outstanding days, mostly fishing the Santini Tube-n-Worm rig. Striper was on the Pinney menu quite often during June and July. In July we headed back to our camp in Maine, where mayflies as big as a bat were hatching on Square Lake and bruiser salmon and brookies were feeding on them. Two of my most memorable days were spent fishing with my friend that lives in New Sweden, Lester Beaupre. Lester was one of the victims of the poisoning at the church there that killed one person and send over a dozen to death's doorstep. Lester was still in recovery, but the two days brought both of us out of our funks! We caught fish like crazy.
Our usual trip to Boston Harbor for flounder, cod and maybe a fluke or two was super as usual. Guided by two of the local greats, Pete Santini and Dennis DeCarney (Drop a Dime Charters), we had a blast, caught close to our limits, and ate some fancy meals for a couple of weeks.
As much as we tried, we never got to go offshore for some deep sea fishing for cod and haddock. It seemed whenever the chance came, the weather got sour. It's no fun to be way out on the ocean in a storm. We like to have fun fishing. Soon the fall's duck and goose season was upon us. Guided by my nephews Pete Spangenberg and Joe Ryan, we had a fantastic early season, resident Canada goose hunt one morning, taking fifteen birds by five hunters. Then to camp in northern Maine, where both resident and migratory Canadas and quite a few ducks feed on the grain and potato fields. We spent three glorious weeks there, with only a couple of days ending in no birds coming to bag. Back home we dragged out the sea duck decoys and set about hounding them for several trips. We enjoyed a three-day visit from our Tennessee friend Doug Minor, who I swear was crossed with a mallard. He loves those sea duck hunts more than anything else in life and we love to be involved with his enthusiasm over the hunt. We hope that the year 2004 will be a mirror of last year, with maybe our luck changing a bit as far as both the Merrimack and the Connecticut Rivers choosing to flood during the peak of the fishing. And maybe next year we'll have a crack at some bear hunting at camp or some other exotic trip to write about. Get your gear out. Get out and enjoy all that our great region offers. Drop us an email at DoDuckInn@aol.com and please stay in touch.
DICK PINNEY'S COLUMN 12/26/03
We get lots of requests to supply our readers with information about needs for volunteers on conservation projects. As space and appropriateness allow, we love to pass on this information. Here's a recent email that was forwarded to us from Grace Boitita, Ducks Unlimited biologist working in our Atlantic Flyway. This request is from New Hampshire's Audubon Society: "Do you find yourself missing out on the bitter temperatures and howling winds most winters? We can help. The NH Audubon Conservation Department is seeking volunteers to conduct wildlife inventories in the seacoast area, and we're starting this winter. Our study areas are the Cocheco River (in Dover), and Follett's Brook (in Durham, Lee, and Newmarket). Surveys will be begin in early winter and continue through the spring and summer of 2004. Orientation sessions for each survey area will be held in the seacoast area in the near future. Wildlife surveys will include all species, with an emphasis on birds. In addition, winter surveys will include track surveys for mammals, and spring and summer surveys will include searches for amphibians, reptiles, and odonates (dragonflies and damselflies)."
"For the Cocheco River study area, we will concentrate on the river corridor, both upstream from Dover, and downstream to its confluence with the Salmon Falls River. During the winter, surveys will be done at all access points on land; in warmer weather, there will be the potential for conducting surveys by canoe or kayak. In the Follett's Brook watershed, we will survey along the brook as well as in the adjacent uplands, in an effort to search in all of the different habitats. The number of surveys for each study area varies depending on the time of year and the taxa being targeted. We have come up with a minimum number of field days for each area, but there is no limit, so the more volunteers involved, the more critters we will find! Your assistance is invaluable, whether you take part in several surveys, or have time for just one…any help is greatly appreciated."
"This study is part of ongoing efforts by the Great Bay Resource Protection Partnership to identify and protect significant wildlife habitat in the Great Bay area. Over the past seven years, the Partnership has protected more than 2,500 acres of ecologically significant areas and wildlife habitat in this region, and local partners have conserved more than 1,500 acres. An essential factor in determining ecological significance of these areas has been natural resource inventories, including surveys for wildlife. If you are interested in helping us discover wildlife that live along the Cocheco River and Follett's Brook, please contact either Pam Hunt or Laura Deming. Email to ldeming@nhaudubon.org" or phone NH Audubon (603) 224-9909." Friends, the work that has been done on keeping Great Bay and surrounding watersheds in their natural state since the inception of the Great Bay National Estuarine Reserve and the Great Bay National Wildlife Preserve has been astounding. Several thousand acres of undeveloped land, both shore land, uplands and watershed areas that feed Great Bay have been purchased or have had conservation easements placed on them. It's been a team effort of both private and public groups, including New Hampshire Fish & Game, US Fish & Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, Coastal Conservation Association, Ducks Unlimited, Trout Unlimited,The Great Bay National Estuarine Reserve, Audubon Society and especially Senator Judd Greg, who has been very instrumental in providing funding to achieve this protection. Hunters and fishermen should be especially pleased with this project, as most of the lands protected have been kept open for these pursuits. The few that are not open are due to the fact that the grantor of any gifts of land or easements or who sold property or easements at a reduced price had previously posted the land and wanted it kept that way.
Our estuaries are the foundation for most ocean life. And they certainly provide both employment and recreation for many of the area's inhabitants and those that come to visit. With the price of land in the Seacoast Region, we never dared to dream that this protection would ever come to fruition. We should have dreamed! It's happening before our eyes.
As we write this from the shores of Great Bay, there are ice shelves and most of the boat access places are frozen in. On a Sunday morning in the waterfowl season, the sounds of gunfire from hunters is usually steady. Today we've heard no shooting and yesterday (Saturday), we heard only scatted shots.
It's our feeling that the late season on waterfowl caters to only a very few hunters and that Fish and Game should consider re-opening the second half of both the coastal and inland waterfowl seasons a bit earlier next year. We hope you all are enjoying a wonderful holiday season. Give thanks for the troops that are protecting our country. And drop us an email at DoDuckInn@aol.com.
DICK PINNEY'S COLUMN 12/19/03
The face of ice fishing here in New Hampshire has sure changed during the last few decades, with some incredible improvements in gear and equipment and some changes that are viewed as harmful to the sport. First let's talk about transportation on the ice. For a long time, it was the road vehicle that was inherently dangerous because of it's weight and was apt to get stuck in the snow. Then came the snowmobile, with light weight and traction that seemed to be the answer to an ice fisherman's prayers. But in times of no snow on the ice and nothing but glare, some snow sleds had mechanical problems and others just didn't handle that well. In fact, there are instances where a sliding snowmobiler applying breaks and hoping for the best had slid into patches of open water or pressure ridges, ending up in a terrible tragedy. Studded tracks are not universal, but a lot of users now stud them. Now comes the modern, fully equipped All Terrain Vehicle (ATV). An ATV can be now equipped with studded tires, giving it a great amount of traction on slippery ice and also providing good pulling power for dragging out heavy ice fishing houses. There are even kits that convert each wheel of the conventional four-wheeled ATV to a track, making it unstoppable under most conditions. Most six and eight wheel ATVs are designed to float and even travel on water like a boat. These are the ultimate in safety, but have a few drawbacks, such as being easy to stick in heavy, powdered snow. A big advantage of the ATV is the ability to cover bare ground to access the ice. After you are safely on the ice, the next thing is drilling, chopping or cutting your fishing holes. The great gasoline powered ice augers have been around for several decades. The new ones are miles ahead of the first ones in power and light weight. Now you can use an electric auger that is quiet and operates off your vehicle's battery power. There are mounts that allow attachment to your ATV. Drilling holes just isn't the problem that it used to be. And when cutting larger holes, use of lightweight chain saws has surely replaced the old-fashioned ice spud-chisel and the huge old, hand-powered ice saws. With all of the powered ice augers available, and we admit to having a nice ten- inch power auger, our favorite for fishing for panfish or trout is a hand-powered five- inch auger. This little jewel is light to carry, needs no fuel, doesn't pollute, and even in deep ice, takes only a minute or two more than those big, noisy gasoline powered augers. My favorite method of drilling holes with my hand-powered auger is to use two people standing facing each other and by putting one's hand over the person opposite you, while he pushes you pull and vice versa. I think that with this method your time in drilling holes would compete with the powered jobs. I'll admit that a five-inch hole is small if you are fishing for huge fish, but we've accepted the tradeoff with no problems. (Someday we may regret this statement!)
Things as basic as fishing lines have changed a lot. There are special mono lines designed with a lot of stretch that handle well under cold conditions. Then there are the fluorocarbon lines that are almost invisible underwater. (But this great feature also makes them hard for the angler to see out on the ice). Then there are the multi-braid lines that are designed not to stretch but to relay the slightest fish hit back to the angler. The knock on these lines is that the will carry water when the line is spooled up on the reel. If it's cold enough, this causes the line to freeze into one big blob on your reel. I love the special mono as a leader on my tip-ups. And I have reels rigged for both the multi-braid if the temps are warm and with mono if it's cold.
Jigging rods are a relatively new idea. In the past, lines just wound on a piece of wood and called jigging sticks were commonly used. Now these jigging rods are especially light and responsive to the light bites. People that fish for trout, crappy or other fish that often are fussy hitters, just love these types of rods.
Enter electronics, a subject that can bring a lot of interesting debate. It used to be that a lot of people thought depth/fish finders were unsportsmanlike and made it too easy to find and catch fish. These electronic wonders are now pretty much commonplace on the ice. The new and more controversial wonder is the underwater video camera, which shows in real time and real images, just what is going on below.
We really don't have much negative comment on the electronics used in fishing. We've used and relied on such things as Loran, GPS, radar, depthfinders, electric water temperature probes at both the surface and at our downrigger balls. We'd hate to be caught on the water without the use of these things. Much of this support for these tools has to do with navigational safety, but we'd be less than honest if the depthfinders, temperature probes, and even the GPS units didn't add up to more fishing success. Have it your way, either old or new or some kind of mix. Whatever, you're missing the boat if you're not spending some of the magnificent winter days we have in the Granite State, out on the ice with friends or families and especially the kids, who almost universally enjoy this activity. Drop us an email at DoDuckInn@aol.com and please stay in touch. God bless the USA!
In error we mentioned in last week's column that a new law would ban the possession of lead sinkers HEAVIER than one ounce. It should have read weighing less than one ounce. (Thanks to Plaistow's Bob Drago for picking this important error up!)
DICK PINNEY'S COLUMN 12/12/05
We've written often about the perils presented by late season waterfowling, but there have been two incidents in my lifetime of waterfowling, both potential fatal incidents, that we've neglected to write about. Our latest one is our incentive to write this.
Several years ago, Brad Conner and I were following Down East sea duck hunting guides Todd Jackson and Scott Colcord along Maine's US Route One, following the coastline and heading for our before-dawn destination at the tip of Penobscot Bay, where Todd and Scott were going to launch Todd's 21 foot, trailered boat and take us out for a morning's hunt.
If you've ever been to Bucksport, Maine you'll know in an instant where we're writing about. Coming towards the bridge that spans the Penobscot River's tidal waters, the road runs about a hundred yards above the river and onto one of the scariest bridges we've been over, high above the river. The night had been cold. The previous day had been warm. We rounded a turn and there in the middle of the road stood a person waving a flashlight at us and making some serious motions for us to stop or slow down. Todd applied the brakes and we went into a skid. It was black ice!
Black ice and a trailered boat are a recipe for disaster, but luckily the patch of ice was short and we came to an abrupt stop where we could see why that person was trying to stop us. He was the driver of a big tractor-trailer that was hanging perilously over the cliff that was high above the river. If he hadn't warned us, we would have either launched our vehicles with boat in tow off the cliff or ran smack dab into his big truck and maybe pushed that over the cliff. The rest of the way to our destination was at just above a creep! We were all shaken badly.
Last week we hosted Tennessee friend Doug Minor for his annual sea duck hunt here with us. Heading down the Maine Turnpike towards Casco Bay where we'd heard eider ducks were plentiful, we hit some light snow on the road. Traffic was unusually heavy for 5am and moving at a normal pace. Then the snow got a bit heavier and was coming down pretty hard, but the road's surface wasn't really very slippery. Coming over a hill we saw some headlights off to our right, pointing up at the sky and saw some blue flashing lights coming down the lanes towards us. We tapped our breaks and hit a little skid, got it under control and slowed down considerably. At 35 or 40 miles an hour, we felt safe. Until we hit a patch of snow that obviously had black ice underneath it. Boat and van went sideways down the road, taking up all three lanes. At times we were close to going off the road but apparently my guardian angle was helping me steer and tap the brakes. We finally straightened out and I felt a big relief, but then my boat trailer started to jackknife and swung us around sideways again, this time much more violently than the last time. At one swerve, I looked in my side mirror and saw my big nineteen footer almost tipped over, the trailer up on one wheel! My heart was in my mouth! We fought that steering wheel and brakes for what seemed like an eternity. Then the trailer wheels swung into the breakdown lane and caught on the rumble strip, starting to slow us down and pulling my van back straight. Slowly but surely we gained control. We stopped up the road at a ramp, so we could survey any damage. Gear was scattered all around in the boat but it appeared all was well. It took the Brad, Doug and me quite a while for the adrenaline rush to settle down and for my heart to stop its pounding. At our speed, I doubt that we would have sustained much personal injury-we all had our seat belts secured. But the damage to personal property could have been huge and put us out of the duck hunting business for a long while. It was twenty miles an hour for the rest of our trip.
When we got to the boat ramp, there was a snow squall and a whiteout. We sure weren't going out on the ocean during that, but patience won out. When the squall passed, the bay calmed. We launched and were able to scoot out to our hunting spot, about seven miles away, without incident. We had lost a good hour and a half of the best hunting time, but we still managed to shoot some nice eiders, scoters and one old squaw duck. But out memories of the day won't be about the hunt. Those scary few minutes out of control on the highway will always be etched in my mind.
Remember black ice when you're travelling before dawn. The heat of the sun on the black road will cause condensation when the cold of the night hits it. Then it freezes. Then it's apt to kill or maim. Our pre-dawn travelling in freezing temperatures will now be at speeds well below the posted limits, especially when trailering a boat.
Keep an eye out for one of the most obnoxious laws effecting fishermen to be entered in this session of our legislature. 211;13-b Lead Fishing Sinkers and Jigs; Use Prohibited has been changed to make it illegal to just possess any lead sinkers over an ounce or lead jigs under an inch long when fishing on any freshwater in out state. This bill, if passed, will make a lot of innocent fishermen into criminals. It's so easy to loose track of a few lead split shot or small sinkers in your tackle box, and if you fish both saltwater and fresh, if you happen to have your gear mixed, it's a sure bet you'll have illegal lead in your possession. There's a good, workable law now in place than bans the USE OF LEAD on our ponds and lakes. We think that law is doing the job and no new legislation, especially one that bans possession, is needed! Drop us an email at DoDuckInn@aol.com and please stay in touch.
DICK PINNEY'S COLUMN 11/23/03
Even though this morning's deer hunting with my son Spudz (on his birthday which I had forgotten) was a strikeout as far as any deer action went, it was a very interesting day for the Dickster!
Sitting on the edge of a tidal creek that ends up in Great Bay, the moon only being the only natural light, we were waiting for the sun to rise and legal shooting time to arrive. Out of curiosity, my focus was not on deer sounds, but the ruckus that obviously more than one person was making about a half-mile from me, across the marsh. Vehicle lights had come down through a field. The sounds of voices and equipment being unloaded carried across the marsh, but my hearing being effected by fifty-odd years of assault from shotgun blasts, it was hard to tell what was going on. As daybreak arrived, the ruckus had quieted. My world was now about deer, deer that may wander across the marsh-deer that may be later pushed towards me when Spudz and Steve Hobbs get down from their tree stands.
Being a waterfowler first, it was quite hard for me to keep my eyes off the flocks of ducks that had been trading in the early light. With the sun, flights picked up and the sounds of both ducks and geese brought a unintentional smile to my face. "If the season was on (it would be a week and a half before the season reopen), we sure wouldn't be sitting here waiting for a deer," we laughed to ourselves. Then shots of the real kind rang out; curiously they came from the direction of the early noisy hunters. A flock of ducks sprang out of the cove-- then more shots as I watched a hunter shooting a cripple duck on the water. "Those darn fools are out here duck hunting out of season!" We'd left my cell phone back at my truck, which was a mile away. Besides--we had a spoken rule that you never leave your deer stand under any circumstances. "Should I walk out on the marsh and yell at them?" Wading the creek between us was out of the question. Distance made yelling from where we sat doubtful. "Dad, is that you that just shot?" crackled over the little two-way radios we carry. "No Spudz, it's duck hunters!" I could feel Spudz's amazement over the radio! We watched these huntersfor three hours. They shot and retrieved three or four ducks. My internal debate was that these are either the smartest poachers, figuring that all the wardens would be concentrating on the deer hunting on a Sunday morning, or they were the dumbest duck hunters we've ever seen! By the time Spudz and Stevie showed up, the illegal duck hunters had picked up their gear and left. I was almost relieved, as if these guys were that ignorant to the law, it would have been kind of a shame to see them get busted and probably loose their licenses for a year of so and pay hefty fines. A few days ago Brad and I had made plans to go sea ducking in Maine today. Later that day we both remembered that there is no Sunday hunting in Maine. We could have been in that same predicament if we hadn't woke up!
Waterfowlers are often passing on tips and information that are often not correct. We just got through reading a tip sent in to Waterfowler.com on the web. It stated that when purchasing duck decoys, you want to rig eight of the dozen from the front and the rest from the back, as on windy days duck's don't always face the same direction. We've hunted ducks for over half a century and have lived on Great Bay watching ducks from our home much of that time. Friends the windier it gets, the more the likelihood is that all the ducks will be faced in the same direction. We read with dismay a recent article in a regional publication from a self-proclaimed expert on how to set your goose decoys. "Geese always feed into the wind." This does happen on windy days on the water, but in the fields, where he was describing how to set decoys, it never happens. They face every-which way. "Set your decoys in family groups of 13 and keep each decoy at least five yards from the others." Again, sheer nonsense. Geese do group in numbers from a single sentry, to pairs, trios, and family groups of several-but not always. When they find a treasure trove of food, such as spilled grain, they'll pile on that like ants on a drop of honey. An acknowledged expert recently wrote in the tip section of a national magazine: "Keep your duck decoys at least five yards apart." Again, this is untrue. We've watched "conga lines" of black ducks bill to tail-as many as two dozen ducks in a line weaving in and out like a snake. We've watched a dozen ducks bobbing for acorns that were almost climbing on each other's backs. And one thing we've noticed for years. Ducks start to pair up in the early fall. If you set a lot of your decoys in pairs only inches apart, you'll add a lot of realism to your set. Drop us an email at DoDuckInn@aol.com and please stay in touch.
DICK PINNEY'S COLUMN 10/03/03
Finally it's October, the month that allows hunting for most of our game and bird species and even feels like hunting season, not like the steamy and mosquito-laced days that September endowed us with.
Our pheasant season opened on October first. It may not be the best thing that ever happened to hunters here in New Hampshire, but it is often veiwed by hunters from adjoining states as being better than their pheasant programs. Maine's program is quite limited and doesn't allow hunting on Sundays. Massachusetts hunters can't hunt on Sundays. All of their birds are stocked on state wildlife lands, causing crowded and often unpleasant hunting conditions. One good thing going for Massachusetts is they stock a ton of birds. (This could soon change-read on.) A huge proportion of our pheasants that are taken are stocked, with only a tiny fraction of birds coming from "native" stock. (Pheasant are not native to any part of our continent. People often refer to naturally produced fish and game as natives, but in many cases, the proper description could be better explained as "wild stock") New Hampshire does stock pheasants on lands owned by the state, but also has a long list of private landowners, who through their kindness, allow pheasant stocking and the accompanying hunting pressure. These people have to be saints, as we've heard a lot of stories about bad hunter conduct on the private pheasant stocking sites, as well as on the state-owned lands. Parking vehicles that block roadways and gates, hunters leaving doggie-doo in places like roadways and paths, or even lawns, littering, bad language, and loud noises and talk early in the morning can all irritate a cooperative landowner into closing their property. This happens almost every year, as the list of private stocking sites grows smaller and smaller.
If you see fellow hunters (we'll not call them sportsmen here) doing anything that you think could rile up a landowner, don't just be passive about it. Let them know that it's a privilege to be trespassing on the property and that without pheasant stocking sites, our program will be seriously reduced. Do your best to keep this long-standing New Hampshire tradition alive. Act like a sportsman and insist that others do the same! Now to the subject of the Massachusetts pheasants, but we'll go deeper and alert you to what's been happening in the Massachusetts environmental politics as well as New England States of Connecticut and Maine.
Massachusetts hunters lobbied for adding a fee of five dollars to their hunting license fees to acquire wildlife habitat lands. They were rewarded for their efforts by their legislature and former governor by setting up a fund that dedicated these special moneys to purchase habitat. Since this fund has been in place, over 40,000 acres per year have been purchased. This year, only nine thousand acres have been purchased. To add insult to injury, the remaining funds were transferred out of the special fund and into the Commonwealth's general fund!
My friend Spence Connolly, who lives and hunts and fishes in Massachusetts, just retired from a post with US Fish and Wildlife. In a recent conversation about this problem in Massachusetts he gave me some insights into the depth of the problem the transferring of dedicated sportsmen's fund will cause: "You've got to consider the match that these funds generated from the Feds," Spence said. "The US Fish and Wildlife handles the moneys collected by excise taxes on sporting goods and returns many millions of dollars back to the states that generated them. Matches come in a ratio, such as one dollar of state matched by three dollars of federal money. The total loss to Massachusetts sportsmen by also loosing federal matching funds is an incredible amount. It is eating away at the financial foundation of one of the most fiscally healthy Fish and Game departments in the country."
Spence added the habitat fund was just the tip of the iceberg. "Many of the other Mass Fish and Wildlife dedicated funds are also being raided by the current administration, ending a six decade tradition of holding those funds sacred. Things are so bad that just recently two hatcheries are in the process of being closed down, reducing by 25% the amount of trout that will be stocked!"
This year the new Maine government administration was able to pull the plug on about three million dollars of income received by their Fish and Wildlife Department that came from their general fund. Added to the matching federal dollars, this has gutted their once fine Fish and Wildlife Department. Connecticut sportsmen have also seen a very similar raid on their fine Fish and Game Department. New Hampshire outdoors people better be on the alert! Drop us an email at DoDuckInn@aol.com and please stay in touch.