Driving into Deboullie, part of Maine’s Public Reserved Land system, was like entering Oz. As soon as we crossed the line from JD Irving’s hard-cut lands – lots of young trees, clear cuts, and plantations – the canopy closed around us. It was beautiful. My girlfriend Pam and I both laughed at the difference and Read More
The Environmentalist Hunter
Nick Bennett, NRCM’s staff scientist and Healthy Waters program director, is an avid duck hunter. He’s also dabbled with much less success in bird hunting, deer hunting, and rabbit hunting. He wrote this blog on hunting and environmental issues, with guest appearances from time to time by other hunting and fishing enthusiasts.
Lawn Advice from a “Lawn Neglect” Expert
A word of warning: this blog post will have nothing to do with hunting. Hunting season ended a long time ago (not true if you are a turkey hunter, but I am not, so turkey season doesn’t really count for me). It’s hard to imagine that in three months goose season will start. That seems like ages from Read More
The Worst Duck-hunting Season Ever
On January 31, 2012, I finally got around to my first blog entry since hunting season started in October. I’ve been delinquent again and I’m sorry about it. But there is something fitting in writing my blog on the last possible day to duck hunt in Maine. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it out hunting that Read More
Burning Questions: Some Thoughts on Firewood and the Environment, Part 2
My head is feeling better so I’m back blogging on firewood, picking up where I left off on Part 1 of this theme. Did anyone take a look at the Manomet Report? It concludes that using wood for heat (or for combined heat and electricity generation) is most likely to have a carbon benefit over Read More
Burning Questions: Some Thoughts on Firewood and the Environment, Part I
It’s already the end of July, and my last blog entry was in March. How did that happen? I meant to write a blog on woodcock and how cool they are when they return in the spring and do their courtship displays, but somehow that now seems out of date. Next year. Similarly, I thought I’d write Read More
A Feast—or Perhaps a Plague—of Frogs
A brief warning to readers before proceeding: this story could make you a bit queasy. Queasy doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt. I’ve never been a picky eater. My parents demanded that I eat everything on my plate, whatever it was. I remember as a kid dreading Easter dinner at my grandparents’ house Read More
My First Day of Duck Hunting – Ever!
It was seven years ago, and my first day of duck hunting didn’t go very well. It was a friend’s fault, I thought at the time, that I got into this mess. He first mentioned duck hunting to me on a warm summer evening fishing for stripers in Winslow. The striper fishing wasn’t very good, but Read More
Winter Thoughts on the Recent Duck Season
Waterfowl hunting provides me with so many ways to enjoy the glory of Maine, from the warm,September days of early goose season ponds in Central Maine through bitter, dark December mornings in Casco Bay. There is nothing quite like the power of life that duck hunting allows me to see.
