Since the mid-1980’s, Maine RGS has proudly awarded scholarships to students furthering their education in some form of wildlife endeavor — a great investment in our state resources.

Various recreational and educational events have taken place through the years such as shoots, field days, clinics, etc. with more being planned this year. In addition, Maine RGS has an annual Fund Raising Banquet in the spring, mans a booth at Sportsman’s Shows and at present is working to organize a Youth Day. These events and programs occur due to the enthiusiastic willingness of committee members to donate energy and time to further the agenda of RGS — which is habitat conservation. We encourage and welcome all to be part of this committee.

Please see Biologist’s News for:

Habitat Work and Initiatives (from biologist, Paul Karczmarczyk’s Winter 2008 RGS eNewsletter)

Effective Feb. 18, 2008 Boyd Cook will become the new RD for the northeast region.  Initially, Boyd will be working half-time and manage the eight active chapters and work to re-establish new chapters in New England.  Boyd resides in Stonington, CT and is a retired Commander in the U.S. Navy with an emphasis in submarines.  He is a RGS member and sponsor, avid grouse hunter and active in the Southern New England Chapter of the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVDA).  In stalwart RGS fashion, Boyd will travel in February to balmy Fairbanks, Alaska with Mark Fouts, RGS Director of Chapter Operations, then train for three days at RGS HQ in PA.

In 2006-7, RGS continued to help fund a major American Woodcock Initiative jointly coordinated by the Wildlife Management Institute and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Northern Forest Woodcock Management Initiative, based at the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, has already established an array of practical, demonstration habitat projects on federal refuges, state wildlife areas and industrial forests across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts. In this capacity, the Initiative is serving as a key RGS partner in bringing public attention to the need for creating and maintaining the young forest habitats required by American woodcock, ruffed grouse and many forest songbirds and mammals.   
 
Also at the state level, RGS helped sportsmen win a fight against a recent petitioned initiative to reduce Maine's grouse season over 30%. Begun as a Downeast effort to prevent slob hunters from shooting roosting grouse from motor vehicles in the winter, the petition's proposed scope escalated into unfounded claims that all of Maine's ruffed grouse populations were at risk from motorized vehicle hunting and demands that IF&W close the statewide annual ruffed grouse season on November 30. RGS responded by bringing qualified science to the table to illustrate that hunting mortality is not additive to natural mortality of grouse populations, and that a season reduction would have little effect on the real problem of unethical individuals using illegal methods and means to overharvest grouse in local areas. In the end, the science-based partnership of Maine IFW's professional biologists and RGS provided the biological evidence that convinced the IFW Advisory Board to dismiss the petitioned proposal.
 
In 2006-7, RGS again helped groups such as the Forest Society of Maine (FSM) and New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF) implement important work of insuring that active, working forests remain the cornerstone of good habitat management in the Pine Tree State. Between the Downeast Lakes Initiative run by NEFF and Friends of Moosehorn Refuge; and the FSM West Branch Initiative, many thousands of acres will remain open to the active forestry that creates great grouse, woodcock and songbird habitat for future generations of hunters and other outdoor enthusiasts to enjoy.