To find out if your children might be interested in hiking, take them up South Bubble this spring. If they enjoy the short hike and the views, they might just become your future hiking buddies. South Bubble rises between Jordan Pond and North Bubble in Acadia National Park. Take the ...

Kayakers flock to Bar Harbor like diners do to the Jordan Pond House in Acadia National Park. East of Penobscot Bay, no other port attracts kayakers like Bar Harbor does. Being the annual gateway to Acadia National Park for more than 2 million people helps, due to sheer numbers, but another ...

Many people feed deer in winter. Whether winter feeding improves deer nutrition and survival depends on which types and amounts of supplemental feed are used, as well as where and how deer are fed. If you choose to feed deer in winter, start feeding them early, introduce foods gradually, don’t change ...

I have three sons who love to hunt: Matthew, age 16; Nicholas, 14; and Noah, 12. The fall days in October and November are some of the best times to be outdoors in Maine, and we make as many hunting trips as work, school and sports commitments allow. We live ...

Aislinn Sarnacki Professionally, I’m a Bangor Daily News reporter, focusing primarily on the outdoors, arts and literature. My BDN blog, “Act out with Aislinn,” launched November 2011 and includes “One-Minute Hike” outdoor videos as well as articles on outdoor recreation. On my blog, I discuss outdoor destinations, events and gear ...

The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine and the Local 6 of the International Association of Machinists at Bath Iron Works are teaming up to provide hunting opportunities for disabled veterans and youth programs for future hunters and anglers. “One thing that I think SAM lacked in the past was the ability to ...

During the past few years, the nonprofit Lock Dam Preservation Association has helped the Maine Department of Conservation repair three critical dams on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. The dams impound water along the AWW. If any dam was breached, water levels would be negatively impacted downstream. “The Allagash works on ...

Maine sportsmen are lending Bambi a helping hand. The white-tailed deer population has precipitously declined in central, eastern and northern Maine this century — to the point, in fact, that fewer hunters now pursue the state’s most popular big-game animal. “It’s no secret that the deer population is in tough shape ...

Albert Ladd hunts mostly deer and coyote, but he also hunts antlers, the hobby that’s earned him the designation of “shed hunter.” The 63-year-old Ladd lives on three acres on Route 17, just south of Coos Canyon in Byron, a town bisected by the Swift River north of Rumford and ...

The legislature’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee received reports this session on subjects from rebuilding the deer herd to reversing the decline of nonresident hunters. But it remains to be seen if any of the dozens of recommendations submitted with these reports will be acted upon. The Maine Game Plan ...

Starting in March, TV viewers will get a closer look at the life of Maine game wardens, as Animal Planet unveils “North Woods Law,” a show that focuses on the state’s men and women in green as they perform their regular duties. The show was developed by Engel Entertainment of ...

By now you have figured out that the SAM News has changed, we hope you will agree for the better. The SAM News is the most important vehicle we use to communicate with our members on legislative and out-door issues effecting sportsmen. That will not change: Members will still be ...

The Bangor Daily News is pleased to present its newest custom publication, BDN Maine Outdoors, where you’ll find updates for outdoors enthusiasts, ideas of what to do in the great outdoors, and where to go explore Maine’s beauty, whether alone or with family and friends. A unique partnership fueled the ...

On Jan. 23, 2012, Sen. President Kevin Raye (R-Perry) introduced LD 1652, “An Act to Ensure a Reliable Funding Stream for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.” A coalition comprising Maine Audubon, the Nature Conservancy, and the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine supported this bill. In his testimony, Raye said, ...