Skip to main content

Me and the Commish, Part 1

There is nothing better than swapping hunting stories with another hunter. It’s a part of the Maine (and hunting) culture that connects one generation to another. A story can bond people, no matter how diverse their backgrounds are. I don’t know of any other culture in which I could strike up a conversation with someone twice my age from the backwoods of Maine and the next day compare riffles with a business owner who travels around the world. I am under 30 and female. And because I hunt, I am a part of a tradition that transcends sociopolitical, economic and physical boundaries. I belong to a club that lets anyone join and listens enthusiastically to everyone’s stories.

I revamped this blog because I was interviewed by the Rabid Outdoorsman back in October about being a woman who hunts and writes about it. Since then, I have thought about what interests me and how to keep those of you who read this blog more often than others, entertained. In a blog post from January, I set a goal to interview the Commissioner of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Chandler Woodcock.

I met Mr. Woodcock my freshman year of high school. He was my English teacher (Disclaimer: my spelling, grammar, punctuation etc. were bad before he got to me and many others have tried since, so please don’t hold all of my errors in this post and others against him). Fun fact about Mr. Woodcock… he use to go bowling with us. There was a group of 2 or 3 guys and me who were on a league (don’t judge, I have trophys!) and every once in a while, Mr. Woodcock would go bowling with us after school. In order to get into his head, I took a campaign bumper sticker and black electrical tape and made an “Anti-Woodcock” shirt. It worked, I won and he asked that I come into his classes throughout the next day and show them this piece of art. I obliged but had kids all day giving me a hard time because ‘how could I not like the guy???’

Fast forward some years and Mr. Woodcock is the Commissioner of IFW and took time out of his busy schedule to let me ask him a few questions about hunting in Maine for this little blog.

Over the course of the next week, I will post the great conversation Mr. Woodcock and I had about hunting, issues facing the Maine outdoors, the goals that he hopes to achieve in the next 5-10 years and what keeps him up at night.

Stay tuned... its good stuff!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Healthy Coyote coming through

I still have a few trail cameras out to see what the deer are up to.  I have gotten pictures of the big buck that is around and most recently, I got these pictures.  Normally, I wouldn't be too freaked out but now that we have a dog, it is a little unnerving.  Add that this camera is about 50 feet from our lawn and less than 100 feet from our front door... I hope that this one is just passing through. (Sidenote: I put new batteries in this camera so the date and time are wrong BUT  I walked in front of it so it would take my picture and I could figure out what the actual time and date were: 7am Saturday morning.)

Where are the women?

This week, my interview with Steve at The Maine Outdoorsman went live. Steve said yesterday 200 people hit his site viewing over 500 pages. That is a lot of people reading about little ole me and hunting. Why? When I think of women who are in the general public's eye and hunt, I can think of 2 - Country singer Miranda Lambert and Sarah Palin. Why only two? Why is the female hunter such a fascinating thing? (I should probably note that I do not have cable so any and all female hunters on the hunting stations are lost to me. I'll keep it to the general public because that's what I am familiar with.) People/media were fascinated by the fact that they could get footage of Palin and her gun, shooting (and gutting) animals but I feel like the nostalgia would be lost if they had the same footage of McCain. Lambert and her hubby Blake Shelton tweet photos of their kills, and comment on what/where they are hunting. I only know this because I follow both. That's it....

So much to celebrate - let's give away stuff!

As you know from my last post, this month I am celebrating the one year anniversary of this blog, 10 years of hunting with my Dad and a milestone birthday. In honor of all three, I want to give away some great Maine stuff to all of you! Rules: 1. Leave a comment 2. On Oct 28 (my big bday), Dad will pick a number and the corresponding post will win. What will you win? A big basket of great Maine and outdoor things! Such as: fly fishing flies, blueberry something, Maine maple syrup, apple butter (to be made by me on Tuesday), something related to deer hunting and a couple of great books signed by local authors. (Pictures will be posted when I am back at a computer). So thank you for your support and for helping my celebrate such a great month!!