MDIFW Blog

MDIFW moves forward with efforts to assess Maine's wild turkey population

By Wildlife Biologist Kelsey Sullivan

Safe an Effective Housing for Cavity Nesting Waterfowl

By Wildlife Biologist Allen Starr

A Walk Through the Woods – Hidden Gems of Spring

By Sarah Spencer, Wildlife Biologist

I recently joined several wildlife biologists to conduct stand level habitat assessments on a piece of property being managed primarily for wildlife in western Maine. While our primary goal was evaluating shelter value of softwood stands for deer wintering habitat, there was much more to see in the woods than the trees themselves. As we meandered through each stand, signs of spring and early summer were everywhere.

Vernal Pools and Lands Program Management

By Daniel H. Hill-Natural Resource Manager-MDIFW

When Dealing With Young Wildlife: If You Care, Leave Them There

As you head outdoors this season, remember this motto when encountering wildlife, especially young animals: If you care, leave them there.

Wildlife is very active time of the year and it's not unusual to come across baby fawns, moose calves, fox, raccoons and other young wildlife in fields, woodland areas or even in backyards, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to intervene.

Reconstruction of Lock Dam, Allagash Wilderness Waterway

By Regional Fisheries Biologist Frank Frost

How and why we age fish

By Fisheries Biologist Kevin Gallant

Having the ability to age a fish is a valuable tool for fishery managers.  Stocked fish often have clipped fins that tell us what age they are (by knowing the year the certain fin was clipped).  With wild fish (and unmarked hatchery fish), we have a few other options to give us the age of a given fish. 

A Home for Woody

By Regional Wildlife Biologist Chuck Hulsey

Smelt Research on Moosehead Lake

By Fisheries Biologist Tim Obrey The Moosehead Lake Region, as designated by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, is big…some might say wicked big.  It stretches from Dover-Foxcroft in the south to Allagash Lake in the north, Rainbow Lake to the east and the thriving metropolis of Skinner to the west. The land area covers 4,391 square miles with 4,125 miles of flowing water and over a quarter million acres of Great Ponds (there’s also another 2,160 acres of not so Great Ponds. i.e.

Use of Prescribed Fire on Wildlife Management Areas

By Wildlife Biologist Mark Caron Increasingly MDIFW Regional Wildlife Biologists have been conducting prescribed burns on some of the wildlife management areas (WMAs) found throughout the state.  Also known as ‘controlled burns’, this habitat managemen