SUN JOURNAL • December 26, 2020
In the realm of the Maine outdoors 2020 was a mixed bag of bad news, surreal news, confusing news, and some unexpectedly positive news, despite the Shadow of COVID. Of the bad news, the death rate and injury on our 14,000 miles of snowmobile trails in 2020 was almost record-breaking. During the sledding season, 14 recreational snow-sledders lost their lives on Maine’s vast network of snowmobile trails. Sweeping statewide Covid lockdown policies left scars, especially in Maine’s hard-pressed sporting camp industry. Good news: the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife wisely rejected a series of petitions from anti-hunting activist John Glowa, who sought to ban coyote hunting and trapping, as well as bear hunting as we know it. ~ V. Paul Reynolds