VPT Online: VOJ #305


		Vermont Big Game Management

		VOJ #601

		VOJ #602

		VOJ #603

		VOJ #604

		VOJ #605

		VOJ #606

		Season Six

		Season Five

		Season Four

		Season Three

		Season Two

		Season One

VPT's Outdoor Journal #305

QUICK CLICK: Hop to a segment of VOJ #305

Whitewater Rafting

Wood Turtles

Arch Tilford and the Green Mountain Grabber
Feedback: We'd like to hear from you

Whitewater Rafting
Whitewater rafting is one of the biggest thrill rides nature has to offer. The Kennebec River in Maine is one of the most popular rivers in New England to raft. It ranges from a gentle flow to a pulse-pounding class-four whitewater.

A number of companies along the Kennebec offer daylong whitewater adventures. In addition to outfitting you, they give you paddling instruction, take you to the put-in spot, guide you down the river, prepare you a streamside lunch and pick you up at the end of the day. A daily dam release ensures that there are always great whitewater conditions on the Kennebec, meaning that you can go on rafting adventures all summer and into September.

Host Marianne Eaton travels to The Forks, Maine, home of Northern Outdoors Adventures to take on a wet and wild twelve-mile stretch of the Kennebec River.

Related Links:
MaineOutdoors.com: Whitewater Rafting Northern Outdoors	Raft Maine Visit Maine: Whitewater Rafting

RETURN TO TOP

Wood Turtles
Wood turtles have been a part of Vermont's diverse wildlife for the past ten thousand years. These moderately sized turtles with reddish-orange skin and roughly textured shells may live 60 years. But despite their long history, concern for this species is on the rise in the northeast due to the turtles' region-wide decline.

Humans are the main cause of this. As more housing and commercial development takes place near streams, rivers and wetlands, turtles loose habitat. The building of roads through turtle corridors creates a dangerous situation for the creatures. In addition, wood turtles have been removed from the wild and kept as pets by individuals unaware that they were seriously impacting the turtle population.

The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department monitors wood turtle populations by tagging selected turtles with radio transmitters in an effort to learn more about how they adapt to the changing landscape. We venture out into the field with Steve Parren, chief of the department's Nongame and Natural Heritage Program (NNHP) to track tagged wood turtles.

Related Links:
eNature.com: Wood Turtle The New York Turtle and Tortoise Society	Tortoise Trust Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department: Nongame and Natural Heritage Program (NNHP)

RETURN TO TOP

Arch Tilford and the Green
Mountain Grabber
Arch Tilford created the Green Mountain Grabber fishing lure around 1956. It was a simple lure made from three hooks strung together on monofilament, a few red beads and a spinner blade. The grabber went on to become one of the most popular lures of the mid- to late-1900s for catching walleye, bass and pike in Vermont. In fact, you'll still find them in many tackle boxes today. They're now distributed by Green Mountain Tackle, and most bait shops in the Champlain Valley carry them.

Host Lawrence Lawrence Pyne hooks up with Arch, who at age 93 is still going strong at his summer camping retreat where he shares some great stories and shows us how to catch some Silver Lake rainbow trout.

Related Links:
Green Mountain Tackle 13 Clyde Allen Drive St. Albans, VT 05478 802-527-2925	Green Mountain National Forest: Silver Lake Area Trails

RETURN TO TOP

Feedback
Your feedback is important to us.Please let us know what you think about OUTDOOR JOURNAL. If you have any comments about a specific episode, suggestions as to how we can make the show better, or know of something that we should be covering on the program, we want to know about it.