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MDIFW, RRG&SA receive grants
 Portland, ME - FlyFishingInMaine.com (FFIM) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2006 grant applications. The board of directors unanimously approved allocation of funds for two very special projects. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) has been selected to received $2,355.00 to aid studying fish movements in Chamberlain Lake. The Rangeley Region Guides and Sportsmen's Association (RRGSA) also was selected to receive $2,645.00 which will enable the RRGSA to establish an angling education experience for youths in the Rangeley region.
The MDIFW will be utilizing the grant funds it will receive to purchase radio transmitter tags to be used with telemetry equipment, enabling the department personnel to carefully follow and track seasonal movements of wild brook trout. The study will occur on Chamberlain Lake and its tributaries, in the region of the Maine woods known as the Allagash. "The results from this study will be very important not only to the Chamberlain system, but also to other large oligotrophic lakes in the northwestern portion of Maine", wrote Tim Obrey, author of the application from MDIFW.
RRGSA has developed a program, dubbed "Live the Legend", that will teach 5 area teenagers to embrace both conservation and history aspects of the angling tradition that is a large part of the Rangeley region heritage. The program will last for an entire weekend and will be hosted at Grant's Camps on Kennebago Lake, as well as the former home of famous Maine author, Louise Dickinson Rich, on the Rapid River. The "Live the Legend" program has already garnered strong support from the Rangeley Region Public School System, area guides and outfitters, the Sportsmen's Alliance of Maine (SAM), and the Maine Council of Trout Unlimited.
FFIM received over numerous grant applications for amounts ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. The requests totaled over $25,000 dollars, and came from groups all around the state. "With a first year budget of $5,000, the FFIM grant selection committee hard a very difficult choice determining winners out of the many applicants. We look forward to the growth of our organization and the positive impact we believe we can have on the future of Maine's fisheries resource, as well as our angling youth", says FFIM’s Ken Beaulieu, who conceived the grant program concept.
The FFIM grant money is raised by various activities through and relating to the organization's website, www.flyfishinginmaine.com. The biggest fund-raiser is the annual "Spring Conclave", a fly fishing expo open to the public, which is held each year in June in various locations throughout the state. This year's event will be held at Chain of Ponds, north of the Sugarloaf area, on the weekend of June 17th-18th.
For more information about the two grant programs, click on the images below:
 
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