I’d say information regarding the establishment of the Penobscot Valley Chapter of the Ruffed Grouse Society was guarded as diligently as the whereabouts of a productive bird cover. I first got wind of the chapter’s existence at the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Bangor office when Warden Dave Georgia handed me an announcement of the chapter’s upcoming banquet.

In case you’re also among the uninformed, the Penobscot Valley Chapter’s first sportsmen’s banquet will be held Saturday, Sept. 11, at the Holiday Inn, 500 Main St., Bangor. Legal shooting time at the “Bar Cover” is 6 p.m. Wear your “bird boots” because the dog stories and proclamations of shooting prowess are sure to be thicker than thornapples. Dinner will be served at 7:30 sharp.

A feature of the evening will be the “Early Bird Raffle” in which you can draw a bead on a 20-gauge Remington Model 870 “Wingmaster.” The pump-action shotgun is chambered for three-inch shells, sports a ventilated rib, and includes interchangeable “Rem Chokes.” Raffle tickets are $5 each. Only 300 will be sold, and orders must be received by Sept. 11. That Wingmaster is worth at least one $5 “snap shot.”

A $35 banquet ticket also bags a membership in the Ruffed Grouse Society. For $50 you get a membership plus a place for your spouse at the dinner table. The $20 dollar membership is tax-deductible. For more information contact Tom Brown, 64 B Valleyview Lane, Bangor 04401. Phone 942-4065 or 827-5911.

The Ruffed Grouse Society is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of ruffed grouse and woodcock populations and protection of habitats.

The Maine Trappers Association will hold its 1993 Fall Rendezvous on Sept. 10-12 at the Gold Crest Riders Snowmobile Club in Dixmont. You don’t need a trapper’s expertise at “reading sign” to find the rendezvous. Simply take the trail to Dixmont Village, turn northward onto Route 7 by the general store and drive about a mile to a dirt road on the left. Follow it, and you can’t miss.

Make no mistake about it, the Fall Rendezvous committee has a packbasket full of activities that are entertaining and educational for adults and children alike. Aside from displays of trapping supplies, sporting goods, and demonstrations of trapping methods and techniques, the three-day event offers a corn and hot dog roast around a bonfire on Friday evening, a Saturday-morning breakfast served in the clubhouse, a coloring contest, scavenger hunt, and auction for kids, 1993 Mountain Man contest, demonstrations of Indian bead jewelry by Wendy Williams, predator calling by Joe Baldwin, canine training by Neil Olson, and a yard sale.

Saturday evening’s buffet dinner for $5 includes baked beans, chili, shepherd’s pie, chop suey, coleslaw, salad, rolls, assorted pies. Afterward, you can digest your dinner at the 6 p.m. auction and dispose of the calories at a dance from 9 to midnight. On Sunday, a $5 bill will buy you a dinner of barbecued chicken, potato salad, coleslaw, rolls, and strawberry shortcake.

Door prizes, videos, and another breakfast and dinner on Sunday round out the weekend’s activities. There is no charge for campsites at the Fall Rendezvous, but because there are no electrical hookups, plan accordingly.

Mention of trapping coincides with Fred Hartman’s recent letter referring to an anti-trapping, anti-hunting item he read in Gun Dog magazine. In terming the item “disturbing,” Fred wrote: “There is a bill (H.R. 330) in the U.S. House of Representatives to prohibit hunting and trapping on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuges.

“These are the same refuges paid for and supported by duck stamp monies via duck hunters. This bill is sponsored by Rep. Bill Green (as usual) of New York. Our own Rep. Tom Andrews is a co-sponsor.” That’s not surprising, either. “This bill,” Fred concluded, “has been pushed by a coalition of anti-groups. I am writing to our elected 4 in Washington.”

Amazing, isn’t it? Most of those politically-correct “antis” never step foot off the main road or contribute a nickel to the cause of wildlife conservation.

Yet, they continue their emotional criticism and ridicule of sportsmen who annually spend billions of dollars on outdoor recreations that fund national parks, wildlife refuges, acquisition and protection of wildlife habitat, and educational programs in wildlife conservation. The fact of the matter is, if not for sportsmen, there would be little wildlife left in this country.

The question is, how much more of this unpaying-minority malarkey do the paying majorities have to put up with? The image of hunters and trappers portrayed by animal-rights activists and other antis is one of indiscriminate slaughter. That is ridiculous and absurd. Hunting and trapping is regulated by seasons and bag limits that simply don’t allow overharvesting of wildlife resources.

Another fact that antis seem unable to understand or are unwilling to accept is that wildlife is prolific and game species wouldn’t stop proliferating if hunting and trapping were prohibited. Accordingly, in most areas where hunting and trapping are banned, problems with overpopulations of wildlife soon develop.