Kathy Scott had been fishing 15 years before she ever thought about instructing others in the art of fly fishing, or writing a book about it, for that matter. Yet when the Lawrence Junior High librarian began a journal about her husband’s bamboo fly rod making craft, it put her on a journey of story telling and teaching.

Scott began the journal as a companion to the bamboo rod her husband, David Van Burgel, was making for a friend as a gift. The journal described the bamboo rod’s slow creation and the world of nature to which it would connect its owner.

But after the journal was finished, friends suggested Scott have it published for others to read. She mailed it off to a publisher and soon “Moose in the Water, Bamboo on the Bench,” took on a new life.

It wasn’t long after the book was published last January that Scott saw it distributed to fly fishing stores nationwide, including L.L. Bean. And it wasn’t long after it hit book stores that it led Scott to teach fly fishing.

“When the book came out in January, it was sitting on my desk,” Scott said. “Kids said they’d sure like us to do something like that here.”

Scott started teaching fly fishing at the school that semester. She got help from members of the Kennebec Chapter of Trout Unlimited, and was able to use a pond located behind the school that is stocked by the group.

During her nearly 22 years at Lawrence Junior High, Scott never had thought about sharing her sport before. But after one semester, the fishing course has become as natural to her as her summers fishing in her home state of Michigan.

“Maine is such an outdoor place. Virtually everyone in Maine owns a canoe. But in school, [teaching about the outdoors] doesn’t happen very often,” she said.

Scott said she’s noticed a difference in the attitudes of some students who have taken the course.

“I look around and I see kids that never used to come in to the library here now,” Scott said during an interview from school. “Right now, there are four kids here, and they’re not library kids.”

Scott will have a book signing from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 25, at L.L. Bean in Freeport.

Moose parasites not uncommon

Area wardens in Allagash had to take away a tagged moose a hunter tagged that was infested with tape-worm-like parasites during the last week of moose season. The strange part about the unsavory story is that such a sick critter is not uncommon, according to warden Mike Marshall.

“I’ve been in the warden service 24 years and seen a lot of moose in road kills and it’s not uncommon to see a few of these [parasites] in them,” Marshall said. “It stays in the muscle and can affect many animals.”

Marshall said he has seen plenty of moose that had some parasites, but to find an animal that was completely infested is not so common, although not a surprise, either.

Marshall said while a moose with a few parasites can be safely eaten by cutting away the infected areas, every once in a while there is an animal that is covered with parasites, and those are not safe for consumption.

“Usually when you cut a moose, if there is one or two you can disregard them. When the meat is peppered with it, it doesn’t look palatable,” he said.

Marshall said the parasite is like a tape worm, but unlike the tape worms that infest the intestines of domestic animals, this parasite is found in the muscles of wild game, and other hosts.

Marshall said the parasite, sarcocystis, lives in birds, horses, rodents, and even people.

According to the state’s hunting rule book, if a hunter has registered a moose, he is not allowed to hunt another. But, at times, exceptions are made to the rules. In this case, Marshall said, because the hunter had no knowledge of the parasites until the animal was butchered, another permit was given.

Elk could come east

Efforts by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to have Canadian elk introduced into New York’s Catskills has gained some momentum there, but biologists say it would not bode well for whitetails here.

A preliminary study done in New York has shown the public would welcome elk, and there is enough room for the animal in the Catskills. But the elk the foundation proposes bringing in are the western subspecies found in Canada. These are the elk that have been found to have “chronic wasting disease,” similar to “mad cow” disease, and the disease is biologists’ main concern.

Maine deer study leader Gerry Lavigne, a New York native, said elk would present a real threat of the disease for white-tailed deer.

While eastern elk reintroduced in Pennsylvania have proven free of the disease, the sub-species of elk in Canada is the one found to have CWD in five western states, Lavigne said. The other danger, he said, is the fact much is not known about the disease.

“Nobody knows much on how the disease is transferred,” Lavigne said. “If New York reintroduces wild elk, that doesn’t bode well for the northeast.”

If the New York Department of Environmental Conservation approves the reintroduction, 100 Canadian elk will be released in 2003.

Lavigne said it is unlikely elk would be brought to Maine, where caribou reintroduction efforts failed in the 1960s and ’80s.

The color of hunting

A recent NEWS graphic design project involving a pack of crayons led to a curious discovery.

Crayola’s traditional pack of 64 has four shades of orange: yellow orange, red orange, burnt orange, and, of course, orange. But it lacks that fall favorite: hunter orange. .

Deirdre Fleming’s Outdoor notebook runs every Saturday in the NEWS. She can be reached at dfleming@bangordailynews.net or at 990-8250.