Kennebec Valley Alewife Festival set for today

Mainers spend plenty of time fishing for all kinds of finned species each year, but an event being held today may provide an opportunity many haven’t thought of.

The Kennebec Valley Alewife Festival will run from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Fort Halifax Dam in Winslow.

Sponsored by the Kennebec Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited, the event includes a park and riverside cleanup, a cookout, fly tying and fly casting instruction and fishing at the Sebasticook River.

An estimated 2 million alewives are expected to be making their migration into freshwater after spending four to five years in saltwater.

The alewife needs still waters of lakes and ponds that feed into the Kennebec and Sebasticook rivers to complete their life cycles. With dams obstructing their way, alewives are pumped into trucks at the base of Fort Halifax Dam and transported to their natal ponds to spawn. Many then return to the ocean.

During the autumn rains, the small alewife fry swim over dam spillways and head back out to sea.

Greenville event welcomes kids

Another last-minute notification for you: The Greenville Recreation Department is holding its 2nd annual Kids All-American Fishing Derby today at the Pit Pond close to town.

Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. and fishing starts at 8. Free hot dogs will be served at 11:30, and a cleanup begins at 12:30 p.m.

The event is open to children up to age 15.

DIF&W, Irving aid deer wintering

Gov. John Baldacci presided over a ceremony on Friday that should significantly aid the state’s deer herd during the tough winter months.

The state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and Irving Woodlands LLC signed a deer wintering agreement that will preserve mature evergreen forests that deer need to survive Maine’s harsh winters.

The agreement tripled the portion of Irving’s land that is managed for continuous long-term deer-wintering cover. The total area covered by the agreement is 152,383 acres, or 9.8 percent of Irving’s approximately 1.6 million acres in Maine. Irving’s holdings are concentrated in northern Aroostook County.

Healthy deer populations in Maine depend on wintering areas that provide shelter and open space at the same time. Evergreen canopies keep snow depth underneath to a minimum, allowing deer easy mobility while they conserve energy. The trees also provide winter forage for the deer.

The area deer occupy during winter generally represents only 10 to 20 percent of its summer range.

Vermont group welcomes cyclists

Cyclists looking for a bit of out-of-state fun may want to look into Peace of Mind Guaranteed Bike Tours of Vermont.

POMG Bike Tours offers trips ranging from two to five days, and trips are scheduled between May 18-Oct. 19.

For more information, visit the Web site at www.pomgbike.com.

To submit an item for publication in the Outdoor Notebook, send e-mail to jholyoke@bangordailynews.net, fax to 990-8092 or mail information to Outdoor Notebook, Bangor Daily News, PO Box 1329, Bangor, Maine, 04402-1329.