Thirty-four years ago, Scott Roy completed his military service, got in touch with an old college friend, and made a trip that would end up changing his life.

“Paul [Johnson] and I were roommates at Bowdoin,” Roy says, referring to the longtime state fisheries biologist for the Greenville region.

College life agreed with Johnson. He graduated. It didn’t agree with Roy … at least, not in the traditional sense.

“My sophomore finals [week] I spent drinking beer on the roof of the fraternity house,” he says with a chuckle.

As you may imagine, that week of rooftop partying heralded the end of Roy’s Bowdoin career. He then spent a few years in the military.

“When I got out of the service, [Paul] was just starting in Greenville and I went up to go fishing with him for a week.

“I stayed.”

A fishing trip turned into a job … which turned into a career as Johnson’s assistant fisheries biologist.

At the end of this month, Roy will end that chapter of his life. The longtime Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife employee is retiring.

“I’ve been talking about it for a couple of years,” the 57-year-old Roy says. “I want to get done while I’m still young. And the clock is ticking.”

Roy says he doesn’t really have concrete plans for his retirement … though he’s pretty sure he can find ways to keep busy.

“I haven’t planned that far,” he says. “I’m gonna fish and garden. I’m gonna play with my [model] train. I’m gonna hunt. And I’m gonna sit in my chair and watch things go by.”

Other than that, Roy’s not sure what the future holds.

“Something will either come along, or it won’t,” he says. “I’m not looking for another job, because I’d be stupid to quit this one to go look for another one.”

Roy is one of the good guys. There’s always a smile lurking there somewhere … hidden beneath his bushy mustache. He’s quick with a joke, and generous with his time.

And (don’t forget this part) Roy has spent his adult life serving as a steward of the state’s resources. You may agree with the DIFW’s decisions. You may disagree. But you need to know that Roy has worked as hard as he can to make a real difference … and to make things better.

Roy says he’ll leave his post with plenty of good memories … and at least one part of the job that he won’t miss.

“It’s the best job anyone could ever wish for,” he says. “[You’re] outdoors, working with fishermen. There’s no better people to work for. And the people I work with have been great. I’ve got no regrets, and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it … except for some of those cold days on Moosehead in the wintertime.”

Roy said he won’t really be punching out for good come January. There is a bit of work left to be done.

“I’m not leaving [Johnson] high and dry. There’ll be a transition period,” he says. “Somebody’s got to be trained. And there’s some things I’m working on that I want to finish up.

“I’m not looking at six months of solid work, but a few hours every once in a while, just to finish up the projects I wanted to finish up.”

After that, if you want to find Roy, you may have to get off the beaten path.

There’s plenty of water in the greater Greenville area, after all. And he’s planning on spending some time on it … in it … around it.

“Now it’s time for me to fish,” he says. “I’ve checked everybody else for 34 years.”

The state released its preliminary deer harvest numbers this week, and if you spent a fair amount of time wading through swamps and braving blustery conditions during the firearms season, you won’t be surprised to hear the estimates.

Biologists think about 30,000 deer were killed by hunters; that would be 16 percent lower than the estimated total of 35,800 and more than 20 percent below last year’s bumper crop of 38,153 deer.

“In a nutshell, November was a nice month if you were a duck … or a duck hunter,” Gerry Lavigne told the annual Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine Sportsmen’s Congress on Friday. “But it was hardly an optimal month for killing deer.”

Lavigne, the DIFW’s deer biologist, says many hunters blame wet or windy weather for their lack of success, but the weather may play a more important role in altering the behavior of the hunter than the hunted.

When it’s miserable out, hunters can often find something else to do, he points out.

“The deer were there,” he says. “But the hunter enthusiasm wasn’t up to par.”

In case you’re curious, 30,000 deer, while lower than last year, would still be an average year.

In four of the past 10 years in which complete totals are available, more than 30,000 deer have been killed in Maine: 38,153 in 2002, 36,885 in 2000, 31,473 in 1999 and 31,152 in 1997.

In the other six years, fewer than 29,000 have been harvested: 27,769 in 2001, 28,241 in 1998, 28,375 in 1996, 27,384 in 1995, 24,683 in 1994, and 27,402 in 1993.

The state compiles its early estimates based on a model that uses the total number of deer examined by wildlife biologists at meat lockers, roadside check stations, and home visits.

In 2003, DIFW biologists and cooperators examined about 6,500 deer by this method. In 2002, the total was more than 8,000.

While complete totals for this season won’t be available until March, one fact has emerged: Hunters who actually made it out the front door were far more successful than those who opted to stay inside and watch TV.

Go figure.

While initial reaction to the proposed Penobscot River Restoration Project has been positive, one question began making the rounds nearly as soon as the ambitious effort was unveiled last month.

What about the bass?

While the potential return of some migratory fish – most notably Atlantic salmon – was heralded in the announcement, some folks expressed concern that the Penobscot’s smallmouth bass weren’t mentioned.

Since bass fishing has become very popular on the river (and since certain parts of the Penobscot have garnered a reputation as world-class bass destinations), those concerns were worth some thought.

On Thursday night, I caught up with Fred Kircheis, one of the state’s foremost fish experts, after a meeting of the new Maine Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America.

Jeff Reardon of Trout Unlimited outlined the Penobscot restoration project for the chapter, and Kircheis, who served as a DIFW biologist for several years and who retired as the Atlantic Salmon Commission’s executive director nearly a year ago, said bass anglers shouldn’t worry.

“I think this will improve the bass fishing,” Kircheis said. “Smallmouth bass do better in a riverine environment than they do in deadwater and impoundments.

“It won’t affect, one way or the other, the wonderful trophy bass fishery above Old Town, and it should improve it between [Veazie] and Old Town.”

Kircheis said the dams affected by the project wouldn’t alter the primary bass habitat.

“There won’t be any change in water flow or water-level impoundment because the Milford Dam is going to stay there, and the flow regime should remain very much the same as it is now,” Kircheis said.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.