Depending on what part of the state you store your kayak, you either had a chance to welcome winter back with a vengeance last Sunday or yawn at yet another near miss.

Here in River City we got just enough snow to cover most of the dead grass (which was staring back at us by week’s end). Farther Down East on the coast, folks got a chance to get in a morning workout clearing their driveways of a foot or more of snow. By Friday we were looking at rain again – go figure!

At least the threat of snow has been good for the grocers. Checkout lines at Shaw’s last Saturday before the Big One That Missed Us Again were long and carts were full.

Banff films come to town

Monday night in Bangor some 300 locals celebrated mountain culture when the Banff Mountain Film Festival world tour landed, thanks once again to the folks at Epic Sports.

The traveling show features 25 winners of the Banff Mountain Film Festival that were culled this year from 319 entries. That list was pared to 55 winners and 25 of those hit the road with eight Banff representatives. They will have hit some 185 U.S. locations (275 worldwide) this year. Holly Elliott, one of those road crew representatives, worked with Brad Ryder, owner of Epic Sports, to pick the 10 films for Monday’s show. It was Ryder’s ninth opportunity to host the tour in Bangor.

Major sponsors of the world tour include National Geographic, Dunham, Patagonia, MSR, Deuter, Outdoor Research, Polartec, Time Expedition, Air Canada, Lake Louise, Petzl, and Nokia. A few folks who attended Monday evening’s performance walked away with door prizes from those sponsors.

Elliott introduced the show that included films ranging from “Middle Kaweah” by Oceanwatch Production Group (USA), in which a group of world-class river kayakers on a six-day expedition of the Sierra Nevadas made the first descent of the Middle Kaweah River, to a short soliloquy called “Solilochairliftquist” a voice-over film featuring a ski bum’s “profound” realizations while riding the chair lift.

I liked “Balancing Point,” directed and produced by Danny Brown, the best. It featured the “reverse destruction” of balanced rock sculptures. The subject would construct a balanced rock sculpture while the camera was rolling, then tip it over. The film would then be shown in reverse, making it appear as if the tumbling rocks were jumping from the ground up into a sculpture. It was well done and amusing.

“Grand Canyon Dreams,” directed and produced by Will Gadd, was pretty awesome as well. The producer, a paraglider, flew over the Grand Canyon years ago in a jet and wondered if he could do it with a cloth-winged chute. After a few false starts, he succeeded – and the footage he took from the air is wild.

And then, tongue-in-cheek, “The Lost People of Mountain Village” took an anthropological look at a monstrosity of ski villas near Telluride, Colo., as if it were to a Mayan ruin. Filmed in the offseason, therefore uninhabited, the excesses of the rich were driven home.

“Return2Sender: Parallelojams,” a rock-climbing piece, and “Person as Projectile,” featuring skier Julian Carr trying to explain the mindset required to jump snowy cliffs without injury, were entertaining, but so far beyond anything I could identify with that they were just silly to me. Ditto on a mountain bike film “The Retrospective – Red Bull Rampage” in which young men try to fly on mountain bikes and wreck themselves, their bikes, and the environment. The later two reminded me of those compilation programs – The World’s Worst Wrecks, etc.

In all, the evening was swell and once again a raging success. Mark your calendar for next year and plan to attend.

Planning for warmer times

While some of us hibernate waiting for warmer weather, the sea kayak guide community is busy ramping up for the summer season. To that end, the Maine Association of Sea Kayak Guides and Instructors gathered at the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife offices in Augusta last week to talk shop.

Part of that involved signing up new members, getting an update on guide background checks from Guide Advisory Board liaison Sgt. Mark Warren of DIF&W, and a talk on seabird nesting islands from Brian Bennedict of Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, formerly called Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge.

The background check issue has been simmering for a while, and on Jan. 25 in Bangor more than 100 guides turned out at a public hearing a the Civic Center to voice their displeasure at the proposed regulation that would revoke the licenses of professional guides convicted of misdemeanor crimes. It also would require criminal background checks on prospective guides and anyone applying for relicensure.

Warren promised that MASKGI would be part of the process to rework the proposal.

Dave Mention of Maine Island Trail Association, and a sea kayak guide as well, reported that the islands on the trail fared well last season with a few showing improvement in regard to human impact. Leave No Trace ethics have undoubtedly helped in this area. He said there were few reports of conflicting use between visiting parties, thanks possibly to improved planning on behalf of outfitters.

The trail association has created baseline environmental measurements on seven islands and will watch these islands closely over the next five or six years in an effort to ameliorate excessive future wear and tear on them as well as other islands. Mention said there will be a caretaker hired to watch over the Stonington-area islands this summer, just like is being done in the Portland area.

Islands that cannot be visited during bird nesting season were the object of Bennedict’s discussion. He outlined the history of seabirds along our coast, from their near demise at the turn of the last century because of the fashion trends to wear feathers to their mostly successful comeback in modern times thanks mostly to passage of the Lacey Act in 1900. It authorized the Department of the Interior to aid in the restoration of game and other wild birds.

That act and, until the mid-1970s, open burning dumps (smorgasbords, as it were) helped the herring gull population along our coast explode, much to the detriment of the tern population.

Since dump closings, restoration efforts have resulted in a 240 percent increase in the common tern population, a 60 percent increase in the Arctic tern population, and a 276 percent increase in roseate terns, he said.

Other sea birds that are again common along the coast include Leach’s storm petrels, cormorants, eiders, herring gulls, black-back gulls, razorbills, puffins, and guillemots.

Challenges facing these coastal birds include the number of nesting islands (development), diminished fishing resource, increased use of islands for recreational purposes, predation, and the concentration of nesting sites.

As of now, there are 8,100 acres and 47 islands set aside in the refuge, which extends from the Isles of Shoals on the Maine-New Hampshire border to Canada.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a new 15-year plan that includes purchase of 87 more islands from willing sellers, six new conservation islands, and a coastal education center. The USFW has also worked with Friends of Maine Seabird Islands, the National Audubon Society, Acadia National Park, DIF&W, and private island owners in its effort to keep nesting islands safe for birds. New signs have been designed featuring a white tern profile against a black and blue background warning of nesting birds. If you approach one of these islands and see such a sign, don’t land if it’s between April 1 and Aug. 31. That way you won’t disturb or step on nesting birds.

Jeff Strout’s column on outdoor recreation is published each Saturday. He can be reached at 990-8202 or by e-mail at jstrout@bangordailynews.net.