GREENVILLE – Wardens can be a funny lot.

For example, with the weather crisp and the wind putting the temperature near freezing, a warden might say to one wary of catching pneumonia in an outhouse: “Best of luck.”

Or, for instance, the same warden might regard a cold camper as a fragile bird, directing them toward a heater with orders to “get up on your perch.”

It was in this spirit of easy humor and uderstated concern on Sunday that warden Mike Morrison responded to a child asking if he talked to animals.

“Yes,” the warden quipped. “But what bothers me is when they talk back.”

At that moment, having won the child’s attention, Morrison proceeded into a textbook explanation of what he does do. He does not actually talk to animals, as her father told her, he said, but, instead, works to protect wildlife.

“It bothers me when parents say, ‘Be good or he’ll arrest you.’ That only creates fear. We’re there to protect the environment,” Morrison said later. “We want to show kids the animals are there for sustenance. But they are also there for people to have a look at them.”

It is to emphasize their mission of “Caring for Maine’s Outdoor Future” that Maine wardens have been going to fairs, parades, and tourist sites with their new Operation Partnership Program trailer.

“We wanted to have something that could be used four seasons, making it portable, bringing information to the sport in high volume areas,” said Bill Pierce, the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s project spokesman.

“It will enhance people’s experience,” he added. “Plus, if they can tell people how to get to a place, there will be a lot less chance of looking for that person. If they can tell them what ponds to fish under the law, they’d be less likely to summons them.”

On Sunday Morrison carted the information booth up to the hill overlooking Greenville and spent the morning with hunters who pulled off Route 15 to ask questions. He then moved down to the Indian Hill Trading Post to talk to 40-50 other visitors.

Some folks were more forthcoming than others. Morrison warmly greeted them all, encouraged them to ask questions, and offered them free brochures.

Each time he was asked whether the fully mounted deer alongside him was one of those “dummy deers,” the kind used to catch poachers, Morrison grinned.

“What deer are those?” he’d say. “Oh. I think I’ve heard of them.”

Despite what can be said about Maine wardens as crime stoppers, Morrison says their mission is to protect the state’s wildlife, not to catch and summons poachers and the like. That’s what the OPP trailer is here to emphasize.

The trailer (easily mistaken as a hot dog stand) was out on Sunday during deer season because it is a day hunters are traveling – as several out-of-state hunters proved.

According to the DIFW law book, the rule for transporting firearms on Sunday is specific, amounting to what is possibly the longest run-on sentence in the DIFW hunting book.

But Sunday, Morrison wasn’t looking in trucks and trailers. He was inviting hunters to look in his.

Morrison has worked more OPP events than any other warden, and is a perfect ambassador to promote the warden service.

The son of a game warden, Morrison has given his time to nursing homes and grade schools to educate others on the environment.

Simply put, he’s the kind of guy who carries a Beanie Baby black bear in his truck.

When a couple stopped to ask about the deer they bagged, Morrison could have sent them over to biologist Doug Kane. But he didn’t.

“I didn’t realize that deer don’t have top teeth,” the woman said.

“Their top plate is very solid,” Morrison explained. “They do everything with their bottom teeth.”

When a pair of Massachusetts hunters stopped to inquire where all the “stocked” deer were, Morrison responded to their jesting in kind, telling them it’s too bad for them they missed “free deer week.”

But Sunday Morrison did more than simply showcase wardens as an informed, friendly bunch. He cleared up a lot of confusion.

He allayed two different hunters’ concerns about transporting and giving away game. Both worried they were on the cusp of breaking the law.

One New Hampshire man who owns a camp on Moosehead Lake wasn’t in Greenville hunting. He stopped to find out where it was legal to fish on the lake. He wasn’t sure his neighbor knew.

“I figured I’d ask you since I saw you here,” the man said.

Third time’s the charm

Saturday, Jody Norton of Penobscot bagged his third deer in three years – and outdid himself after tagging an eight-point buck last year. Norton shot a 16-point, 215-pound buck in Levant.

Norton shot the deer at 12:30 p.m. and, after tracking it, took the last shot at 2:30 p.m.

With Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife biologist Gerry Lavigne on hand at the West Levant Store, Norton learned the buck was about 8 years old.

“They’ve gotten bigger each year,” said Laurie Norton, Jody’s wife. “My brother said, ‘It can only go downhill from here.”‘

Outdoor Calendar

A Citizens Advisory Committee meeting will be held 1 p.m. Friday at the State House in Augusta. Reviewing DIFW’s programs will be the business at hand. The meeting is open to the public.

Deirdre Fleming covers outdoor sports and recreation for the NEWS. She can be reached at 990-8250 or at dfleming@bangordailynews.net.