Here are some interesting numbers, culled from the research and management reports of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, 2006. This is the most complete recent report out, and generally refers to 2005:

- There were 67,814 registrations for the loon license plate, raising $381,948 for state programs.

- Meanwhile, there were 2,931 "chickadee checkoffs" for plates, raising a (donation) amount of $36,769.

- The number of bear taken last year was 2,873, with two-thirds of those bagged with the assistance of a guide. And, two thirds (1,959) of those getting bear were non-residents.

- Trappers got 130 bear.

- Talking about trapping, the total number of beavers trapped was 10,436.

- The following numbers also apply to trapping: bobcat (376), coyote (2,175), fisher (2,174), red fox (1,413), grey fox (125), marten (2,248), mink (1,224) and otter (1,113).

- Highest average payout for a pelt was the bobcat at $49. Lowest was for weasel ($2.21) which was less valued than the skunk ($3.50).

- Number of moose taken was 2,226, and 77 percent of those with permits were successful.

- The total number of deer taken was 28,148, with about 15,000 of those being bucks. 88 percent of deer hunters were Maine residents.

- In 2005, 6,236 wild turkey were taken. In 2000, by contrast, the total was 1,559.

- And the biggest number in the harvesting columns comes from "total, dabbling/diving duck harvest": 44,759.

Flies or worms?

Tell me, what do you use? Flies or worms? Or something in between?

I'd like to know, just in case I am shut out this spring and have to change my time-honored, if tortured, method of attracting brook trout.

The fishing season has finally arrived, and I plan to catch some trout this spring. There is some fast-moving water a half-mile from the cabin, so I am optimistic.

But there is a problem. I never catch trout anymore.

Is it because I use worms? The lean and attractive trout worm . . . the formidable night crawler . . . the hardworking dilly . . . .

My belief in the worm goes way back. And I mean WAY back.

In my formative years (and I won't get into semantics about whether I did justice to the term of "formative"), I fished small brooks with worms.

It was in rural New Jersey, north of New York City. (It sounds contradictory, but brooks and trees did predate the oil refineries.)

There were plenty of trout in this area, near the Palisades north of the George Washington Bridge.

The reason there were many brook trout was that no adults would fish the streams. The land was owned by Mafia henchman. No joke. These guys, with five o'clock shadows and Cadillacs which at that time were the length of Rhode Island, would yell, scream and sometimes even point what appeared to be guns to get strangers to leave.

Call them paranoid if you will, but honchos of organized crime did get whacked in their homes if they were not careful.

Adults feared going on this hundred-acre property. Kids, and I had perhaps put in a decade at that time, hardly knew what the Mafia was.

So our posse of poachers caught a great number of brook trout, on worms. The fish were so hungry that they greeted our inept band of anglers like goldfish welcoming the parents back after a two-week holiday.

But the Mafia guys had nasty dogs. And that wasn't just because they wanted to intimidate competitors at Kennel Club events. They needed the hounds to bark to alert them, and harass anyone who came onto their land - perhaps with firearms.

My band of naive know-nothing friends ignored the threat of the dogs, because even if a capo saw a kid he wouldn't bother launching an assault.

But one day they did let out the dogs. My (one-time) pal, Buddy Sherman, got away by scaling a fence.

I was not so fast. I hesitate to say I was "mauled" but the huge German shepherds bit and scratched, drawing blood in numerous locations of my 70 pound body.

My parents were alarmed when I returned home, and they took me to the hospital. But the local police evidently didn't call the Mafia dog pounds in those days to check to see if these attack animals had received their appropriate shots, so all I got was some surface medication. No rabies shots, thankfully, just an order to go home and take two aspirin.

End of story: Willie Moretti, owner of the estate, was rubbed out on the Brooklyn Docks in the '60s. His wooded acreage was sold to the Catholic Diocese, and became a high school for girls, Our Lady of the Holy Angels.

Me? I recovered but never caught many trout again.

Still, I am in sweet possession of my memories of catching 16 to 20-inch brookies on nature's own worm.

I will be using worms this spring, hoping to catch lunkers - but praying that I don't hear charging dogs in the background.

But please comment below - do you use worms or flies - and why?

I may need some good advice.

Cabin Country is not a hotbed of interactive chatter, but I've encountered several cool responders in recent weeks.

One group is the trappers, who might be fun guys at the local bean supper but were pretty negative about a few brief comments I uttered about their sport.

Some were offended that I wasn't impressed by their booth at the Sportsman's Show. Almost a dozen wrote to challenge my suppositions - or worse, suggest I am an amateur tenderfoot from the flat country (not an inaccurate assessment).

But I learned several things.

One - There must be a lot of trappers online. Granted, dissident outdoorsmen could have contacted each other to orchestrate a "mass mailing" against innocent little Cabin Country.

But even so, their remarks came from email addresses.

(An aside: I always thought former Gov. Angus King was right about stressing that every Maine family should get ready for the age of technology. Who knew I would get hammered as a result of his wisdom?)

I called up one trapper who wrote, John Carville. He lives in Richmond, and spends time trapping in the Sugarloaf area.

"Trapping is a generational thing for us," he said. "My family before me trapped and it seems natural. I like the exercise, being outdoors and matching wits with the animals."

He said he traps mostly for beaver and muskrat. He usually gets about $28 for a beaver pelt but once got $160.

He added, "We feel we do a service, too. In some areas there are too many animals," which in the case of beaver can dam up useful land.

Also, he said, "By removing excess animals, you don't have to have the state do it. In Massachusetts, you see some animals but you can't remove them yourself. You've got to get the state or some private company involved."

Good enough . . .

And Your Scribe received a nice note from Betty Pomerleau of North Country Properties in Abbot. We met at her booth at the Sportsman's Show, and she sent me a listing of camps and land in the Sangerville area (or that region 45 minutes south of Moosehead).

She's offering a camp in Abbot with 126 feet on the Piscataquis River with two bedrooms, a porch and a kitchen. $89,000.

She's also got a 30 acre lot in Sangerville, with 269 feet of frontage on Center Pond. It looks great in the photo, with power, septic and spring water available. Cost: $148,000.

"People really do purchase log home kits with or without being set up with a project manager," she said, in question to my unending query if folks really buy a kit and build it themselves.

If other real-estate people think they have good deals, put them into the Comments section of Cabin Country below.

My sense is a lot of people are looking for a camp for fishing, boating and swimming before the cost of land gets REALLY out of reach.

They might even want to trap on it.

Your Scribe visited the cabin over the weekend for the first time in months, and I was panicked when I saw from a distance that a huge tree had fallen on the property.

But getting closer - I was walking because of snow on the dirt road - I saw that it did not hit the cabin.

The good news is that there was no damage.

The bad news? There isn't any.

The tree did not hit my gritty but fragile structure, so I plan to be overjoyed for the next fortnight.

In sum, the cabin made it through another winter.

Also on the plus side Saturday was that I met a neighbor.

That would be Nick, who was strolling past the property with a rifle over his shoulder about mid-afternoon Saturday.

Since I am a born-again NRA fanatic when I am in Cabin Country, I waved at him and he came over.

He grows beans in the west pasture in the summer. In the winter, he shoots woodchucks when he can find them.

Also, he is rebuilding his house. It burned in the winter of '05, and he has a crew working on the place now.

And you thought that the insurance companies were slow to react to Katrina!

We talked. He's a good guy.

Your Scribe had made a dumb move earlier in the day: I forgot my snowshoes.

So when I walked down to the river, I sank up to my nether parts in snow that I should have known would be there. (An aside: This is in New Sharon, between Augusta and Farmington. And with many trees blocking the sunlight, it's usually May until all the snow is gone.)

But the trip to the river was worth it.

It was exciting to see the water so high and moving so fast.

In summer there is a 10-foot drop from the bank to the water. On Saturday, the water came up to within a foot of the bank.

I fished for awhile, inspired by numerous tales of how trout are starving in during April. But the trout of the Sandy River, and those wretched yellow perch that tend to find my hook, evidently organized a food bank over the winter because no one was biting.

I stumbled back to the cabin through the high snow, no doubt looking like a harried Harpo Marx after slugging a fifth of home brew.

But there was Nick, and I enjoyed talking to him.

I felt badly that he lost his house to fire. In fact, he said he had to jump out his second floor window to escape the flames. He was in his night clothes at the time, and it was February.

But he survived (with minor burns) and now we are buds.

He offered to cut up the offending tree in the middle of my driveway. He didn't want money for it, but I said that I wanted to pay him something.

Not that I am loaded. As a career journalist, I can hardly make the tolls from Portland to Augusta.

But there's a lot of work involved, and my chainsaw skills are about as evolved as my snowshoeing.

He will have deserved the money if the work actually gets done.

And if my luck holds this spring as it did over the winter, he just might give me some woodchuck to chew on. I've never tried that kind of 'chuck.

The word "bureaucracy" is not a well-loved term in independent Maine, but a bureaucracy known as the Land Use Regulation Commission has become conservationists' best friend as the Plum Creek Real Estate Development Trust prepares its spring offensive.

The mammoth Seattle corporation is renewing its plans to gain approval to develop about 975 house lots in the Moosehead Lake region.

Your Scribe is against it. How about you?

My objections aren't that pure. If I thought middle-income Maine people would dwell in at least some of the new units, I might like the project better.

But these large estates will likely start at $600,000 and crest at well over $1 million. Most buyers will use them as part-time starter mansions, and thus will not live in them for more than a month a year.

Proponents say that the multi-year construction project will create jobs.

Yes, there will be short term employment. But residents of that area have always survived, and will continue to do so. It's an unsavory thought indeed if those in the Greenville region become indentured servants to families making seven figures each and every year.

Who knows, if the Plum Creek proposal is defeated, perhaps smaller, more earth-friendly projects will emerge.

My biggest reason for objecting to the construction is I see it as just another revenue gusher for Plum Creek, an "action item" for some ambitious VP.

The land purchase made years ago now is a smudge on the balance sheet of this multi-billion dollar operation. Felling the first trees and cranking up the silent dozers will put this project into the active column, and thus be the first tangible evidence that the corporation will begin to make some big money.

Plum Creek starts a cash flow; Maine loses a beloved piece of wilderness.

This example of land devastation for gain by a wealthy corporation reminds me of one of the first stories I covered in my newspaper career.

It was in Northern California several decades ago, and a well-connected construction company wanted to dredge the wild Russian River (in Jenner, Calif.) to retrieve stone for its cement operation.

The company hired some well-dressed lawyers, rented some cash-poor environmental engineers and recruited some down-on-their luck locals to say they could use the jobs.

The proceedings were civil. The appropriate California authorities listened closely to both sides.

But each time I returned home after the hearings, I felt the stirrings of what later would be coined as a state of shock and awe: "We're giving up a wild river so a construction company can cut its costs on cement?"

The county board eventually denied the requests for permits. The Russian River still flows vigorously, atop some ancient and legendary rocks.

Let's hope that's what happens at Moosehead. Let's hope the LURC can find its way to say no to this inappropriate proposal.

It would be a tragedy to lose a storied piece of Maine wilderness to a profit-driven company whose caffeine-driven goal in spring of 2007 is to bulldoze Maine's land and its people.

Your Scribe, who once considered himself a wordsmith, is no longer sure of the definition of "reasonable."

As in, what is a reasonable price for a camp or cabin?

I used to think it was under $100,000. But it has come to my attention that a lot of people have made much money over the past decade. (Myself NOT included).

Perhaps they made it by selling their late parents' homes; perhaps by being in high-tech or financial services, where you can make big money in a small period of time.

At any rate, here are some properties I learned about when I was at the Sportsman's Show in Augusta last week.

- In Harmony, on a half-acre, a one-bedroom, one-loft cabin on a quiet road. It looks good on the website, which is www.ncponline.net. Asking: $85,000.

- In Sangerville, two-bedroom cabin overlooking pond with 400 feet of frontage. It sits on 19 acres, and is appealing when seen on the website. www.ncponline.net. Asking: $225,000.

Moving up . . .

- On Moosehead Lake, cabin has several bedrooms, dock, boathouse, and a great location right on the water. 400 feet of frontage, and about .6 acres of land. You can see it at www.c21moosecountry.com. Asking: $375,000.

- On Moosehead Lake, Very attractive frontage, 330 feet on the water, two bedrooms, permanent deck, looks good, www.c21moosecountry.com. Asking $489,000.

So there you are. I usually write about "reasonable" as costing a lot less than these last two properties. But the real-estate folk have had great selling summers the past few years, so maybe these properties sound good to cash-happy buyers. It only takes one, as they say at the selling seminars.

(An aside: The last two properties mentioned are at Moosehead. What will happen to their values if and when the Plum Creek dozers start their work? The Plum Creek properties would be much more expensive, of course, but what about the scenic views and peaceful tranquility that will surely disappear . . . )

Thoughts on the 27th annual Sportsman's Show, held this weekend at the Augusta Civic Center:

- There was a good balance between fin-and-fur groups (hunters, trappers, fishermen, etc.) and conservation associations (Natural Resources Council of Maine, Maine Land Coalition, Small Woodlot Owners Association of Maine, etc.). A large crowd had gathered Saturday afternoon to take in the messages.

- The first display that visitors saw when arriving was a mobile presentation that pointed out the evils of poaching. Your Scribe did not know poaching was such a problem.

- The busiest "interactive" seminar was the fly-tying clinic. Outdoorsmen of all ages lined up to get one-on-one instruction from veteran flymakers. Also drawing a crowd was a "firing range" game that challenged hunters to shoot game on a large moving screen.

- Numerous Canadian hunting and fishing businesses had booths, in attempts to lure New England sportsmen north this summer.

- PR teams representing the Plum Creek project at Moosehead were giving out free hats. The National Resources Council of Maine (which opposes the project as it stands) had flyers prepared promising to wage (bureaucratic) war if the sponsors do not come up with a "balanced" plan. Two resorts and 975 house lots are on the drawing board, though they have not been approved.

- Devices that emit facsimiles of mating calls were among the most popular booth items. The moose call invariably startled passersby - but that's what the unit is supposed to do, get one's attention!

- One bumper sticker on a pickep in the parking lot declared, "Kill it and Grill it!" The license plate indicated the driver was a bow hunter.

- Your Scribe was least impressed by the booth run by the Maine Trappers Association. Is trapping a "sport?" All those pelts hanging inside the booth seemed like a waste, since trapping is a small-money proposition at best.

- I was impressed by a Honda generator for $699. I want to have lights at the cabin this summer, so I might just buy this model.

- More than a half-dozen Maine tourist camps set up shop at the event. Do any readers go to fishing and hunting camps? I have never taken such a vacation.

- Representatives of real-estate companies say that more would-be camp buyers are looking inland for property, now that the costs near the coast are so high. Camps for less than $100,000 are available - which I hope to identify in coming blogs.

- Judging from the growing number of courses being offered, becoming a Maine Guide is a Walter Mitty-type dream for many men and woman. More than a dozen courses are given throughout the state, though one must still be certified by the state (and hired) before the dream comes true.

- With spring coming on and fishing season just starting, the Sportman's Show was a great place to get mentally prepared for the new season!