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George Smith, the native conservative

George Smith, Native Conservative George Smith George A. Smith is an outdoors writer, newspaper columnist, television show host and executive director of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, or SAM, the state's largest sportsmen's organization. He writes monthly columns for The Maine Sportsman magazine and the Northwoods Sporting Journal, a weekly opinion-page column for central Maine's two daily newspapers -- the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel -- and the monthly SAM News. He is co-host of a unique weekly television show called Wildfire, a talk show focused on conservation and environmental issues and seen on commercial and cable stations throughout the state.
Smith was part of the team that successfully defended Maine's moose hunt in 1983, and managed a winning 1992 campaign that placed the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in the Maine Constitution and protected its revenues. He also led a successful campaign in 2004 to defeat a referendum to stop Maine's bear hunt. Smith conceived of the Maine Outdoor Heritage Program, funded by an instant lottery game, that has provided more than $13 million for wildlife conservation and outdoor recreation projects in the state.

Recent columns by George Smith
Let's put school consolidation to rest as a failed experiment
[Oct. 28, 2009]
Health-care, travel industries in U.S. could learn from Italians
[Oct. 7, 2009]
One by one, we can cast out the 'bigs' from our lives, wallets
[Sept. 23, 2009]
End-of-life care directions for all would lower our health-care costs
[Sept. 16, 2009]
As of Sept. 12, law enforcers need just cause to stop ATV riders
[Sept. 2, 2009]
Life either needs improvement or it's 'perfectly acceptable'
[July 29, 2009]
University's identity crisis keeps campuses competing for resources
[July 15, 2009]
Tourism Web site won't draw many visitors to inland Maine
[June 24, 2009]
Maine shouldn't have to choose between jobs, environment
[June 3, 2009]
Two new reasons to trek through Maine
[May 27, 2009]
Resistance costing us fervor generated by Brookings report
[May 20, 2009]
Persistence, stubbornness both seen often at Statehouse
[May 13, 2009]
Maine could bank a lot more dollars from nonresident anglers
[May 6, 2009]
There's money in 'them thar' trees; it comes from bird tourists
[April 29, 2009]
Animal bills go too far and punish the good guys
[April 22, 2009]
A tale of two fathers, two deaths and gun shows
[April 15, 2009]
Consider the many people who benefit when wood is harvested
[April 8, 2009]
Past provides keys to future of downtown revitalizations
[April 1, 2009]
Some challenges would give any gardener the heebie jeebies
[March 25, 2009]
$2M bond would expand reach of Gulf of Maine Research Institute
[March 18, 2009]
New revenue sources proposed for state's critter caretakers
[March 11, 2009]
Commercial shooting areas can help keep farmers farming
[March 4, 2009]
Isn't taking something without paying for it called theft?
[February 25, 2009]
Technology is best understood in (very) small doses
[February 18, 2009]
Environmentalists, sportsmen need to link up in Maine 'vision'
[February 11, 2009]
Charging people to properly dispose of waste is bad policy
[February 4, 2009]
Volunteers are the engines that drive America's heart
[January 28, 2009]
Dispatches from a white house: voting 'wrong'; family time
[January 21, 2009]
Fish and wildlife agency needs support from all Maine
[January 14, 2009]
Government must be economic driver, not economic drag
[January 7, 2009]
New Year's vision: Use Kennebec to unite Augusta, Waterville
[December 31, 2008]
Rivers once again have potential to be key in Maine's prosperity
[December 24, 2008]
Costs of consolidation handicap task force on natural resources
[December 17, 2008]

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OPINIONS SPECIAL PROJECTS HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them. Not Thoreau. 150 years ago he ventured into Maine's woods. The high drama of the nature Thoreau encountered made its way into the equally dramatic prose of his book, The Maine Woods. We mark the 150th anniversary of Thoreau's 1857 trip as well as the legacy of this transcendentalist, nature lover and, as author Ted Williams writes, contrarian who loved Maine in its wildest and most rugged incarnations. For more, click here.

SPECIAL REPORT: Hunger Series
"For I was hungry," a seven-part editorial series, documents the depth and breadth of hunger in Maine, from the dramatic increase in food pantries to the thousands of children who come to school hungry to the elderly with bare cupboards. For more, click here.



Our local columnists Publication schedule Dan Billings: Thursday, monthly Theo Kalikow: Thursday, monthly David Offer: Tuesday, weekly Kay Rand: Thursday, monthly Joe Reisert: Friday, bi-weekly George Smith: Wednesday, weekly Liz Soares: Thursday, monthly Denis Thoet: Friday, bi-weekly* Gordon Weil: Thursday, weekly *during the growing season

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paper Writer's feature
From local writing workshops: Words about life
[January 27, 2008]
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