In March, friends call or stop at my home to tell stories about early open-water fishing adventures in flowing waters in the bottom third of the state, and the up-to-date news fascinates me big time. It also spurs me to get on the water.

Maine’s bear harvest has been declining at the same time the bear population has been increasing through ample natural food. But despite growing bear numbers, there’s not a problem with bears clashing with the public and becoming a disturbance, state biologists say.

There’s been scarce little snow so far this winter, and those who need their Nordic fix are getting antsy.

The National Seminar Series 25th Anniversary event comes to the Westbrook Performance Arts Center (471 Stroudwater Street in Westbrook) on March 10, promising an entertaining, educational day for salty anglers.

The soft light of dawn is filtering through the cabin windows. Despite the winter chill outside, the room is cool but not cold. I should get up and stoke the woodstove, but it’s no easy task when you’re toasty warm beneath flannel sheets and a down comforter. Instead I lay content for a while, listening to the quiet of the place, and admiring the artifacts adorning the log walls, which have comfortably sheltered many an outdoorsperson since the late 1800s.

It was exactly 70 years ago when Roger Page taught his first ski lessons as an instructor on a little rope-tow ski slope in Leominster, Mass.