BETHEL – Live raptors and several wildlife experts from Maine and New Hampshire will come together Friday, May 14, at the Bethel Inn and Conference Center.

From 8:50 a.m. to 4 p.m., each has a part in the Androscoggin River Watershed Council’s wildlife conference – “Fur, Fins, and Feathers: Wildlife in the Androscoggin River Watershed.”

Following an introduction from council Executive Director Charles Knox, Judy Silverberg, the Education and Watchable Wildlife coordinator for the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, is to talk about recreational impacts on wildlife.

The conference then segues into concurrent workshops.

The first set involves:

• The effects of timber harvesting on wildlife habitat with New Hampshire wildlife biologist Will Staats.

• The eastern coyote with Maine wildlife biologist Scott Lindsay.

• Wild turkeys and other game birds with Maine wildlife biologist Phil Bozenhard. He’s a Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife biologist who was instrumental in bringing wild turkeys back to Maine.

The next set of workshops details:

• Wildlife management on public lands with Paul Casey, refuge manager of Lake Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge and Mark Prout, a fisheries biologist with the White Mountain National Forest.

• Maine’s deer and moose, respectively, with wildlife biologist Chuck Hulsey and moose biologist Karen Morris.

• The uncertain future of loons with Lucas Savoy, a research biologist with the Biodiversity Research Institute in Gorham.

Session three’s workshops cover:

• Fishery management throughout the Androscoggin River watershed with Maine fisheries biologists Forrest Bonney and Mike Brown.

• Black bear habits, management and the upcoming bear-hunting referendum.

• Canada lynx research with black bear and Canada lynx biologist Jennifer Vaschon.

• Breeding songbirds with Maine Audubon staff naturalist Judy Walker.

Following lunch and a council meeting, remaining workshops cover:

• Maine’s habitat conservation program by “Beginning with Habitat” coordinator Colleen Ryan.

• Live raptors with Maine naturalist James Parker of the Aerie East Environmental Foundation.

• Eagles, hawks, osprey, and falcons with Chris Martin, senior biologist with the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, and Maine raptor biologist Charles Todd.

For more information, people can visit www.androscogginriver.org or call 603-466-3433.

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