It’s hunting season. Did you know?

Not everybody does. The fractured scheduling of Maine’s various seasons for myriad species puts hunters into woods and fields often without warning to the general public, which can spell danger for unwary outdoor recreationists who fail to don the real color of fall: blaze orange.

A statewide special archery season for deer lasts through Oct. 26, as does bear hunting with dogs. Bird hunting – pheasant, partridge and quail – just started Oct. 1 and runs through year’s end. Deer season with firearms started Oct. 20 with Youth Deer Day, then again this Saturday with Maine Residents Only Day.

Deer hunting for everybody starts on Oct. 29.

Anyone who enjoys Maine’s great outdoors needs a keen awareness of these dates, and a ready supply of blaze-orange duds. We don’t need to see more tragedies like Megan Ripley, the Paris teen tragically shot in her backyard, on a waning day of last year’s muzzle-loading deer season.

This week, as well, legislative bean-counters rejected cutting $50,000 from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s public relations budget. Good.

DIF&W is charged with informing the public about hunting seasons, and it probably needs more funds to accomplish this important job, not less. Hunters and hikers share the Maine woods, and should obey each other’s needs and coexist peacefully. But most of all, they both should feel safe in the great outdoors.

Information is the key to this, plus good old-fashioned common sense.

And some fancy fashions, preferably of the blaze-orange variety.