Organizations come in all sizes and a variety of names: Fish & Game Clubs, Rod & Gun Clubs, Sportman’s Associations, Angler’s Alliance, you name it.
And they can be found all over New England, and the country for that matter, in little hamlets and even big cities. They have been around for years. They are places for sportsmen and woman to gather and share stories and a common love of the outdoors. Many of them serve a greater good in promoting an outdoor heritage and raising money to help others.
One of these organizations stands out, not only for its longevity and vibrancy, but for its astonishingly unrelenting record of public service and accomplishment. Few sportsmen would disagree, the Penobscot County Conservation Association, or the PCCA, has left its mark like no other.
With its clubhouse located on the banks of the Penobscot River in Brewer, the PCCA has been around since 1928. According to Mark McCollough, one of its members, the PCCA has been true blue to its founding mission: to promote “the scientific encouragement of good sportsmanship, conservation of fish and game, enforcement of game laws, prevention of forest fires, preservation of purity of inland waters, and stimulation of outdoor recreation.”
Since 1933, the Eastern Maine Sportsman Show, put on by the PCCA, has been its major fund-raising event, along with an annual Gun Show. McCollough points out that for 40 years the PCCA ran a junior conservation camp, Camp Jordan, at Branch Lake. Today, the PCCA still pays tuition for dozens of youngsters to attend summer conservation camps.
Perhaps most commendable of all of its programs, the PCCA annually provides dozens of scholarships each year to deserving wildlife majors of the University of Maine in Orono, Unity College and the University of Maine in Machias.
In April, during a scholarship awards ceremony at the University of Maine, PCCA members awarded 22 scholarships to UMO wildlife majors! Since the 1960s, according to McCollough, the PCCA has awarded nearly two million dollars in scholarship support.
This is not the end of it. The PCCA also supports a host of other conservation groups from the NRA to the Youth Fish and Game Club in Milford, Maine. It also purchases land to be set aside for wildlife management.
What can you say? Some of us worrywarts who notice a lack of young people at fish and game club gatherings can take heart in the vitality and perseverance of standout groups like the PCCA.
The Penobscot County Conservation Association didn’t get where it is by just having a legacy and a cool name. It is the hard work and dedication of its leadership and individual members that brought it where it is today, worthy of every sportsman and sportswoman’s respect, admiration and appreciation. If you’d like to learn more, and perhaps become a member, check out PCCA’s website at: http://conservationassociation.org/.
Well done, PCCA!
The author is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WQVM-FM 101.3) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is vpaulr@tds.net . He has three books “A Maine Deer Hunter’s Logbook”, “Backtrack.” And his latest “The Maine Angler’s Logbook.” .Online purchase information is available at www.maineoutdoorpublications.com.
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