L.L. Bean Honors Former Maine IF&W’s Bill Pierce

AUGUSTA – Former Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife marketing specialist Bill Pierce recently was named a recipient of the prestigious L.L. Bean 2008 Outdoor Heroes award.

Mr. Pierce, who worked at the Department from 1999 until April 2008, was nominated by Fisheries Division Director John Boland. He now works at the Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust.

The L.L. Bean Outdoor Heroes Program was developed to thank individuals who have dedicated their time to preserving the outdoors and encouraging the use of recreational outdoor space.

Winners are awarded a $5,000 grant towards their organization to support continued preservation, conservation and educational efforts. IF&W will apply the grant to its youth fishing and education programs.

“The award honors those people who make a difference in the world around us – the one we enjoy today and the world that we will pass along to our children and their children,” said Mike Gawtry, project line manager for hunting and fishing at L.L. Bean.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is grateful to L.L. Bean for its continuous support of its conservation, and youth fishing and education programs.

“Bill’s love of Maine’s great outdoors is evident in his never-ending enthusiasm to share its fishing and hunting opportunities with others, and the programs he developed while at the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife could be viewed as an invitation for all to go outside and play,” said Commissioner Roland “Danny” Martin. “We thank our partner L.L. Bean for recognizing the dedication we saw in Bill, and for its generous donation to our programs that bring outdoors opportunities to Maine’s youth.”

Among Mr. Pierce’s accomplishments:
* Airing hunting and fishing information on Maine Turnpike Radio;
* Creating and posting hunting, fishing and outdoors safety informational videos on www.mefishwildlife.com, and e-mailing the videos to tens of thousands of people;
* Branding IF&W’s logo on merchandise that is sold through the internet and private partnerships, including one with L.L. Bean, which raises thousands of dollars for conservation and education programs;
* Pitching Maine’s outdoors and recreational opportunities to outdoors writers, sporting magazines and television shows, thus giving Maine international exposure and drawing visitors to the state.
* Establishing corporate partnerships with several companies, including L.L. Bean, that have generated funds for IF&W projects such as the Outdoors Partners trailer, fishing and hunting publications, wild trout initiatives, and threatened and endangered species programs.

“Maine is now a destination for hunters and anglers from across the nation due in part because of Bill’s work with local and national television, radio, web, and print-based media,” Gawtry said. “Anglers, hunters, birdwatchers understand the management programs and needs of IF&W due to Bill’s work.”

Mr. Pierce said he is grateful for the Outdoor Heroes award, noting that “the Department’s mission of managing Maine’s fish and wildlife resources – and the resources themselves – are such wonderful things to promote.”

“I am grateful to be honored by L.L. Bean with this award, but any success I have enjoyed is largely due to the hard work of my friends and co-workers at IF&W,” Pierce said. “I am truly blessed to have worked with a lot of very special people in the main office, the regional staff and the Maine Warden Service. Those folks are the real Outdoor Heroes.”

Former Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife marketing specialist Bill Pierce (second from right) celebrates receiving a L.L. Bean 2008 Outdoor Heroes Award with (from left) Mike Gawtry, product line manager for hunting and fishing, IF&W Deputy Commissioner Paul F. Jacques, IF&W Fisheries Division Director John Boland and IF&W Commissioner Roland “Danny” Martin, during a recent ceremony at L.L. Bean.

Tom Remington