Item 13588info Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum
In 1893, a decade after the conservation law passed, Mainers formed the Maine Sportsmen's Fish and Game Association.
J. F. Sprague of Monson said of the group in 1896, "We would not kill any of God's mute creatures unnecessarily; we would not kill a deer or a trout except in open season and then only by the methods of the true sportsman, who always gives the game, the trout or the salmon all of their natural advantages in the fight.
"These are our cardinal principles and we need no word of encouragement from the watch towers of right and justice to keep us within these bounds.
"Our mission is rather to inculcate all others with the same adoration for these things which possesses our own souls."
Another group, the Maine Game and Protective Association began about the same time.
