STAFF REPORT

Do you know what you should do if a see a bear nearby when you're picking blueberries? Or if you see a turtle on its back along the side of a road?

These are two of the 12 questions posed in the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife's newest booklet, "What Would You Do? An Outdoors Skills Quiz," now available for parents to use with their children this summer.

"This appealingly illustrated online quiz gives kids of all ages a chance to see how they'd react in the common outdoor situations depicted," said Lisa Kane, a natural sciences educator for DIF&W in a press release. "Hopefully by taking the quiz, kids will learn what the right things are to do in certain situations when boating, camping, snowmobiling or interacting with wildlife."

Kane wrote the booklet. For more than 20 years, she's taught outdoors and wildlife conservation classes at school events, childrens programs, the Maine Wildlife Park and Swan Island. It was illustrated by Tom Merriam, an outdoors artist whose work also graces the sportsman's license plate, and was designed by Deborah Turcotte, the DIF&W spokeswoman.

"A current state and national concern is how to get kids to recreate outside, and once they're there to make sure they are acting safely and ethically," Kane said. "Teachers might use the booklet as a stepping stone for kids to share some of their own outdoor adventures, either by writing a story or giving a talk."

To read the booklet online at home, visit http://www.flipseekllc.com/maine200904kidbits.html.