"The woods. The state. Everything. More and more people keep coming up here, up to Maine, and they don't understand what's special about this place... They have these distorted ideas about nature... and I didn't want to live that way. I thought that if I joined the Warden Service maybe I wouldn't have to, and maybe I could help a few people see things differently."

Mike Bowditch's profession as a Maine game warden figures prominently in The Poacher's Son. Other than conjuring up images of khakis, boots, and badges, the job of game warden is a relatively obscure and likely misunderstood one. Essentially, game wardens are wilderness police officers, and enforcing the law in an outdoor environment requires great physical endurance and intelligence, not to mention a number of specialist skills, so the warden service coordinates a number of speciality teams (aviation, dive team, canine and so forth).

The mission statement of the Maine Warden Service is to "serve and...