Prepare yourself before you go driving this weekend

For many of us, Memorial Day is the official start of summer. Have you got your weekend planned yet? Will you be attending a Memorial Day parade to honor veterans followed up by a family cookout?This one of the most traveled weekends of the summer. Whether you’re heading north and south Friday evening, you’ll have plenty of company on the roads. If you are planning on pulling a summer toy that involves a trailer, I hope you did a trailer tune up in your backyard.Avoid being one of the cars in the breakdown lane attempting to do their trailer repairs on the side of a busy highway.There are a few basics maintenance “do’s” before hitting the road.Use the following checklist. First and foremost, check out the condition of your trailer tires. Do they have cracks in the sidewalls? Are they inflated to the correct poundage? Are the lug nuts tight? Do you have a spare tire and is it filled with air? When was the last time you checked your wheel bearings? Did you grease your bearings? Have you checked light connections to make sure your trailer lights are all working properly?What shape are the trailer chains in? So before you head out on the road check these components so that you don’t become stranded on the highway. As for that water toy — this is often the first opportunity to launch. Hopefully you’ve de-winterized your rig at home before you hit the launch ramp.Did you check your safety items, horn, lights and fire extinguisher, to insure they are operating as required? Are all of your personal flotation devises on board? I recently read a few Coast Guard statistics that were real eye openers. Every two and a half hours someone is injured or killed in a boating accident. Did you know that only one out of 66 people drowns if wearing a life jacket but with no life jacket, the statistics are that only one of every 11 will drown! Having trouble on a holiday weekend is just no fun, so be safe and enjoy!UOn May 16, 17, and 18, 2014 the 32st annual Landlocked Salmon and Lake Trout Winni Derby took place with over $50,000 in daily and major prizes!As a non-profit organization, the Winni Derby is committed to the preservation of the salmon fishery on the “big” lake.Grand prizes have now been converted to all cash. Todd Gilbo from Georgetown this year, grand prize winner, was the lucky angler that landed a 3.98 pounds, 22.625 salmon and took home $10,000.For the lake trout category, the first place $5,000 cash award went to Anthony Antonis of Gilford, N.H. His trophy lake trout was 24.75 inches long and weighed 5.48 pounds. The grand prize winner for a junior division in the salmon category went to Nicholas Gelinas from Loudon, N.H.His $2,500 fish weighed 3.32 lbs and was 21 inches. And, for largest junior lake trout of 3.98 lbs and 22.250 inches long, Myles Muir from Concord, NH went home with $2,500.uThe Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) is interested in receiving loon sighting reports this spring and summer.Reports of birds with chicks are of particular interest. For years, MassWildlife has been monitoring loons nesting in the state. Common Loons, listed as a Species of Special Concern in the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act, returned to nest in Massachusetts in 1975 after being absent as a breeding bird in the state for almost a century.From 1975 to 1983 loon pair activity was only observed on the Quabbin Reservoir. In 1984, loon activity was also observed on the Wachusett Reservoir. By 1986, loon nesting activity began to spread to other water bodies in the state. In 2012, 35 territorial loon pairs were documented on 13 lakes and ponds in the state. Submit loon pair sighting reports via MassWildlife’s electronic Vernal Pool and Rare Species VPRS Information System, an online data submittal and mapping application, or email: [email protected], or send by postal mail to “Loon Survey”, DFW, Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program, 100 Hartwell Street, Suite 230, West Boylston, MA 01583.uIn closing this w