Reality show gives Aroostook citizens ‘five minutes of fame’
CARIBOU, Maine — Sweden Street was packed with guests, local and otherwise, on August 12, 2016 when the stars of Animal Planet’s North Woods Law reality show made an appearance.
The cast met fans across from the Caribou Post Office near a studio trailer with pictures, items, and memorabilia from the show. The nationally known game wardens chatted with fans, signed autographs, and posed for pictures throughout the night.
Maine Game Warden Sergeant Daniel Menard, supervisor for central Aroostook, explained that the network approached Maine Game Wardens a few years ago to do a reality show in the southern part of the state, and that it eventually branched into northern Maine.
“We were very fortunate that they came up here,” Menard said. “Maine is such a diverse state, so you want to show Aroostook County. It’s good for tourism and the people around here.”
Cast members said that it was initially difficult to accomplish their daily tasks while a TV crew followed them around, but most were able to adapt after some time.
“It’s really difficult to do what we do on a daily basis,” Menard said. “We do a lot of surveillance where you can’t have people around or following, you. It’s hard sneaking up on people when you have two vehicles following you, but you eventually adapt and in the end it worked out fine.”
Warden Adrian Marquis stated that he didn’t like how the crew’s presence added more embarrassment to the people they caught.
“It was difficult to do our job with a camera crew,” Marquis said. “When you’re doing with people who know they’re doing something wrong, they’re embarrassed about it and might feel a little ashamed. Having an entourage of cameras in your face doesn’t make it feel any better for them, and I didn’t care for that. I know the camera crew had a job to do and they were great people to work with, but I just didn’t like that aspect of it.”
Warden Alan Dudley, on the other hand, did not notice any behavioral changes as a result of TV cameras.
“One thing that did surprise me is that it didn’t seem to affect people at all,” Dudley said. “In other words you’d stop, pull up to someone, and have a camera crew right beside you. People just seemed to understand that and go right along with it. It’s amazing the amount of people that would sign the waiver to be filmed. Almost everybody would sign, even people that you think wouldn’t would still sign it to get that five minutes of fame.”
Dudley added that the show, overall, was an excellent experience.
“Everything was positive,” said Dudley. “It doesn’t matter where I am, or if I’m out of the uniform, I’ve had people come up to me and recognize me. A man from West Virginia approached me once while I was on vacation downstate and asked if I was Alan Dudley. Mind you, I didn’t have my uniform on, and once I told him that I was from the show, he said he watched me all the time and never missed an episode. I’ve had people all over the United States recognize me, even one from Bermuda. So the benefits of the show outweighed any difficulty of having a crew around while we worked.”
Game Wardens were most pleased that the show educated people, and cleared any misconceptions related to their work.
“We’re not forest rangers,” said Marquis. “In the past we’ve had people ask us about fire danger, so I think the show allowed people to see what our identity really is. It’s not just riding around in a pickup or snowmobile. There’s a lot to what we do.”
“There was so much confusion over the years as to what a game warden actually does,” said Menard. “Now people actually know what we do. We don’t just deal with warm, fuzzy animals all the time. We deal with any law enforcement that happens off the road, and now people can see that.”
“A lot of people didn’t have a clue what we did,” said Dudley, “It was to the point where they were surprised we wore guns. We’re law enforcement and can enforce any laws. Most people felt, originally, that we dealt with injured wildlife. The truth is that we’re not necessarily dealing with animals, but dealing with the people who deal with the animals.”
“It’s good that the public was able to see a bit of what we do,” Marquis concluded. “We’re not just ‘twig pigs.’ We have a lot of responsibilities and duties to take care of.”
