Matt Chagnon - Whitetail Stewards, Inc. Associate Professor & Licensed Forester

Early Outdoor Experiences

Matt was raised in Farmington, a very small town just south of New Hampshire's Lakes Region.  His playground was the forests, fields and streams around his home, and he spent much of his youth learning about the creatures that inhabited these areas.  Matt started deer hunting with his Dad in 1965 at the age of eleven.  Back then, deer populations were quite low in New Hampshire and it wasn't until he was 19 that Matt had his first opportunity to harvest a deer.  It was a 125-pound 4-pointer that came in to a scrape that he had set up on.  Even though deer were still few and far between, Matt was hooked.

Education

Right after finishing high-school in 1972 Matt started his college career at the University of New Hampshire.  He spent the next 2 ½ years as an undeclared liberal arts major. Half way through his Junior year he was told that he either had to pick a major or leave. Since hunting and fishing was what he loved the most, leaving sounded good! So Matt left college and spent the next couple of years working at a local sawmill. Summertime found him on a stream somewhere in the evenings and weekends, and in the woods in the fall. After several years, he decided to return to college at the Thompson School of Applied Science and get an Associate's Degree in Forest Technology.  This led to a Baccalaureate Degree in Forest Management in 1986 and a Master's Degree in Forestry in 1988.  His Master's research involved the inventory of natural resource systems where he learned a lot about the plant species that make up wildlife habitat.

Professional Experience

When he first got out of college, Matt worked for a company doing land surveying and aerial photography.  This gave him the opportunity to spend lots of time in the woods around his home area.  After surveying the property where he shot his first deer, the property was turned into a golf course and Matt decided it was time for a career change.  There was an opening at his old alma mater, the Thompson School. He got the job in 1980, beginning his career in education.  Matt teaches courses in Forest Ecology, Surveying and Mapping.  He has also done some work with Biological Inventory Systems, which involves the inventory of all natural resources on a property.  He is a licensed New Hampshire forester, a Tree Farm Inspector and a member of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.  Matt is on the Board of Directors of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association and the Moose Mountain Regional Greenways, a regional land trust.  He is a member of the National Rifle Association, the North American Hunting Club, the New Hampshire Wildlife Federation and the First New Hampshire Branch of the Quality Deer Management Association.

Hunting Experience

Matt has close to 40 years of hunting and outdoor experience.  He started bowhunting in the late 1960's when bowhunting meant recurve bows and cedar arrows.  As a youth he hunted upland birds and rabbits as well as deer.  He spends most of his hunting time now bowhunting deer, but he also hunts with a rifle and a muzzleloader.  Matt hunts seriously in New Hampshire and Tennessee as well as some other eastern states.  He now hunts and films as a member of the Whitetail Stewards staff on self-guided hunts.  He logs an average of 200 hours of hunting time from September through January each year.