ADAMS - The town has been named one of the top 200 communities in the United States for outdoorsman by Outdoor Life Magazine.

The April 2008 issue, which hit newsstands on March 20, placed Adams as the 199th best place for anglers and hunters in the country, based on criteria that evaluated towns with a population of at least 4,000 by both their quality of life and sporting opportunities.

According to Town Administrator William Ketcham (who did not know about the honor until he saw the magazine on Tuesday), the town has been working to bolster its reputation as a destination for outdoor recreation.

"The statistics show that we're attractive for outdoor recreation, which is an area we're working on promoting so this is very exciting," Ketcham said.

The magazine details the scoring methods on which the towns are judged, which include huntable and fishable species, trophy potential, year-round opportunities, public land access and the restrictiveness of gun laws.

"We gathered comprehensive data on the overall quality of life the towns offered. Some of the factors we considered were the growth rate of the local economy, the unemployment rate, the degree of taxation, the time it takes to commute to work, the crime rate, housing prices, median household income and even the variety of cultural opportunities within easy driving distance," reads the article.

Paul Gigliotti, an avid fly fisherman who has lived in town for 18 years, said he wasn't too surprised about the honor and called the Hoosic River "an amazing resource."

"Where else can you go that has a river that flows right through town that's not polluted?" said Gigliotti, who's also a fly fishing teacher to area youth.

Calling Adams "a nice place," Gigliotti said one of the benefits of the region is a self-sustaining population of wild trout in the Hoosic.

The river's health has been the focus of local enviromental and sportsmen's organizations. A "State of the River" roundtable is planned this Saturday from 10 to noon at the Adams Visitors Center.

"I hope that people continue to protect the river," said Gigliotti.

Though several places are listed in New York and Maine in the Outdoor Life Magazine, only three towns from Massachusetts and two from Vermont were chosen. Along with Adams, Plymouth was named No. 156 on the list and Athol was No. 185; Rutland, Vt., (138) and Burlington, Vt. (36) made the final cut.

"We're one of the few east of the Mississippi River," said Ketcham.

The No. 1 spot went to Mountain Home, Ark.