How to find out if you’re drawn in the 2022 Maine moose lottery
By Pete Warner, Bangor Daily News Staff
It’s going to be a little harder this year, or at least take a little longer, for most folks to find out whether they’re among the lucky people selected for the 2022 Maine moose hunt.
That’s because the only way to get the information — until the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife completes the reading of the permit winners’ names — will be to attend the announcement in person or to get intel from a family member or friend there.
That could well result in a large throng of moose hunting hopefuls gathering Saturday during the Jackman Region Moose Lottery Festival.
Festival events scheduled in conjunction with the drawing will begin at 10 a.m. at the Jackman Town Office field on Main Street, but the reading of the names doesn’t start until 2 p.m.
During a span of approximately three hours, the 4,080 permit winners will be announced, one by one, in front of the live audience.
For those who can’t attend in person, the information likely won’t be available until somewhere between 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Once the drawing is complete, the Bangor Daily News will publish the entire list here on our website, in an easy-to-search format, where you can find out whether you have been drawn for this special Maine hunting opportunity.
It will include the hunters’ name and hometown, the hunting dates and Wildlife Management Districts where they are assigned, and the gender of the moose to be hunted. DIF&W officials said the list should be available no later than 6 p.m.
For each of the past two drawings, out of concern about having people gather in large numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic, DIF&W held its moose lottery events virtually. The department livestreamed the reading of the names on its YouTube channel.
This year, the state has returned to the traditional in-person format, likely to help the town of Jackman achieve some economic and public relations benefits from hosting the festival.
Regardless, there should be plenty of hooting, hollering and high-fiving on Saturday in Jackman, across Maine and beyond, once the permit winners are announced.
In 2021, DIF&W received 71,966 applications for one of 3,968 permits. That included 48,637 Maine residents who applied, with 3,647 getting a permit.
Among nonresidents, 23,239 hunters submitted applications for the right to be among only 321 moose hunters.