Maine withdraws proposal to shorten grouse season

By Julie Harris, Bangor Daily News Staff

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has withdrawn its proposal to suspend grouse hunting during the September week of the state’s annual moose hunt after public outcry against it.

The announcement was made Dec. 4 during the department’s advisory council meeting.

The department had received complaints from September moose hunters that upland bird hunters were interfering with their hunts. The proposal was meant to be a compromise between the two types of game hunters. It would have kept the last Saturday in September as an upland bird hunting day, then suspended upland hunting until Oct. 1 while the first moose hunt was underway.

Withdrawing the proposed change means the upland bird season will open on the last Saturday of September and close at the end of December, and that bird and moose seasons will continue to overlap.

The department withdrew the proposal after most of the dozen people who attended the public hearing last month spoke against the plan. The department also received 54 written comments, 44 of which were against the proposal, one in support and the rest neither for or against, according to Nate Webb, director of the wildlife division.

It was the most comments the department has received on any issue since the Legislature established the advisory council in 2003, said Timothy Peabody, deputy commissioner of the department.

The Legislature in 2019 amended the law to allow the department’s commissioner some leeway in adjusting the upland bird hunting season.

The upland season expanded to include the last Saturday in September through the end of the year. But the last week in September is also the first bull week in the state’s annual moose hunt. That set up some conflicts between the two types of hunters.

The state had no data to support that overlapping seasons were affecting the moose kill, and a recent public survey on Maine’s moose confirmed that the majority of people feel there’s no conflict between the two hunts, Webb said.

The conflict is that bird hunters are driving into areas where moose hunters are trying to call in moose, said advisory council member Ed Pineau, representing Androscoggin, Kennebec, and Sagadahoc counties. Since it’s illegal for hunters to block roads and prevent other people from using them, the moose hunters have no recourse, he said.

Webb said the department heard mostly from bird hunters and that not many moose hunters weighed in.

Advisory council member Eric Ward, representing Piscataquis and Somerset counties, said the proposal seemed like a good compromise and he was sorry to see it not proceed.

There were no proposals to suspend bird hunting during the two moose hunt weeks in October, or the adaptive hunt.