Legislature Corrects Turkey Hunting Mistake

A last minute legislative amendment to a comprehensive expansion of Maine’s turkey hunt included a change that would have allowed two turkeys of either sex to be taken in the spring season. And I reported this after the amendment was added to the bill and enacted into law, in my comprehensive report on the expansion posted here last week.

The change to two turkeys of either sex in the springt alarmed and infuriated many turkey hunters. I couldn’t find out who asked for that change, or why it was made.

Turns out the two turkeys of either sex was a drafting error. And it was noticed and corrected on the final day of the legislative session, according to Rep. Mike Shaw, the House chair of the legislature’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee. Mike emailed this info to me after he read my report.

I just checked this on the legislature’s website, and the final amendment listed there for LD 200, the turkey bill, still includes two turkeys of either sex – so if it was corrected, that is no reflected in the information available on the legislature’s website.

But I’ll go with Mike’s message. Even if it didn’t get fixed in the final hectic moments of the session, it will certainly be corrected before the turkey hunting changes kick in in 2014. You can count on that.

I’ve amended the complete report I posted on this subject, so as not to get anyone else riled up!

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.