Lots of killed bills this session, from Spearfishing to Sunday hunting

As usual, most of the nearly 2000 bills introduced this legislative session have been killed or will be soon, including lots of fish and wildlife bills. Here are some of the more interesting bills that got nowhere.

All the Sunday hunting bills failed. One of the more interesting would have allowed each town to decide if it wanted to allow hunting on Sundays. Another would have allowed Sunday hunting for birds in Aroostook County and the unorganized territories.

LD 41 would have allowed kids to ride on ATVs without wearing a helmet if they were wearing a seatbelt.

LD 844 would have made excessive boat noise a public nuisance. That would have allowed the public to bring a nuisance action against the boater.

LD 728 would have reorganized DIF&W’s Fisheries Division to match the Wildlife Division and bring more accountability to the regions.

LD 695 would have doubled the number of moose permits available for auction from the current 10 to 20.

LD 632 would have provided 25 moose permits to members of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians.

LD 359 would have passive watercraft to purchase and display a one-time invasive aquatic plant and nuisance species sticker to generate money for the DEP’s program to combat invasive plants.

LD 342 would have required you to wear a life jacket in a canoe.

Two bills that would have created antler size restrictions for bucks were defeated, although they did generate a lot of testimony and discussion.

LD 190 would have allowed spearfishing for Northern Pike in Sebago Lake.

LD 60 would have allowed hunters 70 years of age and older to shoot antlerless deer in designated WMDs.

LD 1038 would have allowed junior hunters to take antlerless deer in any WMD on Youth Day.

LD 278 would have removed the prohibition on training hunting dogs on bear in portions of Washington and Hancock Counties where that is now prohibited, due to concerns of wild blueberry growers.

LD 1020 would have required DIF&W’s Commissioner to open coastal and island communities to deer hunting.

LD 1041 would have expanded the no-shooting zone along roadways from 20 to 100 feet during deer season.

 

 

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.