Governor vetoes moose bill

Governor Paul LePage has vetoed a moose bill.

The bill won the support of the legislature’s Fish and Wildlife Committee and was enacted by the House and Senate.
The bill requires the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to take some moose hunting permits from those that go to nonresidents and issue them to hunting lodges. It’s designed to help save our lodges, many of which are very challenged these days, especially if they are only focused on hunting and fishing.

When I wrote my book on Maine Sporting Camps, published in 2016 by Down East Books, camp owners told me their biggest challenge is the loss of hunters and anglers.

The legislature will reconvene on July 9 and will vote to either sustain the Governor’s veto or override it.

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.