More youth deer hunting days voted down

On Wednesday, the legislature’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee unanimously opposed a bill that would have increased youth deer hunting days to 3.

Action was postponed on a bill to allow a person to place supplemental minerals for deer from March 1st to July 31st if the supplemental minerals are placed on that person’s own land, or on another person’s land with the other person’s oral or written permission, and the supplemental minerals do not contain any grain or food products.

More deer feeding and baiting bills are coming later so the committee decided to deal with all feeding and baiting bills at the same time.

Also on Wednesday, the committee considered a bill to amend the law governing registration of harvested animals to have registration agents retain $4 of each registration seal for a bear, deer or moose. It also increased the amount collected for each wild turkey registered to $3, leaving the amount retained at $2.

The committee unanimously opposed this bill.

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.