Category Archives: Legislative News

Legislative committee votes unanimously to stop CMP corridor

Great news! A legislative committee has voted unanimously for a resolve to void CMP’s public lands lease for their destructive corridor through western Maine. The resolve also notes that Maine’s constitution requires approval by two-thirds of the legislature for public lands to be substantially altered. CMP claims it is not substantially changing our public lands, […]

Feeding Deer Info Provided to IFW Legislative Committee.

The legislature’s IFW Committee had a long discussion about deer feeding, and received extensive reports from DIFW on these issues. The department recommended no changes to the existing laws, but did say they had plans to address all the issues and concerns. One handout I found interesting was wildlife biologist Nathan Bieber’s briefing paper on […]

Legislature debates deer baiting and biodegradable lures

The legislature’s Fish and Wildlife Committee worked yesterday on bills on deer baiting and biodegradable hooks and lures. The Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department spent more than two hours briefing the committee on deer feeding issues and answering questions. I will report on that in more detail later. But essentially, the department asked for no […]

DIFW’s Deer Feeding Report and Recommendations

The legislature’s IFW Committee will work on LD 1804 today, a bill about deer baiting and feeding. DIFW has prepared a report and recommendations for the committee. Here is their report. A Report on the Applications and Impacts of White-tailed Deer Feeding with Recommendations for Maine Nathan R. Bieber Wildlife Biologist Maine Department of Inland […]

Legislature debates turkeys and bears

At a work session this morning, the legislature’s Fish and Wildlife Committee acted on 3 bills carried over from last year’s legislative session. Deputy game wardens The first bill, LD650, was designed to strengthen Maine’s landowner relations bill, by adding 5 new deputy game wardens to DIFW’s staff. But DIFW did not support the bill, […]

IFW Legislative Committee postpones decision on ban of plastic hooks and lures

The legislature’s IFW committee voted today to postpone a decision on a bill to require biodegradable hooks and lures for freshwater fishing. The IFW department said they are concerned about the impact of these hooks and lures, and reported they’d organized a task force to address this issue. IFW said they’d examined the stomachs of […]