Mainers who received permits to hunt moose this year totaled 2,327.
By Terry Karkos
Staff Writer

If the state wildlife management agency has its way, the number of available moose hunting permits for northeastern Maine will rise next year.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is currently proposing a rule that would increase the number of moose permits available to hunters for the 2004 season.

Under the proposal, the department would increase the 2,585 permits issued this year to 3,135, which would be the most issued since the modern moose hunt resumed in 1980, said Mark Latti, a department spokesman.

Of the 78,000 combined resident and nonresident hunters who applied for a permit to bag a moose this year, only 2,327 residents got permits while 258 were given to nonresidents.

Although a public hearing concerning the proposal was slated for Thursday evening in Presque Isle, the department is accepting comments up to Monday, Nov. 17. They may be sent via e-mail to andrea.erskine@maine.gov or by writing to Andrea Erskine, Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, 41 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333.

The proposal would increase the number of permits issued by 550 in Wildlife Management Districts 3, 6 and 11 in eastern Aroostook County.

“It would concentrate hunters in an area where there’s been concern about an increase in moose-vehicle accidents,” Latti said.

In 2003, 900 permits were issued in those three districts that stretch from Route 11 east to the Canadian border. The proposal calls for 1,450 permits in those districts for the 2004 hunting season, an increase of 161 percent.

Moose permits would increase from 230 to 400 in district 11, from 310 to 445 in district 3, and from 360 to 605 in district 6.

In these Wildlife Management Districts, the population management objective is to reduce the moose population by one-third to balance recreation with safety concerns, Latti said.

In different parts of the state, safety concerns and recreational hunting and viewing of moose are mitigating factors that determine the availability of permits.

When considerable public comment is generated about safety concerns stemming from high numbers of moose-vehicle collisions, more moose hunting permits are issued.

Specifically, cow moose permit numbers are increased to take more breeding females out of the population, Latti said. Current estimates peg Maine’s moose population at 29,000.

Cow ungulates are targeted because bull moose mate with several different females during rutting season.

“If we take multiple bulls out, it might not have any effect, because one bull could impregnate seven to eight females. But if we take a female moose out, that works much better,” Latti said.

But permit availability decreases when large numbers of complaints are received by the department about a lack of moose to view or hunt.

That’s why the number of permits have decreased in Greenville, Bethel, Rangeley and Jackman, Latti said.

“People there want an increase in moose for hunting and viewing and we feel we can accomplish this using specific numbers of permits that predominantly target bulls,” he added.

This year, the department issued 2,585 statewide permits for Maine’s two-week moose hunting season from Sept. 22-27 and from Oct. 7-12.

According to preliminary numbers from this fall’s moose hunt, 2,075 hunters bagged an ungulate.

That’s an 80-percent success rate, equivalent to the 2002 season, but still less than yearly success rates over the past 23 years (excluding 1981’s no moose season), according to department statistics.

Last year, 2,375 out of 2,964 hunters successfully got their moose.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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