If you care about the way big game animals are managed in Maine, please make a special effort to get to one of these public meetings to express your opinions. Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will host the meetings, an unprecedented effort to reach out to sportsmen, landowners, and the general public and give all of you a chance to be heard on these important issues and challenges.
This will only be valuable if you get to a meeting and share your opinions.
In two of my outdoor news column recently, I’ve reported on this process, including information about fascinating surveys conducted by Mark Duda of Resource Management, which you can now access on DIF&W’s website. If you haven’t read those two columns, please do so.
Sometime soon, I will report on presentations made to the Big Game Steering Committee by DIF&W’s wildlife biologists on current plans and issues with the four big game animals: deer, moose, bear, and turkeys.
Three of the public meetings will focus on bear management and issues, and three will offer you an opportunity to comment on management of all of the four big game animals. Here are the dates, times, and locations for those meetings. And yes, I understand that you may not live anywhere near these locations (neither do I), but let’s all get there!
Bear Public Meetings
- March 16, 2016 6-9 pm
Embassy Suites by Hilton – Katahdin Room, 1050 Westbrook Street, Portland - March 16, 2016 6-9 pm
Northeastland Hotel – Red Room, 436 Maine Street, Presque Isle - March 30, 2016 6-9 pm
Black Bear Inn – Blue Room, 4 Godfrey Drive, Orono
Big Game Public Meetings
- March 19, 2016 1-4 pm
Embassy Suites by Hilton – Katahdin Room, 1050 Westbrook Street, Portland - March 19, 2016 1-4 pm
Northeastland Hotel – Red Room, 436 Maine Street, Presque Isle - April 2, 2016 6-9 pm
Black Bear Inn – Blue Room, 4 Godfrey Drive, Orono