BAR HARBOR, Maine — Local residents voted down on Tuesday a non-binding measure aimed at gauging support for relaxing deer hunting laws inside the town limits.
The referendum was defeated by a 196-vote margin, out of 2,546 votes cast.
Concerns about Lyme disease and car-deer accidents on Mount Desert Island prompted interest in Bar Harbor in reducing the size of the island’s deer herd. Deer hunting has not been permitted anywhere on MDI since the 1930s, when it was banned by the Legislature.
A local task force created last year developed a plan to allow some deer hunting in Bar Harbor, which ultimately would have required approval by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and then the Legislature before it could have gone into effect. Residents and officials in other towns on MDI also have considered allowing deer hunting but have backed away from the idea, citing low enthusiasm for the concept.
Hunting of any kind is not allowed in Acadia National Park, which owns tens of thousands of acres on Mount Desert Island. Bar Harbor’s plan would have allowed deer hunting only in parts of town outside the national park and the downtown district, and only on land where property owners would have allowed it.
