KITTERY, Maine — Once per year, in mid-June, hundreds of interested onlookers — many of them wearing camouflage — wait to find out if this is finally their year.
For three hours or more they sit, listening, while pages of names are read aloud. Periodically, one of those present hears his or her name, and a celebration ensues.
The prize? A permit that allows them — and their friends and relatives — to go on a Maine moose hunt.
This year’s event will take place at Kittery Trading Post on Saturday, June 11, with activities starting at 9 a.m. The drawing is set to begin at 2 p.m. The BDN will post results of the permit lottery at bangordailynews.com as soon as the drawing is complete, which usually is around 6 p.m. Results also will be available at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s website, mefishwildlife.com.
Nick Howard, events coordinator at Kittery Trading Post, said his company stages events throughout the summer months and is eager to host its second moose permit lottery. The store also served as host in 2008.
“The moose lottery is just a Maine tradition, and it’s something that a lot of states don’t have the privilege of [having],” Howard said. “We’re very fortunate that we do here, and we’re happy to be a part of that. We think it fits very well with us being a Maine tradition as well.”
Chandler Woodcock, commissioner of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said representatives of many towns and companies have expressed an interest in hosting future moose permit lotteries.
“Communities and Maine’s outdoor retailers realize what an attraction and event the lottery has become,” Woodcock said. “We have a list of locations and retailers that would love to host the moose lottery, and we would love to hear from others who are interested.”
The first lottery was held in Bangor in 1980, then it was held in Augusta each year for nearly two decades. The commissioner of the DIF&W selects the site for each year’s lottery.
“In 1999, the department decided that it would be a wonderful idea to share the excitement that surrounds the event throughout the state, and we have been scheduling the lottery throughout the state ever since,” Woodcock said.
Each year, prospective moose hunters flock to the host site to find out whether their name has been drawn for a coveted permit. This year, 48,865 people — 35,062 Maine residents and 13,803 nonresidents — entered the lottery. Up for grabs are 2,140 permits — 1,935 for residents and 205 for nonresidents.
“It’s the hunt of a lifetime, and because of that people are always excited to go on that hunt,” DIF&W spokesman Mark Latti said. “There’s always people who have never been picked before [in the audience], people who have done it and want to do it again, so there’s always an air of excitement like there is with any lottery.”
Latti said winning in this lottery gives the lucky applicant something that is hard to replicate elsewhere.
“For this one, which is so uniquely Maine, there is always a buzz around it, because it gives you a chance at something that you can’t do in many places: hunt moose,” Latti said.
Lee Kantar, the state’s moose biologist, said the lottery format intrigues entrants and entices them to show up in person to find out whether they’ve won.
“The whole thing about a lottery is that you’re excited because you have a chance,” Kantar said. “You don’t know what the outcome is going to be, so your hopes are extremely high. I know every year I feel like I’m going to get my permit. I don’t know why.”
Kantar, who is serving the mandatory three-year waiting period after having been drawn for a permit, doesn’t have his name in the lottery this year.
But that doesn’t dim his enthusiasm.
“I’m not in [the lottery] this year, but I still feel like I am,” he said. “You think you’re going to hear your name.”
Kantar said one of the factors that leads to the excitement is this: When one hunter wins, their friends and family also feel like winners.
“It’s not a solo adventure,” Kantar said. “It’s a multiperson adventure. So most times people are going [hunting] with close friends or family or family and close friends. There’s that camaraderie there. Immediately, it’s a group thing.”
