— 1770: First bounty payment.
— 1931: Classified as game animal; bounties paid in some portions of the state.
— 1957: Bounty on bears repealed.
— 1963: Mandatory reporting of harvested bears.
— 1975: Telemetry study initiated.
— 1980: Emergency closure of hunting season because the harvest was projected to exceed the goal.
— 1982: Fall-only season with bait, dogs and traps permitted during the entire season.
— 2006: Passamaquoddy spring bear hunt initiated on tribal lands.
— 2009: Penobscot spring bear hunt initiated on tribal lands.
— 2011: Bag limit increased to two bears per hunter per year, with one taken by trapping, and one taken by hunting; hunters required to submit a tooth from harvested bears.
Source: Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife