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The state is considering adding expanded archery season for deer hunting to towns along the coast and some Maine islands.
A new proposal would apply to the midcoast and Hancock County, including the islands of Verona and Deer Isle-Stonington. The expanded season starts in mid-September and ends in mid-December, bracketing regular archery season, which lasts through the month of October.
If enacted, bowhunters would get more time to hunt in places where the state has struggled to manage the deer herd, according to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. It describes archery as an option where hunting is limited by development, land access and “challenging geography” such as on islands.
The push comes as deer populations have grown along the coast, in some places eating young trees and vegetation before they can regrow and causing problems for people such as car crashes, tick-borne diseases and extensive crop damage. The state also recently expanded opportunities for hunting antlerless deer, gave more permits to farmers facing deer damage and tried to encourage hunters to kill more does.
“[The expanded hunt] is the first step to getting something done about the deer population on the island,” the town of Verona Island posted on Facebook earlier this week about the proposal.
The town encouraged residents to send feedback to the state about the local deer population and referenced complaints officials have received from concerned residents about gardens being damaged, car crashes and people shooting where they shouldn’t be.
Some southern and coastal areas have 15 to 40 deer per square mile today, according to the department, compared with 1-5 in northern Maine.
The current expanded archery area includes the coast from Kittery to Bath, South Thomaston to Camden, an area surrounding downtown Bucksport, the small peninsula holding Castine’s downtown and numerous small unbridged islands off the coast of Hancock and Washington counties. Inland, expanded areas surround Lewiston-Auburn, Augusta, Waterville and Bangor.
The proposed change would expand that to create a continuous block along the coast from Kittery through Bucksport, including some islands connected to the mainland, namely Verona, Deer Isle-Stonington and Eastport.
Those islands have long seen “high levels of deer-human conflict,” according to the department. It said it’s hard to manage deer population there through hunting in part because of limited access to land and getting on and off the islands.
Regional game wardens and biologists unanimously supported the additions, according to the proposal.
The proposal is open for comment until July 10. A public hearing will be held at the department’s Augusta headquarters and online at 4 p.m. on June 30.
