HP0363, LD 544, item 1, An Act To Give Certain Landowners First Priority for Antlerless Deer Permits

An Act To Give Certain Landowners First Priority for Antlerless Deer Permits

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:

Sec. 1. 12 MRSA §11152, sub-§3, ¶B, as enacted by PL 2003, c. 414, Pt. A, §2 and affected by c. 614, §9, is amended to read:

B. No more than 15% of the antlerless deer permits issued available after issuance to junior hunters under subsection 4, paragraph B in any one district or in any one zone may be issued to nonresident and alien hunters.

Sec. 2. 12 MRSA §11152, sub-§4, as amended by PL 2007, c. 492, §4, is further amended to read:

4. Allocation to landowner. An Except as otherwise provided in this section, an antlerless deer permit system adopted by the commissioner pursuant to this section may include a provision giving special consideration to landowners who keep their lands open to hunting by the public. As part of the special consideration to those landowners, the commissioner shall must provide at least 25% of the all available antlerless deer permits in a wildlife management district to eligible landowners that who apply for an antlerless deer permit in that district. For purposes of this subsection, "eligible landowner" means a landowner who owns at least 25 contiguous acres of land and keeps that land open to hunting by the public. Any 2 or more areas of land owned by the same person that are open for hunting and that would be contiguous except for being divided by one or more roads are considered contiguous for the purposes of determining landowner eligibility for special consideration under this subsection.

A. If the number of eligible landowner applications exceeds the number of antlerless deer permits available in a wildlife management district, the commissioner shall establish a lottery system to issue those permits to eligible landowners.

B. If the number of antlerless deer permits available in a wildlife management district exceeds the number of eligible landowner applications, the commissioner shall issue the remaining permits to junior hunters who apply for an antlerless deer permit in that district.

SUMMARY

This bill amends the current antlerless deer hunting permit system to require that all antlerless deer permits available in a wildlife management district be issued to landowners who own at least 25 contiguous acres of land open to hunting by the public and have applied for the permit.

It also provides that if the number of available antlerless deer permits in a wildlife management district exceeds the number of eligible landowner applications, the remaining permits must be issued to junior hunters who have applied for an antlerless deer permit in that district.

HP0363 LD 544	Session - 126th Maine Legislature		LR 1503 Item 1
	Bill Tracking, Additional Documents	Chamber Status

Bill Tracking		Chamber Status
Amendments	Testimony, Public Hearings & Work Sessions		Committee Information
Other Documents			Title & Section

Search Bill Text		Search Bill Status
Bill Directory	Session Information		Legislative Information
Download MS-Word, Printed PDF		Maine Legislature

Office of Legislative Information 100 State House Station Augusta, ME 04333		voice: (207) 287-1692 fax: (207) 287-1580 tty: (207) 287-6826
Word Viewer for Windows		Disclaimer