Hearing on moose permit changes April 24

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    GREENVILLE — The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has had a change of heart and will hold a hearing on proposed moose hunting changes in the Greenville area after all.
    The session will be held on Friday, April 24 at the Greenville Consolidated School auditorium at 6 p.m.
    IF&W has originally set up a comment-only period on plans to increase moose permits in Wildlife Management District 9 which includes most of the Moosehead Lake region. They were slated to make a final decision on March 27.

Young’s Sporting Camps photo

    TAKING A DIP — A young moose cools off during a warm spell.

    Last year, 75 permits for bulls were allotted in the zone. This year’s proposal called for 100 bull permits and 50 cow permits during a six-day session in November.
    Registered Maine Guide Chris Young of Greenville, who was unhappy with the proposal, launched an online petition on Change.org that drew 2,000 electronic signatures. When he first presented the figures to IF&W, Young was told that it did “not meet the standard of an actual petition.”
    But Young’s efforts apparently struck a nerve at the agency.
    While moose hunting became popular during its early years, many businesses in Greenville now say they draw many more “moose watchers” than hunters.
    Angela Arno, the executive director of the Moosehead Lake Region Chamber of Commerce, said that out of 21 registered Maine Guides who are chamber members, 20 offer moose watching.  “The one guide who does not offer these tours is strictly a fishing guide,” she told the Observer.
    “The number one question that we get in the visitors’ center is ‘Where do we go to see a moose?’ They stroll through the doors and announce ‘We’ve come all the way from such-and-such state and we came to see a moose.”’
    Cheri Goodspeed, who owns two retail businesses in Greenville, agreed.
    “The people we get at Kamp Kamp most definitely come to watch moose, not to shoot them,” Goodspeed said. “In the past couple of years, people tell me that they’re just not seeing them like they used to. The moose watching is a huge part of our tourist dollars.”
    IF&W officials have defended the increase in permits based on several factors, according to a recent Bangor Daily News article by outdoors writer John Holyoke.
    In a department memo written by wildlife biologist Lee Kantar, the moose population in WMD 9 was described as “above objective based on aerial composition surveys and current aerial population estimates. The percentage of mature bulls and sex ratio in this WMD appear to be on target based on management system criteria. In addition, aerial flights show a bull-to-cow ratio that is close to par. The combination of these factors should allow for an additional bull harvest.”
    Kantar’s memo went on to say that there haven’t been any cow permits issued in WMD 9 since 2002. “We understand the importance of moose viewing in this district,” he wrote. “Therefore, we recommend an initial cow harvest of 50 permits.”
    Attempts to reach an IF&W spokesperson by press deadline were unsuccessful.