The Maine BHA team hopes that everyone had successful seasons this year. We had a successful year working on behalf of wild public lands, water and wildlife.
Legislative
The First Regular Session of the 132nd Legislature convened in December 2024 and abruptly adjourned on April 15thafter a session dominated by the Biennial Budget. While the team tracked nearly four dozen bill titles, less than half of those bills had committee hearings. Here are a few to note:
Passed
Dead
- LD 183- An Act to Cap Publicly Owned Land Area at No More than 50 Percent of Any County- As defined in the bill, “publicly owned” would also include any public interest in conservation easements on private land, which could limit future land conservation efforts in Maine’s northern timberlands. The bill that has appeared in previous sessions was voted ought not to pass in committee and was not carried over, making it dead.
- LD 205- An Act to Amend the Bag Limit for Turkey- This bill would have set the bag limit for turkeys to be the same as Ruffed Grouse. Consistent with our support for the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, we testified that fish and wild resources belong to the public and supported science-based fish and wildlife management by DIFW. This bill was voted Ought not to pass in committee and was not carried over, making it dead.
Carried Over
All individuals have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to save and exchange seeds and the right to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing for their own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health and well-being, as long as an individual does not commit trespassing, theft, poaching or other abuses of private property rights, public lands or natural resources in the harvesting, production or acquisition of food.
In March of 2024 Maine Supreme Court issued a decision on the case of Virginia Parker v. Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The plaintiffs claimed Maine’s ban on Sunday Hunting was unconstitutional under the Right to Food amendment. While the Sunday Hunting ban was upheld by the court, the court did find that the word “harvest” is already widely used and understood to include hunting in Maine.
LD 1343 would define “harvest” for the inland fisheries and wildlife laws. The bill provides that the people of this State have the right to harvest fish and wildlife by hunting, fishing or trapping, subject to applicable laws, rules and regulations. The Maine Team will be supporting this bill when taken up in the next session.
Stewardship:
Maine BHA Assists MDIFW in Opening New Land to Hunting and Trapping
On September 6, 2025, four BHA volunteers partnered with three MDIFW staff members to tackle the job of taking down the aluminum Posted Private Property signs and installing new State of Maine Wildlife Management Area Boundary signs. With three teams, we covered a little more than seven miles of the 10 miles of boundary in one day. Along the way, we filled a half dozen bags of trash picked up along the roadside. Volunteers personally witnessed that the property holds deer, turkey, ruffed grouse and coyote. This WMA will be a tremendous asset for hunters in the region, providing excellent access and opportunity.
https://www.backcountryhunters.org/news/details/maine-bha-assists-mdifw-in-opening-new-land-to-hunting-and-trapping
Kennebec Highlands –
Located in the towns of Rome, Mount Vernon, Vienna, and New Sharon, the Kennebec Highlands is a 7,200-acre public reserve including the highest summits of Kennebec County. The property provides many miles of trails for hiking, mountain biking, snowmobiling, and ATV riding. It also has secluded ponds and pristine streams for a day of fishing and large tracts of forest for hunting.
Maine Bureau of Parks and lands is nearing completion of 5 year review of 15-year management plan, update management to include additional 813 acres acquired in 2022 and a Trails Plan called for in the management plan. Chapter Board member John Simoneau has been serving on the Advisory Committee since 2023. Management Recommendations that we think are positive for hunters and anglers:
- Portions of the former Vienna Mountain blueberry fields to be managed primarily for wildlife; brush/young trees will be allowed to grow in some areas to meet certain wildlife habitat objectives.
- For the New Sharon summit field, develop a plan and take actions to maintain a mosaic of lowbush blueberry and shrubland as important wildlife habitat, periodically setting back succession as needed;
- Unit-wide review aimed at establishing a handful of bear bait sites on the Highlands;
- Designation of Trailless/No New Development Zones in the trail plan. These proposed zones will be protected from trail development, and management here will focus on wildlife habitat; remote, dispersed trailless recreation; and forest management.
For the complete plan: Kennebec Highlands - Management Plan
2025 Events:
March
Conservation, hunting & angling trivia night at Mast Landing Brewing Company. A good time with others passionate about wild public lands, waters and wildlife!
June
We enjoyed seeing lots of great folks at the High Peaks Outdoor Heritage Festival - Maine Moose Permit Lottery where we shared a table with Sporting Lead Free.
August
The Maine team led two deer hunting workshops in Augusta as part of the Maine Inland Fisheries & Wildlife Next Step Hunting Programs.
October:
A fun evening of Campfire Stories at Rangeley Friends of the Arts Lakeside Theater. Our friends Eric Nurse, Maddie Killian, Jess Martin, Rob Bryan and Seth Laliberte told some great stories. We enjoyed some wild bites prepared by chef/guide and storytelling MC John Gonter. A great audience of young and old who turned out to support @backcountryhunters mission.
Looking forward to 2026 we anticipate a special session of the legislature to take up the carried over bills. We are already working on plans for trivia & story telling events to grow those success events from 2025. The New England Chapter is currently soliciting conservation grant applications, hoping to put some funding and volunteers to work in 2026. We anticipate continuing to grow our connections with our state agencies; providing volunteers to help them with work on our land, waters and with our wildlife.
Please contact us at maine@backcountryhunters.org if you’d like to be more involved in BHA activities in Maine. We cannot do this work without volunteers for individual events/project, state leadership or as Chapter Leaders.
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