The Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Advisory Council rescinded its August action because of a meeting-notice discrepancy, then approved the three-year special hunt again Wednesday.
Sep 17, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Geddy’s.
TREMONT—The Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Advisory Council (IFW) approved the Town of Tremont’s special deer hunt again yesterday.
That sentence might feel a bit like déjà vu.
That’s because the hunt had already been approved in August by the state agency.
Yesterday, that vote was rescinded and commissioners voted again because of a discrepancy in the advertising for the August meeting.
“This is basically a redo of the August 11 meeting in Gray,” an official announced at the beginning of the morning meeting.
The commissioners approved the hunt again, which means that Tremont will be the only town on Mount Desert Island where hunters can legally shoot deer. The deer hunt begins November 2026 and runs for three seasons. Any deer killed in the town will not count toward the hunter’s state bag limit. It is only for antlerless deer.
At the original vote in August, some MDI residents were concerned about the meeting’s accessibility.
In an August 11, early morning email to the commission, Charlotte Gill wrote, “Last evening, it was brought to my attention that a significant discrepancy in the state’s publicly available information concerning the location of today’s meeting.”
That discrepancy focused on the physical address of where the meeting would take place.
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s official Advisory Council meeting page and its minutes from the June 10 advisory council meeting said it would be held at 353 Water Street, Room 400, in Augusta.
“However, the Maine Legislature’s official Weekly Legislative Calendar identifies today’s 9:30 a.m. Advisory Council meeting as taking place at 15 Game Farm Road, Gray, Maine,” Gill wrote. “I understand that the meeting is, in fact, expected to take place in Gray.”
The meeting was advertised in the Kennebec Journal and legislative agenda as being in Gray. The commission had staff in Augusta in case someone went to that location. No one had arrived to that location.
During public comment at the end of that meeting, Tim Bannon, of Tremont, said he appreciated Augusta posting someone at the other potential site, but that it was confusing.
“I simply did not want to wander for hours in a car and miss the meeting entirely,” Bannon said. Like several others, he attended online.
The IFW accepted written comments from the public until July 30. It received 21 comments, staff said, August 11 and reiterated at the September 16 meeting. Those included a petition circulated by Gill, whose Southwest Harbor property abuts Tremont. Gill’s petition asking for more time and deer-related data has gathered 245 signatures as of September 17.
Mount Desert Island is currently closed to all deer hunting, but the state commissioner can open a town to deer hunting if the town agrees, Nathan Bieber, Maine state deer biologist, has explained. Other hunting is allowed on the island.
Tremont did agree at a May 2026 vote, approving a limited deer hunt in its town with a vote of 314-227.
The state commission’s vote opens a special hunt for three years in November unless IFW or the town’s Select Board decides to suspend it.
RELATIONSHIP TO ACADIA NATIONAL PARK
Acadia National Park creates a unique situation and environment, Wildlife Division Director Nate Webb said during the August meeting and again mentioned in September. The park bans hunting. Acadia National Park sits on approximately half of Bar Harbor’s land mass and extends well into other portions of Mount Desert Island. When deer tend to have negative pressures in one area, they move to another.
That unique situation should be brought to the park, Gill said.
“The Acadia National Park Advisory Commission should have been consulted on this. This is precisely the type of cross-boundary issue the Commission exists to discuss. Established by Congress in 1986, the federal Advisory Commission consists of 16 members, including representatives from each of the communities surrounding Acadia National Park. Its purpose is to advise the Secretary of the Interior, through Acadia’s superintendent, on matters relating to the management and development of the park,” she said via message to the Bar Harbor Story, citing that almost a third of Tremont is in the federal park.
“Although the Commission is advisory and does not have authority over Tremont’s decision to conduct a deer hunt, a multi-year deer-management program involving a mobile wildlife population that moves across municipal and federal park boundaries, (with no hunting setbacks), certainly raises questions relevant to Acadia and its management,” she continued. “Carolyn ‘Callie’ Gothard is Tremont’s representative on the Commission and it appears she also serves on its Science & Education Committee. Although I have not discussed this with her personally, I do intend to as my flabbers are gasted that she appears to have remained silent on this issue. From what I can see, the Commission met this past Monday, September 14, and the hunt was not mentioned. I believe discussion on this hunt should’ve been squarely front and center.”
That’s because Gill thinks the park could discuss the scientific aspects of the hunt, too.
“A grave disservice was done by failing to seek every relevant source of expertise and consultation before moving forward with this hunt,” Gill continued. “Sadly, after watching the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife Advisory Council meeting, I came away with the impression, (especially with the broad smile of one), that those involved were quite pleased with not only themselves, but the outcome. A sad day, indeed, but a day also representative of the sad world we live in these days. No real surprise there.”
MORE OF WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE HUNT
According to Webb, the present ban on deer hunting was implemented by the 85th Maine Legislature and reference to a closed season on deer on Mount Desert Island (MDI) first appeared in 1931.
All other animals that can be legally hunted in Maine can also currently be hunted on MDI.
“The Town of Tremont would administer the hunt,” Webb said.
The Town of Tremont and other towns on MDI, consistently are the most deer-impacted towns in the state, based on the number of calls the agency responds to, Webb said.
Supporters of the hunt have said that the hunt will help with decreasing that deer population, that it makes sense since other animals are hunted in the town, and that it’s frustrating to have to go off MDI to hunt when there are many deer in their own town.
Others have suggested that there should be no deer hunting and that all island towns should have a say about Tremont’s hunt, that there are concerns about archery hunting being more cruel to the deer, that there needs to be more data and study of the island’s population and efforts/impacts to control it, and that it didn’t meet the statutory requirements to open Tremont to hunting, and worries that additional hunting will impact the safety of Tremont residents.
OTHER WORRIES
During the September meeting, George Sanker, a resident of Tremont, questioned the commission and if it was acting as if Tremont was a “general” hunt rather than a “special” hunt, which has different statutory specifications for approval. He said a special hunt would be illegal in Tremont because some conditions are not met.
“I’m 100% against this hunt. Period. But I do appreciate a lot of what the selectmen have done and the town manager has done to restrict this hunt,” Sanker said.
Tremont’s Select Board and its town manager have done a lot to create restrictions, such as the hunt being only for antlerless deer.
“This was pretty much foisted on the Town of Tremont and the selectmen by a MAGA legislator who doesn’t even live on or represent MDI,” Sanker said.
The initial legislation to potentially open Mount Desert Island towns to deer hunting had been brought forth by a State Legislative Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham who represents towns in another portion of Hancock County. That was eventually killed in committee.
Sanker said he had mixed feelings about the hunt. On the positive side for him, he felt the restrictions were helpful and large and will prevent trophy hunting. The hunt can also be cancelled before the three years that it’s scheduled for.
A special hunt, he said, is subject to the restriction about the demarcation of the hunt that calls for specific boundaries drawn. Tremont, he said, has a large amount of forest that’s impenetrable as does Acadia National Park. He said a special hunt would not be allowed because of that.
According to the Maine IFW Communications Director Mark Latti, “the department is advancing the proposed rule to open the town of Tremont to deer hunting under the following legislative of Maine Revised Statute Title 12 §11401. “Open and closed seasons for deer.”
He focused on section 2 rule, subsection A which states, “The commissioner by rule may: “Open any of the areas closed to deer hunting listed in rule, as long as the legislative body of each affected town approves the opening. For purposes of this subsection, ‘affected town’ means a town, township or municipality that contains within its borders any area proposed to be opened pursuant to this paragraph.”
Sanker, in his comments, was referencing on the B section of that same rule, which has four points within it.
“Since the Town of Tremont has approved opening a deer hunt, this statutory requirement has been met. Although there has been reference to other terms and other areas of the statute, those are not applicable to the specific rule advancing the hunt,” Latti said.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
After Nearly a Century, Deer Hunting Is Officially Coming Back to Tremont.
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Aug 11
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