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TREMONT—An update by Town Manager Jesse Dunbar to the Tremont Select Board regarding the town’s upcoming deer hunt turned into a session of concerned statements and questions by audience members at the October 5 Select Board meeting.
The concerns seem to stem from the State of Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IFW) rulemaking amendments that include the newly approved Tremont deer hunt. In that document, which is available in its entirety at the end of this article, it states, “The Town of Tremont will administer permit selection for town residents and nonresidents and ensure compliance with town ordinances.”
The term “nonresidents” apparently had people at the Select Board meeting, and in the community, concerned.
After Dunbar had given a quick synopsis of what phase preparations for the hunt are currently at, Chair Jamie Thurlow said, “I can’t believe, someone was showing me today, that someone was circulating an email that said that this was going to be open to everybody as a statewide hunt. It has very descriptive stuff in the lawmaking that is very clear. That is not a true statement.”
A member of the public asked Thurlow if he was looking at the state’s rulemaking paperwork,
He was, he said, and asked her what her comment was.
“‘For town residents and nonresidents,’ that is my comment,” she said, referring to the phrasing in the rulemaking.
Thurlow responded, “It’s for landowners and residents.”
She reiterated, “‘Town residents and nonresidents,’ I am reading this right now.”
Thurlow asked Dunbar if he knew why the state wrote the document in this particular way. Dunbar responded that it is because the Town of Tremont will be the entity enforcing the specific rules of the town’s deer hunt.
The rulemaking document states this on its second page: “The town will administer the hunt. Hunters must follow all specifications of the hunt set by the town in addition to all the other laws and rules regarding deer hunting.”
The rules of the hunt that are specific to the state’s written terms of “town residents and nonresidents” are written in the town’s rules that state, “property owners and Tremont residents who hold an active archery or hunting license and meet all the requirements for participation will be allowed to hunt in Tremont. Property owners with sufficient land for hunting purposes and who intend to hunt and/or allow hunting on their property as part of this special hunt will be entitled to do so with a valid archery or hunting license.”
The only “nonresidents” that will be issued a permit to hunt in Tremont are nonresident owners of property in the Town of Tremont according to the town’s rules.
In an email Dunbar wanted to “reiterate that we will be strictly adhering to the rules and regulations the voters approved in May. Some people also seem confused about who qualifies as a hunter. You must be a Tremont resident or a Tremont landowner. You can not hunt if you are not at least one of those things. Immediate family status has been a repetitive question, immediate family members can not get a permit unless they also meet the qualifications of resident or landowner.
Dunbar continued, “As it was explained to me, the state can’t set certain rules that the town can. So, they’re deferring to the town’s rules, it’s approved per the rules that the town adopted.”
“When you come to the town office, then they check to be sure that you are a resident or that you own land and if you don’t, then you won’t be given a permit,” Thurlow said.
That same audience member asked that if the town is administering the permit selection process, why does it have to specify for residents and nonresidents?
“That just seems a little weird,” she said.
“It’s up to the town office; that’s our job as the town to check whether they’re a resident or they’re a nonresident,” Thurlow said. “I am not going to go back and forth. This isn’t going to turn into a debate. The town has voted. We spent hours and hours putting forth a plan. We had people on the opposite side who said, ‘If we do not win this, how we feel, that’s fine, you’ve done all the right steps.’ So, we have done all the right steps. It’s been approved by the town. The state’s approved it, so, it’s gonna happen. People who disagree with that, that’s . . . I don’t know what to say. The voters of the Town of Tremont decided that they wanted this.”
“How will the town monitor who is shooting deer?” another member of the public asked.
She clarified, asking if there would be any sort of policing effort to ensure that hunters are legally permitted by the town and the state.
“I am afraid it is going to get wild,” she said.
“That’s the job of Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife,” Thurlow said, explaining that someone from the town trying to enforce hunting rules and regulations would be akin to trying to enforce traffic or criminal laws like a police officer.
The same audience member then asked, “How will I prevent people from coming onto my property and shooting deer on my property?”
Thurlow responded, “Because you have to shoot from a tree stand or a fixed blind, so that means that you can not walk around and hunt. This was one of the very early things that we decided on. So, this prevents people from wandering around and saying, ‘Oops, I didn’t know where the property line was.’ They have to physically build a tree stand (or fixed ground blind) ahead of time to sit in. So, that is preventing people from, they obviously know where they built the tree stand. If you see someone building a tree stand on your back dooryard, that’s when you call someone, then, not later.”
SOME RESIDENTS THINK THE HUNT IS ILLEGAL
A number of Tremont residents are concerned about liability for the town because they believe that the hunt is illegal. This is because some worry that this is a special hunt, meaning approved under the special hunt provisions of Maine statutes.
At least three members of the public brought this up at the Select Board meeting and attempted to tie it to potential liability for the town.
“The hunt is not illegal. I am not going to make this turn into a debate here, I will not,” said Thurlow.
Member Ben Harper said, “I think we are wasting a lot of time on stuff like this. It’s been approved, the state’s approved it and we need to move on.”
“This has been voted on. I am not going to keep rehashing it. Voters vote. Our job is to prepare something for voters, when they vote, we have to stand behind it,” Thurlow said.
During the course of work over the past year and a half while this deer hunt has been taking shape, the word “special” has been used a lot in regards to the hunt, both in town communication, written and verbal, and state communication.
The word “special” is used in the rulemaking paperwork, which is attached below and in state statute 12 M.R.S. § 11401, as shown directly below.
2. “Rule. The commissioner by rule may:
- “B. Create special hunting seasons or expanded archery seasons for the taking of deer in any part of the State to maintain deer populations in balance with available habitat, subject to the provisions of this paragraph.
- “(1) The demarcation of each area must follow recognizable physical boundaries, such as rivers, roads and railroad rights-of-way.
- “(2) The commissioner may establish limits on the number of deer taken or possessed by persons during a special season or expanded archery season. Limits established by the commissioner under this subparagraph are exceptions to the limits imposed under section 11501.
- “(3) The commissioner may specify types of weapons and hunting methods to be used during a special season or expanded archery season.
- “(4) The commissioner may specify fees for permits issued during a special season, as long as they do not exceed the fees established in section 11153.”
However, part A of section 2 says the following:
- “A. 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.”
Mount Desert Island is closed to deer hunting by rule. Now, the legislative body of the affected town, the Town of Tremont (its voters and town government) has approved the opening of the town to a deer hunt.
As defined in the statute above, Tremont is the only town that is affected by the hunt because none of the three other island towns contain “any area proposed to be opened.”
Finally, as of September 30, when the rulemaking was published, the deer hunt is officially approved and signed off on by the Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Advisory Council, the acting commissioner of the IFW, Timothy E. Peabody, and the Department of the Attorney General by the signature of Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey M. Skakalski.
Page three of the attached rulemaking document, reads, “Following the legislative discussion, the Town of Tremont asked the department to work with them to develop the framework for a deer hunt that they could discuss with their residents to potentially bring forward to the department for approval. 12 M.R.S. § 11401(2)(A) permits the commissioner to ‘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.’ The Town of Tremont held a vote on a deer management plan that would open the town to deer hunting (Appendix I). The majority of town residents voted in favor of the proposal, and the town Select Board requested the department to enact a rule to open the town to deer hunting.”
That same statutory section is referenced again on page 13 of the rulemaking document where it reads, “The department is advancing the proposed rule under the statutory authority provided in 12 M.R.S. § 11401(2)(A), which states that the commissioner, by rule, may open any area closed to deer hunting listed in rule, provided that the legislative body of each affected town approves the opening. Because residents of the Town of Tremont, through their legislative body, the Select Board, have approved opening the area to deer hunting, this statutory requirement has been met.”
At no time does the rulemaking document reference 11401 (2)(B), the creation of a special hunting season and associated requirements.
At the Select Board meeting, wildlife photographer and Tremont Resident George Sanker said, “I have practiced litigation in Boston for 35 plus years. I am willing to say that I am 95% certain that this is an illegal hunt. Not because of what you have done, but because of what Maine IFW has done.”
“Then sue them,” said Harper.
Sanker believes, that at its August 11 meeting, the IFW Advisory Committee approved the request as a special hunt under 12 M.R.S. § 11401(2)(B) and at the September 16 meeting, someone from IFW realized that it would be cleaner to approve the hunt under 12 M.R.S. § 11401(2)(A).
On October 8, Sanker emailed numerous people, including the Maine Attorney General, a letter addressed to the Maine AG outlining why he thinks this is an illegal hunt. That letter is attached below.
Sanker, an admitted opponent of the hunt, wrote, “What would be lost are the statutory legal conditions and requirements for a special hunt under part B, which opponents of the hunt have every right to rely upon as the law.”
This appears to be the sticking point. If the hunt was—as the state and Select Board say—approved as a rule amendment that would diminish opponents’ power to fight that approval.
HUNT PREPARATION
Registration for the hunt, which starts November 2, is open now. You can find information regarding the hunt on the Town of Tremont website.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Sanker Letter To Ag
102KB ∙ PDF file
Tremont Hunt Final 2026
1.55MB ∙ PDF file
All photos: Shaun Farrar/BHS
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