news
AUGUSTA, Maine – Turkey permit applications for the 2000 turkey hunting season are now available at the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Headquarters in Augusta and at license agents and regional department headquarters throughout the state. The deadline for returning the permit application is February 1, 2000. This year, a total of 4,000 turkey hunting permits will be available.
Permits will be issued by a random chance drawing in mid-February. Three percent of the permits are available to non-resident hunters. This year^s season spans from May 1 through May 31. Last year, hunters registered a record 890 turkeys at area tagging stations. The 4000 permits that will be issued are an increase for the 3,000 issued last year and the 2,250 issued in 1998. The number of hunters applying has increased from 6,300 in 1998 to over 9,000 in 1999.
Wild turkeys, once extirpated in Maine due to the clearing of land and excessive shooting in the 1800^s, are now a familiar site in southwestern, central and coastal Maine, and their range is expanding. Turkeys were reintroduced successfully into Maine in the late 70^s when the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife received 41 turkeys from Vermont and released them in York and Eliot. By the mid-80^s, this population had become large enough to serve as a source for repopulating birds in other parts of Maine.
Uploaded: 1/7/2000
Uploaded: 1/7/2000