Changes are in store for Maine deer permits – including a fee for the first time

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • April 14, 2022

State wildlife officials plan to overhaul Maine’s deer permit system as a part of a dramatic shift in deer management strategy, in hopes of thinning the herd in southern and central Maine while protecting the scant deer population in the rest of the state. For the first time, hunters would be charged a fee – $12 – to obtain a deer permit. The traditional any-deer permits, which allow hunters to harvest either a buck or a doe, would be replaced by an antlerless permit that would allow hunters to kill both.