Meeting Minutes

ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING
June 10, 2026 @ 9:30am
353 Water Street, 4th floor conference room
Augusta, ME
(and virtually via Microsoft Teams)

Attending:
Timothy Peabody, Acting Commissioner
Mark Latti, Communications Director
Nate Webb, Wildlife Division Director
Bob Cordes, Wildlife Division Deputy Director
Jen Vashon, Game Research and Mgmt Section Supervisor
Nathan Bieber, Deer Biologist
Shevenell Webb, Furbearer Biologist
Liz Latti, Fisheries & Hatcheries Division Director
Kevin Schaberg, Fisheries Section Supervisor
Dan Scott, Warden Service Colonel
Aaron Cross, Warden Service Major
Becky Orff, Secretary/Recorder

COUNCIL MEMBERS
Eric Ward
Catherine Gordon
Jim Andrews
Scott Ireland - Teams
Dave Craven - Teams

Tony Liguori - Teams

Mike Gawtry - Teams

Joe Powers - Teams

GUESTS
In person - 3
8 additional public members and staff online

I. Call to Order

Acting Commissioner Peabody called the meeting to order.

I-A. Pledge of Allegiance

II. Moment of Silence

III. Introductions

Introductions were made.

IV. Acceptance of Minutes of Previous Meeting

A motion was made by Jim Andrews to accept the minutes as presented and that was seconded by Joe Powers.

Vote: unanimous in favor - minutes accepted.

IV-A. Election of Chair and Vice Chair

Acting Commissioner Peabody stated we were taking nominations for Chair and Vice-Chair if there were members interested in that responsibility.

Chair
A motion was made by Catherine Gordon to accept the nomination of Eric Ward as Chair and that was seconded by Scott Ireland. Nominations ceased.
Vote: unanimous in favor Eric Ward re-elected as Chair.

Vice-Chair
A motion was made by Catherine Gordon to accept the nomination of Jim Andrews as Vice-Chair and that was seconded by Scott Ireland. Nominations ceased.
Vote: unanimous in favor Jim Andrews re-elected as Vice-Chair.

V. Rulemaking

A. Step 3
There were no items under Step 3.

B. Step 2

1. Antlerless deer permits and muzzleloader season
   Nathan Bieber stated we were recommending antlerless permits in 27 WMDs and one deer management subunit. We were also recommending designating 6 of the 27 WMDs as open to either sex hunting without a permit the same as last year. We were recommending issuing permits in some WMDs where typically we have not, those were WMDs 2 and 5. We had some mild winters and deer populations were looking good there and we wanted to provide additional opportunity while we had the conditions to do that. We were recommending some WMDs be listed as "unlimited" for permit numbers. These were WMDs where we had been unable to sell out the permits that we had in the past, so we did not anticipate the removal of more deer. It was making the language more clean and accurate to what we were doing, which was satisfying hunter demand for permits rather than issuing a specific number of permits.
   

There was a bill before the legislative committee last session dealing with the muzzleloader season. The end result was that we wanted to look at the muzzleloader seasons, those WMDs that had one week vs. two weeks of hunting and see if any of the WMDs could support a second week. We were recommending adding a second week of muzzleloader hunting in WMDs 14, 27 and 28. The last part of the proposal was removing a reference to the town of Frenchboro. That was a town ordinance and did not need to be in rule.

Public comment on the proposal, we had a public hearing on May 26th and there were no members of the public that attended. The comment period closed on June 5th and we received four written comments. Two comments wanted more permits issued in northern and western Maine. One of the commenters felt we had mild winters and deer feeding and higher survival in the north and he would rather see us remove more does through hunting than losing them during the winter. He also proposed alternative numbers for those WMDs. One commenter wanted more permits in WMD 13 sighting habitat damage on his property. He also mentioned other zones as well where he would like to see more permits. One commenter expressed concern that the unlimited permits would be excessive and a lack of control over the harvest, and other comments not relevant to the proposal. Another commenter supported the designation of unlimited permits in WMDs, but those should also be designated as expanded archery areas.

Council Member Comments and Questions

Jim Andrews stated WMD 13, he lived in Farmington on the southern edge of WMD 13. We were proposing about 250 less permits there this year. WMD 16, which was directly across from his house went up almost 2,000 permits. WMD 16 had many antlerless deer, the problem he was seeing in Farmington was it was awash with deer. People were having many nuisance/landscape issues. It was becoming a real problem, and he was getting a lot of comments. He wondered if expanded archery was a possibility? He was having a hard time explaining less permits being issued in the area.

Nathan Bieber stated the decline in permits was not really a desire to remove fewer deer, but direct application of the process used to determine recommendations. The adjustments were made for winter severity were slightly greater last year. He felt the WMD as a whole was on the right track. Expanded archery in the area was not an option he would recommend. It was a tool we wanted use where needed the most so that we were not diluting the impact or issuing permits here and there. There may be options such as special hunts through the town. Commercial growing properties could also request permits through the DMAP program.

Acting Commissioner Peabody stated he was aware that our staff had met with the town of Farmington on numerous occasions. He asked Nate Webb to comment.

Nate Webb stated regional staff and warden service had met with them numerous times to talk about the options that Nathan had just provided an overview of. The town would need to pursue it if they were looking at a special hunt and work in conjunction with the Department. The town was not currently closed to deer hunting but we would want the support from the town before administering a special hunt there.

Jim Andrews stated he would speak with the town about a special hunt. It was the number one thing he was hearing about.

Scott Ireland stated at the last meeting a couple of the Council members including himself mentioned the unlimited language in the rule. He thought that was going to be looked at to see if there was going to be a number placed to that? He didn't understand why we wouldnt look at expanded archery in those areas if we were going to unlimited permits.

Nathan Bieber stated some of that would be addressed in a proposal that was at Step 1. Typically, it would have been included in the same proposal but due to the complexity it was put forward separately. As far as the term unlimited we would just be issuing a large number as usual. He felt it was an unclear communication to the public to list 15,000 25,000 permits when we only sold 10,000. It didnt communicate anything meaningful having that number. It would come down to a communication issue. The only place you would see unlimited would be in the rule. It would be communicated to the public differently.

Nate Webb stated we heard the concern at the last meeting about the term unlimited. We could propose a change at Step 3 if the council felt strongly about it. We recognized the communication challenge. On our website where people would go to purchase left over permits we use the word available in those WMDs to show there were more permits.

Dave Craven asked about Machias if that was on the Departments radar similar to Farmington.

Nathan Bieber stated they had not reached out.

A motion was made by Joe Powers to move the agenda item to Step 3 for final adoption and that was seconded by Scott Ireland.

Vote: Unanimous agenda item moved to Step 3

A motion was made by Catherine Gordon to accept the proposal as presented and that was seconded by Jim Andrews.

Vote: Unanimous motion passed.

1. Furbearer Rules
   Shevenell Webb stated there were four components to the proposal. The first related to the definition of bait. We currently define bait as animal matter including meat, skin, bones, feathers, hair or other solid substances that used to be part of an animal. We were proposing to expand our definition of bait to include also any objects that mimic or replicate animal matter. The second proposal was related to the early raccoon trapping season. We were proposing to open an official early raccoon trapping season at the same time as the early canid season. We would keep all the restrictions in place that we currently had. The third part of the proposal related to weasel traps. Traditionally they were defined as the wood based Victor traps that many were familiar with. There were newer traps being made with plastic bases, so we were looking to expand the definition to include other rat traps on the market. The last part of the proposal related to beaver closures. Each year we would open or close portions of towns for management purposes or landowner requests.
   

A public hearing was held on May 18th. There were three people in attendance. The first person was the President of MTA who had two comments. He requested the addition of the word synthetic to the proposed bait language, that it would simplify interpretations. He also stated the MTA membership opposed the early raccoon trapping season and instead suggested to extend the general trapping season for an extra two weeks into January. He suggested the additional two weeks at the end of the season would promote the harvest of furbearers when their fur was most prime.

The second person was also a member of MTA and gave testimony opposing the early raccoon trapping season. He did state his grandchildren were busy with sports and werent able to get out and start trapping until later in the fall. He also stated that a fur buyer stated it didnt change the price much, but it did matter for trappers to get the best price for prime fur.

The third trapper from Smithfield gave testimony opposing the changes to the definition of bait and weasel traps. He thought the wording to include any object that mimics or replicates animal matter would induce confusion specifically on the use of physical attractor vs. bait. He did give an example of printing and laminating a photo of a turkey feather and he had questions under the new definition of bait if it would be illegal. He also opposed the changes to weasel traps due to concerns that plastic traps were weak and may not ethically dispatch a weasel in a timely manner. He felt the wooden based traps would not fail as frequently or become brittle and break like the plastic ones.

The comment period closed May 28th and we had two people that attended the public hearing who also submitted duplicate written comments.

In regard to the early raccoon trapping season, the comment we suggest expanding the end of the general trapping season would have to require a separate rulemaking process. She had done a review of raccoon trapping seasons in the northeast, and there were seven other jurisdictions that had an October raccoon trapping season. Like Maine, we had an October raccoon hunting season and 12 jurisdictions in the northeast. The existing restrictions would remain in place that prohibit killer type traps, no traps in the water, no exposed bait or physical attractor. It would allow people to focus on trapping for raccoons during those two weeks of October such as using enclosed foothold traps. We currently have an early trapping season for beaver, muskrat and fox and coyote. It allowed additional opportunity for those that hunted deer in November. We hadnt heard any feedback that the early season caused problems, and given a very abundant raccoon population, high levels of conflicts and lots of disease concerns we felt that any additional harvest opportunity was a benefit. Regarding the definition of bait, the intent of our current definition was to reduce non-target species from getting caught. The word synthetic could be open to interpretation to what is synthetic? We liked the broad mimicking, replicating animal matter because it would cover all the bases. If it looked like animal matter it could still catch the eye of an animal and bring that in closer to the trap. Regarding weasel traps, there were a wide variety on the market. We would allow trappers to use their judgement for the best trap for them.

Council Member Comments and Questions
Jim Andrews asked about the early raccoon season, did we feel trapper motivation would be there for the earlier season? He was unclear on when raccoons were prime.

Shevenell Webb stated the exact timing was variable. Raccoons were typically more prime in November(ish). The issue with raccoons was when they were becoming more prime, they were also denning up as it was getting colder. Most of the time they were pretty inactive during colder weather. She thought there was definitely going to be some interest.

Dave Craven stated the price for raccoon was currently up to $8.56. In 1980 the average price was $40.

A motion was made by Jim Andrews to move the agenda item to Step 3 for final adoption and that was seconded by Catherine Gordon.

Vote: Unanimous agenda item moved to Step 3

A motion was made by Jim Andrews to accept the proposal as presented and that was seconded by Joe Powers.

Vote: Unanimous motion passed.

C. Step 1

1. Fishing Regulations

Liz Latti stated this was the annual rulemaking packet for open water and ice fishing regulations. There were a total of 191 proposals broken into the following themes: State Heritage Fish Waters (2 proposals); Special Need (3 proposals); Simplify to General Law (4 proposals); Expanded Angler Opportunity (12 proposals); Errors, Conflicts, and Confusion (22 proposals) and Lake Trout Regulation Simplification (144 proposals). Liz read through the proposals in the packet with the Council members.

Kevin Schaberg gave a slide presentation with an overview of the Lake Trout Regulation Simplifications. For a copy of the presentation please contact becky.orff@maine.gov. These proposed changes would greatly simplify Togue (Lake Trout) regulations statewide. We were planning to redefine the S codes and General Law for togue.

Council Member Questions and Comments

Eric Ward stated he liked the general law without the length limit, he heard people complain about that over the years. Some of the fish may never attain 18 in some of those waters and expending the feed in the process so it made a lot of sense.

Jim Andrews stated what if angler effort changed at some point?

Kevin Schaberg stated one of the things that took a bigger perspective was coming up with a suite of regulations that could be consistent that we could move to one of the other options without having to recreate the wheel and come up with another special regulation. If angler effort went up more than we thought it would, we could use the more conservative rule to evaluate how that would affect the population.

1. Expanded Archery Areas Nathan Bieber stated expanded archery was a management tool we used in areas of the state where we were unable to meet deer management objectives, but also tied to something specific mainly with difficulty with hunter access associated with geography, but also a lot of these areas are limited due to firearms discharge ordinances. This was something we reevaluated approximately every three years. We were proposing adding a lot of southern coastal Maine, everything south of Rt. 1 and north of the Maine coast. All the peninsula laden area between the southern tip of Maine and Verona Island and some other islands as well. There would be some new areas in WMD 25. We had received quite a few requests from communities in that area for additional removal options. The change would unite some areas that already had expanded archery opportunities. Deer Isle Stonington was also in the proposal. We had received some outreach from them regarding additional options. Eastport was part of the proposal as well. They had reached out several times in the past for additional deer removal options and they used to have a special hunt there. We had reached out to both regarding the proposal.
   

Acting Commissioner Peabody asked about the publics reaction. Was the public receptive to having archers in these types of areas.

Nathan Bieber stated the only outreach he had from hunters was asking for more expanded archery on the southern coast, but that didnt mean others wouldnt comment once they learned of the proposal. He did not receive complaints about expanded archery.

Major Cross stated overall the season had very low level of complaints.

Nathan Bieber stated the one comment he received was about overcrowding, a lot of hunters trying to crowd into small areas.

Jim Andrews stated the rule proposal may help spread out some of that pressure in those areas.

VI. Other Business

A presentation was given by Laura Kintz, the Departments Social Media Coordinator on the MDIFW social media and communications strategy.

Acting Commissioner Peabody discussed the moose meetings that were being held in Greenville. Staff would review the information and make a group decision on the potential of a proposal going forward or not. The Landowners and Land Users Relations Advisory Board was hearing from the public and looking at ideas for enforcement, etc. for oversized ATVs. We were working on our legislative packet for the Governors office. That would be subject to change with the new administration that would be coming in. The main office closures for a couple of days were due to challenges within the Licensing division. There were staff vacancies and by closing to the public they would be able to catch up on other important work such as mailings, etc. The moose lottery drawing would take place on June 20 in Action.

VII. Councilor Reports

Councilor Reports were given.

VIII. Public Comments & Questions

Claire Perry stated she wanted to see coyote education promoted more.

Katie Hansberry from Humane World for Animals asked what the Departments role was in wildlife crossings?

Nate Webb stated we collaborated with DOT. There was a large animal crash group that met to discuss issues statewide. Signage was used, but the public got used to seeing them in one location and was not as effective. Design features of new construction on roadways was also used to reduce issues.

Melissa Andrews from Peace Ridge Sanctuary stated they were an advocate for animals. She discussed the raccoon trapping season and had concerns with trapping in general. There was less trapping occurring and more concerns with trapping. There were other approaches to mitigate issues such as rabies. We needed to think about other ways to peacefully coexist with animals.

Rich Yvon from Native Fish Coalition stated he was there to listen and work with the Department as a team. He discussed Schoodic Lake, some regulations were a band aid on the issues. He thought we should stop stocking over native fish and do more to protect the resource.

IX. Schedule Date for Next Meeting

The next meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, August 11, 2026 at 9:30am at IFW, Augusta.

X. Adjournment

A motion was made by Catherine Gordon and that was seconded by Eric Ward to adjourn the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:30pm.