Will Tuell

A bill sponsored by Representative Ken “Bucket” Davis (R-East Machias) to require Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IFW) to split the state’s fall bear hunting season into two distinct parts received impassioned testimony from landowners, guides, and hunters in the Legislature’s IFW committee April 24. Davis, who sponsored the bill at the request of Machiasport bear hunters Brian and Joyce Smith, explained that he did so in an attempt to reduce conflict between hunters who use dogs to hunt bear and those who bait them.