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The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife conducted its annual Any-Deer Permit Lottery and is granting 51,850 permits to current hunting license holders.
A list of permit holders is now available for viewing on www.mefishwildlife.com.
This year, 66,476 people entered the lottery. The permit allocation is follows: Resident: 39,578; Non-Resident: 3,579; Landowner: 8,421; Superpack: 272.
Hunters will not be mailed a transport tag this year. Instead, it is recommended that they log onto the Internet, find their permit number and write it down on their hunting license. The permit number will be required to register any antlerless deer.
At the beginning of the season, game wardens will have the list of permit holders on their in-vehicle laptops to verify that hunters have a permit.
When conducting the lottery, the Department took great strides to match applicants with their first choice of hunting districts. Due to this year's decrease in the number of any-deer permits being granted, applicants only had one chance of securing a doe permit. No bonus permits are available.
This is the last year that paper applications will be accepted for any-deer permits. Next year, all entries will need to be received through the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife's online application system at www.mefishwildlife.com.
In the last several years, a growing number of applicants have gone online to apply for the any-deer permit lottery, including 68 percent of this year's entrants, and many have stated that they like its ease of use and convenience.
"People are realizing that they can apply online from home when it fits into their schedule, and they appreciate that convenience," said Roland "Danny" Martin, Commissioner, Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. "Plus, the increased efficiency of applying online keeps Department costs down."
The online application system is fast and simple, and it saves the department money in time and labor. Each paper application must be processed through several steps in order to enter the lottery, but with the online application, the hunter enters the information themselves. Hunters get instant confirmation of entering the lottery, and can print their confirmation.
The 2008 Hunting Season dates are:
- * Firearms season: Nov. 3-29 (statewide); Any-deer WMDs are 15-17, 20-29.
- * Maine Residents Only: Nov. 1
- * Youth Deer Day: Oct. 25
- * Archery: Oct. 2-31
- * Muzzleloader statewide (all WMDS): Dec. 1-6
- * Muzzleloader WMDs 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29: Dec. 8-13
Expanded archery season (designated areas only): Sept. 6-Dec. 13
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