The expanded archery hunting season that started last fall could result in a depletion in the Maine deer population. It could also mean a boon for the recently formed Penobscot Valley Archers’ Association.

Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife deer biologist Gerry Lavigne said there is no telling if the new season will increase interey, but it’s likely it will, given the sport was already growing. In the past 15 years, archery license sales in Maine have gone from 3,000 to 13,000, Lavigne said.

“Archery is growing as a hunting sport and that coincides with a change in regulations in 1985 that limited the harvest of does and fawns to rival hunters, but not the harvests of archers’,” Lavigne said. “A lot of hunters were able to continue to hunt deer.”

As the PVAA prepares to host its first archery tournament Sunday, the chance for growth in the organization is promising. After one year, the PVAA has 49 members. The club’s chairman, Richard Pointer, said by September, when the expanded archery season opens, he expects that to double.

In Sunday’s tournament, the club will find out how its 3-D course off Route 46 in Holden stacks up to those around the state. The registration fee for Sunday’s event, which starts at 8 a.m., is $7. For information, call 827-7045.

Pointer hopes PVAA’s course proves as good as any and that the the club makes archery in Eastern Maine grow into a family, recreation sport.

While the majority of PVAA members are hunters, Pointer said archery is not about hunting. Some of the nationally ranked archers competing on Sunday are not even hunters.