Panel approves 2nd turkey hunt Farmers, sportsmen gobble up news

AUGUSTA – When the Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife voted 12-0 Wednesday in favor of a second wild turkey season – this one to be held in the fall – the farmers in the hearing room were more excited than the hunters.

“In the past two years there has really been an explosion of turkeys [around farms],” said Sen. John Nutting, D-Androscoggin, the Leeds farmer who sponsored the bill. “They get in and eat the corn silage. They don’t eat much, but they go to the bathroom all over it. You have to be careful you don’t feed the feces to the cattle. There is the potential for the spread of disease.”

The bill, LD 1923, would allow the commissioner of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to establish a fall turkey season, set season dates and determine whether a lottery system would be used to issue permits or if they would be sold over the counter. There is now only one turkey season, which is in May.

The committee decided to let the proposed cost of permits – $10 for residents and $40 for nonresidents – stand for now while it continues to discuss a more pressing bill, LD 1929, which would raise license fees and help plug a looming deficit in the DIF&W budget. The committee might decide to boost turkey hunt fees later.

The committee also voted unanimously to fold into LD 1923 another bill on turkeys, LD 1939, which would allow DIF&W to issue permits to landowners to hunt turkeys as nuisance animals on their own land provided they keep the land open to the public for hunting. The legislation also would add wild turkeys to the state’s list of nuisance animals.

The turkey population in Maine has grown from 41 transplants to an estimated 15,000 birds since the early 1980s. A second season would not hurt the population, because hunting would be limited to where the birds are most prevalent. The May season is held in southern Maine as far north and east as Penobscot and Washington counties.

Jon Olson, executive secretary of the Maine Farm Bureau, said there are a number of problems caused by the spread of wild turkeys. He said that for the past three years at any Maine Farm Bureau meeting, whether it was held in a Grange hall or a more informal setting in a farmer’s kitchen, the same complaints about turkeys have arisen.

“They peck at pumpkins. And they’ll peck every single pumpkin in a field,” Olson said.

Another problem, he said, is that they peck the wrapping around bales of hay, exposing the hay to the air. Olson said it only takes one turkey poking one hole for a bale of hay to be destroyed by damp air.

Olson and Nutting did not provide testimony during Monday’s work session. But Nutting could not contain his excitement.

“I want to thank you,” he said to the committee, bolting up out of his seat after the vote was taken.

Deirdre Fleming covers outdoor sports and recreation for the NEWS. She can be reached at 990-8250 or at dfleming@bangordailynews.net.