Before I go much farther with today’s column (which, for the record, is being offered not to gloat, but only in the interest of full disclosure), let me tell all of you I realize I didn’t deserve it.

I asked for it. I crossed my fingers and avoided black cats and did everything I could to get it.

After only three years of suffering along with you in the moose-permit lottery, I surely didn’t deserve it.

But there I was Thursday, not even settled in for the two-hour lottery, when the unimaginable happened.

After a short introductory speech, Roland “Danny” Martin, the commissioner of the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, began flogging his way through the first of the 2,547 names that would be read aloud.

Six names into his list, he paused … looked in my direction … and told me I was a winner.

At least that’s what I think he told me. Things got a little hectic after that.

I remember raising my hands aloft and laughing. I remember whipping out my cell phone and calling everyone I could think of (including a few who, remarkably, didn’t share my enthusiasm and couldn’t makes sense of my babbling).

And I remember telling Martin that he’d provided me a nice lead for this column … and thanks.

Here’s the deal: My moose hunt will take place in Wildlife Management District 4 during the September season.

My subpermittee is eager. Hopefully his brothers and a few of my pals will choose to join us for a memorable week.

And after covering the hunt for years, trekking from Greenville to Ashland to Presque Isle to Allagash, I’m actually going to get to participate. And that’s pretty cool.

But believe me when I say I know I didn’t deserve it as much as many others who were in attendance Thursday night… and many of those who never got a chance to go on the hunt of a lifetime.

Nope. I may not have deserved it. But am I going to enjoy it? You bet I am.

Fewer permits this year

If you’re a demon for detail, you may have noticed that the state issued 70 fewer moose permits this year than it did in 2005. This year’s total was 2,825, not counting those sold at auction and those that were won in past years but cashed in this year on a deferment basis, as is allowed for military personnel. In 2005, 2,895 permits were issued.

According to Mark Latti, the DIF&W’s public relations specialist, state biologists decided to tinker with the numbers in two Wildlife Management Districts this year.

That meant a total of 85 fewer permits were awarded in WMDs 8 and 9 – the two that border Moosehead Lake. Adjusting the number of permits in other WMDs added 15 permits to the pool, leading to the net loss of 70.

“The reason behind that was what our tagging data has shown is that we’re getting more and more younger moose [being shot and tagged], not as developed as some of those we used to get there that would top 1,000 pounds,” Latti said.

Latti said the situation in the Moosehead region WMDs wasn’t typical of what biologists were seeing elsewhere, and a change was made.

“Those are the two areas that we’ve been watching in particular,” Latti said. “From the beginning we’ve wanted to increase the population in WMD 9 [east of Moosehead Lake], and never issue any antlerless permits there so we can let the population grow.”

The Moosehead region is one in which the state has structured the hunt to serve constituent groups with varied interests. Many people associate Greenville and Moosehead with the hunt itself, while others view the area as a jumping off point to watch wildlife and take pictures of the majestic moose.

Taking that into consideration, the state doesn’t issue permits for the early season in WMDs 8 and 9, leaving that time period free for those who choose to watch moose. A total of 285 permits are issued in those districts for the October season.

“What we want to do now is just let some of those moose grow to an older age so that there’s more moose for wildlife watching and more opportunities for hunters in the long run,” Latti said.

Behind the numbers

As the moose hunters settled into their comfy seats in Scarborough for Thursday’s permit lottery, Mark Ostermann of the DIF&W prepared to push the button that would set the evening’s proceedings into motion.

Ostermann is a computer programmer and analyst for the department and is the man responsible for making sure all the number crunching done by DIF&W computers runs smoothly.

In fact, Ostermann is the man who wrote the program that decides who receives a permit each year.

If you received a permit, you’ll likely agree with the name Ostermann gave his program. And if you didn’t, you probably won’t think it’s too funny at all.

The program is called PAL (which, I’m happy to report … again, I think is entirely appropriate). That stands for Permits Allocated by Lottery.

And contrary to the rumormongers (like all of my friends, it seems), PAL is really nobody’s pal at all.

“[In the beginning of the process] it has no idea who you are or where you live. It doesn’t even know if you’re a resident or a nonresident,” Ostermann said. “It’s just assigning you random numbers.”

Here’s how it works: Each hunter receives a certain number of cyber-“pulls” from the computerized hopper, based on how many chances they’ve purchased and earned in the lottery.

The maximum number of “pulls” for Maine residents this year was 14: eight chances for being unsuccessful in each of the eight previous years since the “preference points” system went on line, added to the maximum six chances Mainers could purchase.

“So if you have 14 chances … [the computer] is going to pull 14 numbers, it’s going to keep the smallest one and say, ‘That’s your number,’ and assign it to your application,” Ostermann said. “Then it goes on to the next application.”

After all of the applications receive a number, those numbers are sorted into resident and nonresident categories with the lowest number getting top priority in each pile.

“At that point, we go and look at ‘What did people request?'” Ostermann said. “What districts? Bull or cow? And so forth, and we create a list of preferences for each one of the applications.”

If you’re one of the first hunters picked, you’ll receive exactly what you wanted. And if you aren’t, you may have to settle for something less than that. Some hunters disqualify themselves at that point, having chosen to hunt only in a district that’s filled, or only for a gender that’s not available any longer.

“The farther down you go, the more likely you are to get a cow in a district that isn’t your first choice,” Ostermann said. “But for the first half of [the draw], people are getting what they want, [their] first or second choice. It just works out that way.”

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.