Deadly predators have been in Maine woods all month!

Spring is here in Maine, and people are flocking to the woods. Folks are hiking, biking, riding ATV’s …EVEN HUNTING!

Wait…HUNTING??? I thought that was only in November? Sorry folks! The first Saturday in May started Maine’s Spring Turkey Hunt, and despite all the scare tactics used by non hunters, you have been sharing the woods with armed Mainers, and nobody has been shot yet!

You may have walked RIGHT PAST a turkey hunter, and never even realized it, because unlike their deer hunting cousins in November, turkey hunters are not required to wear ‘hunter orange’. In fact most turkey hunters wear head to toe camouflage!

Yet the state of Maine continually fails to open hunting to seven days a week, despite the positive economic impact an extra day in the woods, would have for Maine businesses like, guide services, small convenience stores that serve as tagging stations, restaurants, lodging, and others .

Many Mainers who hunt, work Monday through Friday, and can only hunt on the weekends. They pay good money for the various licenses, and permits required to hunt, but people who are afraid infringe on their rights. ESPECIALLY the rights of land owner hunters in Maine who simply want to use their own land without being told when and how.

The facts, and the fears do not match. Despite the scare tactics, hunting in Maine continues to be a safe activity. Already a rafter has lost his life on Maine waters this year. Drunk drivers continue to kill, and injure innocent people, and cause property damage.

Just last weekend a drunk driver crashed through my yard, doing thousands of dollars in damage.

Yet aside from hearing a few shots from the woods, I only knew there were turkey hunters out and about because I saw their trucks parked near wood lots.

Nobody has been injured this year while turkey hunting, and nobody has been injured by turkey hunters. So when are we going to accept the facts, and allow Sunday hunting in the state of Maine?

Doug Alley

About Doug Alley

I grew up in Bath, Maine in an upper lower class family with 3 step sisters, a step brother, and a little sister. After high school I spent 3 years serving in the USAF at Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage AK. I've competed in, and won, demolition derbies. I've competed in, and never won, stock car races. I am the 47-year-old father of an 11-year-old boy who is pretty sure he is smarter than I ever was. We live on a little less than an acre of land in a 1973 mobile home in Stetson with my wife Jen, some cats, a few chickens, and rabbits, and a couple of goats. I hunt, fish, camp out, dabble in photography, gardening, and I cook in variable degrees of near success.