For a couple of years now, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has “organized” a special, limited early moose hunt in and around the expansive broccoli fields in northern Aroostook County. This time around, the hunt was plagued by a number of mistakes and miscalculations. So much so that Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Danny Martin has been asked to present a report to the members of the Fish and Wildlife Advisory Council in Kittery on Dec. 9.

Advisory Council member Albion Goodwin, who represents Washington County, said that there has been some real confusion with the hunt.

“We hope that the commissioner has taken some corrective action and will be able to assure the council that next year’s hunt will run more smoothly,” Goodwin said.

From its conception, the hunt seemed like a good idea. Moose apparently consume large daily portions of broccoli and need some culling in order to protect the crops. The depredation hunt took on a beneficial recreational dimension when a small number of guides and broccoli farmers were permitted to legally bag a moose. It seemed like a win-win situation — at least on paper.

The master plan called for the issuance of 100 permits. First, there would be the selection by lottery of 15 Registered Maine Guides. The winning guides would each be granted three moose permits (2 cows and 1 of either sex). The guides could then generate some much-needed business by making the moose permits available to aspiring moose hunters who would, in turn, hire the permitted guide. The remaining 55 moose permits would be issued to County farmer-landowner applicants who own a specified amount of acreage where broccoli was being grown.

So much for the plan. As it turned out, some old names from last year’s guide applicants wound up in this year’s computer pool. According to County Advisory Council member Wade Kelly, a number of the names in the guide’s pool had not applied this year. That meant that this year’s pool of applicants were competing, not only with their fellow guides, but with others who had not even applied.

To make matters worse, there was also some confusion about landowner eligibility and, reportedly, some moose were taken in Caswell, an area that was not within the “broccoli zone.”

According to Kelly, a number of the permitted guides were issued warnings by game wardens for bagging moose in fields of rye that were broccoli fields before the dates of the designated hunt. “ Next year, there needs to be better organization and control of the land to hunt,” said Kelly. “A number of farmers rotate their crops, so there needs to be a definition of what is a broccoli field and what is not.” Kelly is adamant that MDIF&W, not the growers, need to earmark the huntable land.

Goodwin, who is a former legislator and farmer, has been watching the early moose hunt in the County since it began. “I have been opposed to it since its inception,” says Goodwin. He points out that over the years, Maine has always had a simple approach to dealing with crop damage by wild animals. “You showed the crop damage to a game warden,” says Goodwin. “If he was convinced he gave you permission to shoot the nuisance animal. That was it, period.”

He emphasized that these days we tend to make things more complicated than they need to be.

What Goodwin may be overlooking, though, is the well-intentioned aims of the early moose hunt: increased hunt opportunity and help for a struggling rural economy.

If another early moose hunt is held again next year in the broccoli fields of Aroostook County, MDIF&W needs to redouble its efforts to make sure that these mixups are not repeated. There is already far too much public disenchantment, if not outright suspicion, over the equity and operational integrity of the statewide moose hunt lottery. The County experience only serves to deepen the skepticism.

V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal and has written his first book, A Maine Deer Hunter’s Logbook. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WCME-FM 96.7) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected].