The Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/1UnXLBv ) reported there have been four hunting accidents in 2015 compared to an average of six per year between 2011 and 2014. The state has also experienced a 10 percent increase in licenses sold over the past five years.

There hasn’t been a hunting-related fatality in Maine since 2012. The state hasn’t had three consecutive calendar years without a hunting death since it started keeping records in 1940.

Experts say mandatory hunter education courses and the requirement for hunters to wear blaze orange have made hunting much safer in Maine’s woods.