Sunday Hunting in Maine
The idea behind LD 307 is to allow any landowner who owns 20 or more acres to hunt on their own property on Sundays if they so choose. The interesting part is, they would be required to make their land available for the public to hunt the rest of the week. It is an interesting idea, to say the least.
Since a lack of available land for hunting is becoming an issue no matter where you live, this could open up additional opportunities for hunters. The problem I see with it, though, is will it be something a landowner is willing to do for the privilege to hunt just one extra day a week? Giving up six days of private hunting for one day of private hunting on Sundays just doesn’t seem to realistic.
Another consideration is that if they were willing to let others hunt already, wouldn’t they rather lease the hunting rights to make a little extra cash, and choose who it was that would be hunting? And even if they didn’t want to make a buck, isn’t it likely they would still like to grant permission to those who seemed ethical hunters and who would respect their property? Just a couple of questions that come to my mind.
Although Sunday hunting may be important to some, and it would be nice to have additional land open to the public for hunting, I think the way this bill is set up asks to high a price of the landowner. The concept has some merit, but I think it would take some drastic overhauling before it would be appealing to many. The lack of general support during the meeting pretty well proves this.
hunting, Sunday hunting, Maine, LD 307, private land, public access
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