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Committee hearings highlight plan to pilot youth-hunting program to reverse participation decline
Summary
Representative Tiffany Roberts presented LD 13 22 to establish a two‑year pilot program combining the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Office of Tourism to test ways to increase youth hunting participation statewide.
Representative Tiffany Roberts told the committee LD 13 22 would create a two‑year pilot program for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, working with the Office of Tourism, to test approaches to increase youth hunting participation and report back to the legislature.
Roberts described declining youth license sales and argued the decline threatens future conservation funding and mentoring networks. “This program isn’t just about participation,” she said, describing partnerships with community organizations, schools, outfitters and retailers and saying pilot results would help identify “what days and formats best support youth participation.”
Stakeholders and outdoor‑education groups testified in favor. Kim Moulton, speaking for the Sportsmen’s Alliance of Maine, noted the organization’s Sam’s Outdoor Education Center (leased to the Department) and offered the facility as a training and satellite center. Jared Bornstein of Moose Maine Kids described youth‑days and said “the single best thing you could do for youth participation is to give broad access to youth days.”
Multiple registered guides, longtime hunters and parents testified that youth days, mentorship and hands‑on programming work to recruit and retain young hunters. Testimony included examples of local clubs, guide associations and private facilities ready to host events.
The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife testified neither for nor against and outlined current outreach and education work: marketing campaigns, hunter education, family field days, scholarships for conservation camps, and partnerships to create regional outdoor education hubs. Emily McCabe, the department’s public information director, cautioned that counting participation is complicated by a rise in lifetime licenses (which remove annual junior license purchases from sales data) and that metrics such as harvest data, course completions and surveys are used together to estimate engagement.
McCabe said the department supported a “data‑driven” approach and noted mixed results from extending the youth deer hunt from one to two days: while the 2‑day hunt produced the highest youth harvest on record, only about 6 percent of youth hunters harvested deer during those two days, suggesting expanded days alone may not recruit more new hunters. She urged emphasis on mentorship and access.
The Office of Outdoor Recreation (Jeff McCabe) and the Office of Tourism described coordination capacity and marketing tools that could support the pilot, including existing tourism website capabilities, grant programs and the 10‑year outdoor economy roadmap. Stakeholders urged the committee to coordinate related bills and to use existing facilities and clubs to pilot programs quickly.
No committee vote occurred; the public hearing record was closed after extensive testimony. The department and tourism office indicated they are available to collaborate on pilot details and data collection.
