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A community in Tremont, Maine, will decide whether or not to allow deer hunting after a 100-year ban. (Photo by Rebecca Caron)

A community in Maine is about to vote on whether to lift a 100-year-old ban on deer hunting.

The Mount Deer Island (MDI) community of Tremont has been closed to deer hunting since the 1930s, but the booming deer population has caused a number of issues for residents over the years.

“Concerns about Lyme disease, concerns about deer-vehicle accidents, property damage, all of the above really,” Jesse Dunbar, Tremont town manager, told Spectrum News. “Just the abundance of them here.”

There have been no special studies to estimate the number of deer in Tremont, but residents say it’s obvious that the deer population has significantly increased during the past decade. Dunbar says they’ve become nuisance for some.

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“A lot of residents have expressed, as the years have gone on (…) that they’re eating everything,” Dunbar said. “They’re eating the deer-resistant plants that they haven’t eaten for the last 10, 15 years.”

According to a Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife testimony from 2025, reasons for the existing ban vary, but they include safety concerns and the proximity of Acadia National Park.

“The precise reason for the ban and all of the conversations that precipitated it are subject to debate at this point,” wrote Nate Webb, Wildlife Division Director at the Department. Webb’s comments in his testimony were neither for nor against LD 1438, a “Resolve Regarding Deer Hunting on Mount Desert Island” in 2025.

The bill, which was presented by Republican Representative Billy Bob Faulkingham, did not pass. Since then, Tremont officials have refined the details of a “special hunt” for deer.

“The select board here got involved and decided, before the state just opens it the way the state wants to, the town should discuss it and see if it’s something we would want to open so the town and select board could put up rules and restrictions that it was comfortable with,” said Dunbar.

Hunting within the community would be heavily regulated if approved. Dunbar said hunting would be limited to archery and shotguns, and hunters would have to stay in a fixed location like a deer stand or a ground blind. A number of other restrictions would be implemented as well.

“You have to be a Tremont resident or a Tremont landowner to do it. You have to get landowner permission if it’s not your land,” said Dunbar. “Just different things the select board wanted to make it as safe as possible and as restricted as possible since the town isn’t used to it and to address as many concerns as they could.”

Tremont’s website lists additional details and proposed hunting rules.

If passed, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will still make the final decision and decide on the rules.

“If residents decide to open the town to deer hunting, we will work with the town to establish a deer hunting season framework that will go through a public rule making process,” MDIFW Communications Director Mark Latti told Spectrum News in a statement.

Residents will decide on the issue during the town’s annual municipal election on May 11.