by Marianne Gambaro
The Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Advisory Council (IFW) approved the Town of Tremont’s special deer hunt today despite one member hoping for written assurances from the Maine Attorney General’s office that the move is legal. Tremont will be the only town on Mount Desert Island where hunters can legally shoot deer. The deer hunt begins November 2026 and runs for three seasons. Any deer killed in the town will not count toward the hunter’s state bag limit. —Bar Harbor Story, August 11, 2026.
The rising sun casts a golden hue on two fawns and five does
who peacefully graze a meadow beside Blue Hill Bay unaware
local humans deliberate their fate
with euphemisms like “balance habitat.”
Under July’s buck moon while male deer
grow new velvet-covered antlers
gardeners and farmers kvetch at the post office
about ornamentals leveled and crops decimated.
At dusk locals drive more cautiously expecting to encounter
one or more standing in the road around the next bend.
Proponents cite an increase in traffic accidents, ignoring
that it might be a function of the overall increase in traffic.
Seeing an upsurge at the local clinic,
the spike in Lyme disease is blamed
on the deer rather than white-footed mice,
the real culprits.
In August the Maine Inland Fisheries
and Wildlife Advisory Council
approved the execution order
to be carried out in November.
Retired journalist Marianne Gambaro is a writer and cat enrichment volunteer who lives in Western Massachusetts. Her poems and essays have been published in numerous journals. She is the author of the chapbook, Do NOT Stop for Hitchhikers (Finishing Line Press), and an upcoming collection, Stuffed Monkeys (Kelsay Books).
