Hunting & Bear Baiting

Maine Public Lands offer the opportunity to hunt in the backcountry.

• Use our Park Search Feature and select the hunting icon under “Search by Activities” to find the allowable hunting locations on Maine State Parks and Public Lands.
• For season information Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IF&W) site.
• Harvest data for black bear, whitetail deer, moose and wild turkey.
• The Maine Office of Tourism provides information about sporting camps and guide services.
• Opportunities for People with Disabilities - an IF&W listing.
• Tree Stand Guidelines (PDF)

Bear Hunting

Information is available from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife including:

• Licenses and Permits
• Laws and Rules
• Season for Hunting and Trapping

Bear Baiting

• Bear Baiting is allowed on Maine Public Lands with a permit from the Bureau of Parks and Lands.
• Rules for Bear Baiting on Public Lands (PDF 13KB)
  • See the Proposed Amended Rules below.
• Bear bait sites are assigned, permitted, and renewable in 3-year cycles.
• 2022 began a new 3-year cycle.
• Most sites have been renewed for 2024
• Bookmark this page to check for updates about the new lottery scheduled for early 2025.

*** Please send an email to your regional office to inquire about available bear bait sites***
Contact names with linked emails are listed at the bottom of this page.

Proposed Amended Rules for Bear Baiting Public Lands

The Bureau has developed amended rules due to outdated fee structures and public interest in adjusting the lottery process.

• Proposed Amended Rules for Bear Baiting on Public Lands (PDF 159KB)

Public Hearing details and meeting link.

Maps

Bear Bait Site Maps for an entire region are below. Individual site maps are linked in the table.

• Eastern Region Bear Bait Site Maps in one PDF (5.8MB)
• Western Region Bear Bait Site Maps in one PDF ( 6.9MB)
• Northern Region Bear Bait Site Maps in one PDF (3.2MB)

Map Showing the Public Lands Regions and Regional Office Contact Info (PDF 430KB)

Individual Bear Bait Site Maps (as PDF) by Public Land Region

Eastern Region	Western Region	Northern Region
Amherst	Adamstown	Cyr Plantation
Bradford Lagrange	Bald Mountain	Eagle Lake
Bradley	Beaver Cove	Hamlin
Cathance	Bigelow Preserve	Hammond
Cutler	Bradstreet	New Canada
Donnell Pond - Tunk Lake	Caratunk	Oxbow Plantation
Duck Lake	Chain of Ponds	Scopan
Grand Lake Stream	Cold Stream North	Scraggly Lake
Great Pond	Cold Stream South	St John South
Keg Lake	Coplin Center	T13R5 Beaver Brook
Machias River Corridor	Crocker	Westmanland
Macwahoc	Days Academy	Winterville
Molunkus	Dead River
Nahmakanta	Dennistown
Orient	E Twp
Osborn	Freeman Twp
Reed	Highland Plt
Rocky Lake	Holeb Twp
Seboeis	Johnson Mountain
Seboeis Plt	Lincoln Plantation
Township 24	Moosehead Junction
	Moxie Gore
	Rangeley Plantation
	Richardsontown
	Riley
	Sandwich Academy Grant
	Sandy Bay
	Sandy River
	Seboomook
	Shawtown
	The Forks
	West Forks
	Wyman Twp

Public Lands Regional Offices