The adventure of a lifetime is in store for 40 people who have been offered permits to hunt moose in New Hampshire this October. They are the lucky winners in the state’s 35th annual moose hunt lottery drawing, which was held at the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department in Concord.

Hunters whose names were selected in the drawing will be officially notified by mail. A complete list of names of the 2022 winners and alternates is now posted online at www.huntnh.com.

Winners were selected from a pool of 6,033 applicants. In addition, 1,196 people submitted an application for a bonus point only, but were not included in the lottery. The bonus point system improves the chance of winning for each consecutive year a person has entered but is not selected. The overall odds of being drawn this year were 1 in 96 for residents and 1 in 410 for nonresidents. In addition to many New Hampshire residents, permit winners hailed from Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

Winners are offered permits to hunt moose in a specific Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) during the 2022 New Hampshire moose season, which will run for nine days, October 15-23. Each permit winner is assigned to one of 13 WMUs in which they can legally hunt. Winners are allowed to enlist a guide and one friend or relative to help on the hunt as a subpermittee.

Last year (2021), hunters harvested 30 moose, for a statewide success rate of 73%. New Hampshire has held an annual moose hunt since 1988, when 75 permits were issued for a three-day hunt in the North Country.

Anglers reminded

The Loon Preservation Committee (LPC) and the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (NHFG) want to remind anglers about the ban on the sale and freshwater use of lead sinkers and jigs weighing one ounce or less for all freshwater in the state. The Loon Preservation Committee recently recorded its first lead-poisoned loon of the year.

In 2021, a total of seven adult loons and one immature loon in New Hampshire were confirmed to have died from lead poisoning after ingesting lead sinkers and jigs weighing up to 0.17 ounces. These loons were discovered on lakes or ponds in Antrim, Enfield, Errol, Pittsburg, Stark, Sunapee, Sutton, and Tamworth.

An eighth adult loon also died from ingested lead tackle in New Hampshire, however this loon was collected during the fall migration period and therefore may not have been from the New Hampshire breeding population.

To address this issue and help anglers dispose of lead sinkers and jigs they can no longer use, LPC and NHFG have partnered with nine local tackle retailers to offer a lead tackle buyback program. From now through the end of the year, or until this season’s initial 2,000 certificates are claimed, anglers can exchange one ounce or more of banned lead tackle (jigs and sinkers) for a $10 gift certificate redeemable at these participating shops:

The Tackle Shack (Meredith), LL Cote (Errol), Pawtuckaway Trading Post (Raymond), Squam Boat Livery, Inc. (Holderness), Rocky’s Ace Hardware (New London), Newfound Sales & Trading Post (Bristol), Pinnacle Sports (West Lebanon), The Loon Center (Moultonborough), and The Tackle Shack (Newbury).

Only banned tackle (lead sinkers and jigs weighing one ounce or less) is eligible for exchange as part of the buyback program, but additional tackle out of this size range can be turned in. One exchange transaction is permitted per customer.

Full details of the buyback and participating shops can be found at www.loonsafe.org.

The list will be updated as new retailers join the program. In addition to the $10 voucher, at the end of the year, the program participants who turned in the largest and second-largest amounts of eligible tackle at each retail location will receive cash prizes.

The LPC and NHFG are working cooperatively with many other organizations to educate anglers about the effects of lead poisoning on loons. Fish Lead Free is a multipartner, region-wide initiative dedicated to providing resources for anglers across New England to help them make the switch to lead-free tackle. Safe alternatives to lead tackle, made of steel, tungsten, tin, bismuth, and other materials, are effective and available. Get more tips and tactics for fishing lead free at www.wildnh.com/fishing/get-the-lead-out.html.

Collection receptacles for old lead tackle can be found at all New Hampshire Fish and Game offices, numerous transfer stations, and other sites throughout the state. An interactive map of disposal sites is available at https://loon.org/loonsafe/shops-and-disposal-sites/ .

The Loon Preservation Committee (www.loon.org) works to protect loons throughout the state as part of its mission to restore and maintain a healthy population of loons in New Hampshire, to monitor the health and productivity of loon populations as sentinels of environmental quality, and to promote a greater understanding of loons and the natural world.

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (www.wildnh.com) works in partnership with the public to conserve, manage, and protect the state’s fish, wildlife, and marine resources and their habitats; inform and educate the public about these resources; and provide the public with opportunities to use and appreciate these resources.