AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine game tagging agents will get more money, and the state will do more to combat wildlife predators, under bills that have been signed into law by Gov. Paul LePage.
The governor on Monday signed a bill to increase the amount of money tagging agents receive from $1 to $2 for each $5 tag purchased by a hunter.
Another new law establishes a check-off on the hunting license application for donations to a predator control fund or a deer management fund.
A separate bill adds $100,000 to the fish and game department’s predator control program. With money left over from this year, the department will have $150,000 to reduce coyote predation of deer next year.
The final bill appropriates $200,000 for fish stocking next fiscal year.
More wasted money on “predator control”. Why aren’t we using science and experience when it comes to wildlife instead of emotion based complaining by the loud shouting, lobbyist hiring minority. When and if deer habitat is returned to the north woods there will be more deer. Until then, there will only be this ignorant plea for more money to kill more coyotes to accomplish……nothing. There were few, if any whitetail deer in northern Maine 100 years ago. Are we actually going to allow our tax money to fund this unscientific, biologically indefensible plan which essentially allows the paper companies to continue to plunder the woods of Maine while unfairly placing the blame of “low deer numbers” on coyotes? Of course we will. Last year it cost about $154 per coyote killed in Maine in this program. Ridiculous and ridiculously ineffective. Coyote killing hasn’t accomplished any of its purported goals over the last 100 years. Why do we think it will work now?
They don’t think that killing coyotes will work to increase the deer herd…this is just a convenient way for Lepage to redirect cash to a large group of his supporters. It would be inconvenient and politically dangerous for the governor to blame habitat loss for the small deer herds in the northern part of the state because, after all, according to their narrative the paper companies are the great, beneficent job-creating protectors of the Maine forests, and the idea that they destroyed the habitat of the northern woods doesn’t jive with that. The reality that they harvested the old woods and then jumped ship to harvest the old forests of other countries doesn’t mesh with the Republican strategy of blaming environmental regulations and liberals. It’s no coincidence that the coyote population is surging at the same time that turkeys and other birds are prospering…those animals are more likely to be coyote food than are deer, and they are abundant, as anyone who drives on a country road can see. No, this way Lepage can throw a bone to his supporters, and allow them to at least shoot something in the woods.
In my area deer where very thin. Over the past few years shooting yotes the deer are coming back.
Also why do we not get a law so we can use suppressors when hunting. It is SAFER for all to do so and safety wins everywhere else. If not we need to require all bow hunter to blow a horn when they let a arrow fly.
I wonder what nursing facility he borrowed all this money from?
Any nonsense to demonize, right? [rolls eyes]
Wow! Where are the liberals on this issue.Instead of trying to do more to increase deer and fish population. Which would increase out of state hunters and fisherman. We should use the money and put in more Meth clinics and entitlements. How heartless of Mr Lepage to put our conservation effort ahead of the couch crowd.
This will not increase the deer population. Those who understand how nature works know this. As acerbic1 stated previously, this is simply an attempt to appease a small constituency that will try to re-elect him. Hunting and trapping continue to decline, not because4 of the lack of deer, but simply people understand better that these “natural resources” bring in more money alive than dead. The statistics are there for those who care to know. Google” USF&W Survey on Hunting, Fishing and Wildlife Watching” to see the statistics. Hunting declines on average about 1% a year while wildlife watching increases about double that. It’s time for LePage, and his followers, to join the 21st century.
You may want to check your facts there. Most of the money for these things come form HUNTERS.
Also I would be very happy to show you how the yotes have impacted the deer. They are hunting more in packs and the the younger deer do not stand much of a chance due to the high numbers of yotes. I can take you out in the wold not the back yards of MDI and show you yotes all over but very few deer. Less then 10 years ago I could show you places all over where it was very easy to spot deer. I can also show you how easy it is to take multiple yotes in one spot and several in one day something that was not possible just 5 or so years ago.
And it amazes me that those here who want to try to increase the deer population only want to do so so that they may shoot those deer. If you want to have more deer, stop the paper companies from cutting out the north woods so you have more deer habitat. That is the ONLY way.
reDaryl:
“If you want to have more deer, stop the paper companies from cutting out the north woods so you have more deer habitat.”
Didn’t you just say the opposite?
That’s right, deer never thrived in what used to be the forests of northern Maine. It is not until the wholesale, mechanized cutting of the woods began that deer moved north. They are at the northernmost fringes of their habitat now and will never be at the numbers hunters would like them to be, unless the paper companies continue to have their way with the north woods.
Correct, concernsme. If you stop the paper companies from cutting out the north Maine woods you will have more deer habitat. I didn’t say stop cutting altogether, although ideally they would. The world is a changing place. We do not need to have deer numbers high just so you guys can kill them. This is farcical wildlife management done for appeasement of a noisy and reasonably well funded minority. We’ll be turning LePage in another year or two. The next guy will hopefully speak for the majority of Mainers, not people who are determined to kill coyotes.
Oh, the couch crowd? You must mean the job-killing deadbeat millionaires and their plastic fake LAZY do-nothing Stepford wives who hide their money in the Caymans, pay half the tax rates YOU do, and sucker people like you with their endless LIES on FAKE-News and the Rush Limpmind show. Republicans are the most cowardly, UnPatriotic, UnChristian, hypocritical, corporate SOCIALISTS that exist. They are cowards because they operate out of constant delusional FEAR. Fear of the minorities, fear of the gays, fear of women, fear of the “liberals,” fear of the “Islamists,” fear fear fear. They live in fear of everything, and their radical policies are built largely on FEAR. They are UNPATRIOTIC to the hilt. They love shipping US jobs overseas, attacking the American worker, and doing all they can to tear down the American middle class while consolidating the nation’s wealth into the hands of their corporate masters at the expense of everyone else. They love that their corporate masters don’t pay their fair share of taxes though they benefit so from what the rest of us do pay for. It just doesn’t get more UnPatriotic than that.
Hoping the auto industry will fail? Hoping the economy will get worse? Glad that Rio and not Chicago got the Olympics? Disgustingly UNPATRIOTIC. No one is more UNCHRISTIAN than a Republican. They are consumed by selfish greed. They hate the poor and think they are just a lazy scourge who deserve to be poor while at the same time worshiping the rich. Loving pollution, denying global warming and attacking the environment at all costs. Being deeply in love with war, guns, and violence. It would make Jesus sick to his stomach. And the Republicans are masters of hypocrisy. Saying they love Jesus while doing everything they can to make Jesus sick to his stomach with their hatred and loathing of the poor, and their love affair with war and violence and selfishness and greed. And of course saying how much they hate government, but they love THEIR Social Security and Medicare and the hundreds of public programs and services they use themselves day in and day out. Republicans are the ultimate SOCIALISTS. It is just corporate SOCIALISM with their deep love of sending trillions of dollars in our tax money to the oil companies and to the many other companies and to the military industrial complex, and on and on and on. Yes, Republicans are cowardly, UNPatriotic, UNChristian, CorporateSocialist HYPOCRITES. Their trickle-down economic policies are a fiscally irresponsible failure. And underneath all their irrational chest pounding and ranting, they KNOW IT.
There are some credibility problems with some of the previous posts. There are no tax funds involved unless you buy hunting and fishing gear.
Maine hasn’t had coyotes for a hundred years.
Deer don’t thrive in old growth forest but critical habitat does need to be protected. Area wise that will not affect most timbering operations. In fact the cutting is beneficial to both moose and deer so long as certain types of wood lots are not over cut.
LePage has little say about how or where the department funds are spent.
I don’t buy hunting or fishing licenses and my money still goes to this poorly thought out use of dollars. I am a Maine guide (Sea Kayak and Recreational) and my license fees go to the department. I have two Conservation (Loon) license plates and my money from this again goes to the department that decides that this is a good use of the money. Even if your statement was true, it is still bad science and poor use of conservation dollars.
Maine clearly has Eastern Coyotes. I just saw one a few days ago. They are not the coyotes you see out west, but more of a coy-wolf, with some genetic materials from both Re and Gray wolves within their coyote genes.
That’s right, deer never thrived in what used to be the forests of northern Maine. It is not until the wholesale, mechanized cutting of the woods began that deer moved north. They are at the northernmost fringes of their habitat now and will never be at the numbers hunters would like them to be, unless the paper companies continue to have their way with the north woods. Go north, look at the decimation, they are overcutting and have been cutting deer yards all along, paying the fines and continuing on their merry way. We should not be cutting for any single (or two) species. We should be looking at the north woods for what they once were, not what we think we can make them by “managing” them…
LePage signed the bill. It wasn’t law until he did and he could have not signed it. That is having a say over how and where government funds are spent.
I doubt that what you pay and every other kayak guide in the state amounts to one month’s pay for a warden let alone any contribution to coyote control. Also please see reply to Gadael.
And I doubt that what you pay for a hunting license does either. This is a cumulative issue, divvying up money that comes from many Mainers, not just those who want to kill wildlife.
You obviously have no idea how many sea kayak guides there are in the state, as well as whitewater and rec guides who don’t kill wildlife. Their license fees pay plenty. You are talking without having specific facts hence the other two points you left unanswered.
As to how long coyotes have been here, it is likely they have been here in small numbers for more than 100 years. As our population in Maine grew they became more evident, but there is certainly evidence from the forties. They were here before we had evidence, just like Canada Lynx, Mt.Lions and wolves.
You said “Coyote killing hasn’t accomplished any of its purported goals over the last 100 years.”
There has not been a formal coyote killing program for fifty years let alone 100. The population has increased in relatively recent years to the point it has impacted the deer herd. There has been no concerted and sustained effort at control.
No you are correct what I pay myself doesn’t add up to much but the aggregate paid by hunters and fishermen does make up most of the departments funds. And no I don’t know how many sea kayak guides there are but I’d wager that their fees won’t keep a warden afield for a month.
There has been a formal coyote killing program for the last thirty years by the US Government Wildlife Services. This is one of the many reasons they are now being investigated. They have carried out their wholesale killing of predators for thirty years or more with no effect.
Remember our coyote snaring program?? Do you say this wasn’t a formal coyote killing program? It went on for twenty years with no effects whatsoever except that predicted by biologists and those familiar with nature. Compensatory reproduction in coyotes allows them to grow their population faster than it is killed off and that is what you all are creating. What has created low deer numbers is the rape of the north Maine woods. Coyotes kill deer there who are dying of starvation in the winter and fawns who no longer have the cover good habitat offers. Stop blaming the coyotes and blame your own lack of knowledge. How much do you want to wager on that last one?
So what you are saying is that by killing coyotes you are just making more coyotes? That is simply not true. Coyotes do not repoduce based on coyote numbers. Coyotes have larger litters with more game around, and smaller litters if there is less game to be found.
Sorry, wrong again. Google “compensatory reproduction coyote” and see what you find. Ridiculous arguments with no real knowledge of nature. You guys would be better off reading at the library than sitting here commenting on your computers….
I don’t believe the US Government Wildlife Services had anything to do with coyote control in Maine which is the subject at hand. However there are Montana biologists who believe it is effective out there too.
Five years ago the deer herd in northern Maine was substantially larger than it is now. Since the herd was much larger then, how can one say the snaring was not beneficial? I believe snaring by the department was discontinued in 2003 or 2004. Coyote populations began increasing after that with a devastating effect on the northern Maine deer herd.
I believe the department biologists know what they doing and that they have the knowledge so what I will wager is that the northern Maine deer herd will recover and that five years from now the herd will be far larger than it is now if coyote control is undertaken and sustained.
Exactly. The numbers and statistics have proven coyote control is effective if done.
The department biologists do not want snaring, only their bosses. You might have John DePue wanting it, but he has bigger blinders than you do.The deer population has decreased over the last ten years because there is little habitat left for deer to survivein. The biologists say this over and over, as do others, and you guys just do not want to hear what doesn’t fit your picture. The deer in northern Maine do not survive because there is no habitat. Coyotes eat some of those deer, but that is what an alpha predator does. Biologists studying deer carcasses in the winter in northern Maine find lower marrow counts in the bone samples. This means the deer are starving to death. Yes, the coyotes get them but they are dying slowly from lack of food and shelter from overcutting. Blame the real culprits, get off your coyote killing kick.
I live in Northern Maine in a small residential community on the edge of the north woods. I have seen coyotes by my own house so yes they are here and they are hungry if they are coming around homes and people so imagine what happens with them in the woods. I also live near what was a very large deer herd that has dwindled 75-80% in the past seven years for many reasons but most of those reasons are reasons are caused by man not nature.
…
I said we have not had coyotes for a hundred years in reply to the above poster.
….
Isn’t this article about giving state tax money? Or did I miss something?
I have no idea what you are saying Lauri. Can we try again
Yes lauri, it is, but it is easier for these guys to not answer what is not convenient….
I am an avid hunter of whitetail deer, not really trying to push my opinion on anyone, but, would think if there was a NO deer hunting for even just one season it would allow the deer to repopulate itself. Do the math, if say (just throwing out this figure) 900 deer were harvested in one season, if the following season no one could hunt that would increase the number by 900 and procreation among those deer that did not get killed would also increase these number. I realize money to the state would be lost from revenue gained by hunters from our state and out of state buying their license, however don’t think it would add up to the number of dollars spent trying to figure out how to raise the number of deer. I think that we cannot point in just one direction on the lowering number of deer happening. I think loss of habitat, increase in coyote and harsh winters all play a part and lets not leave out the poachers! Just saying……..food for thought!
As you probably realize does are not shot in areas where the herd is in trouble. I don’t think there would be much gain if there was a ban on shooting bucks as well although there would obviously be some increase the next year. I believe the biologists have it pretty well figured out.
It’s about time. Finally a governor in Maine who understands the impact of coyotes vs. deer. Coyote control does work, especially when warden’s were snaring 50-100 per deer yard in the winter time when snaring was done. Shoot straight, kill clean, apologize to no one.
The Governor had a different opinion back in November when he met with my wife following the murder of my German Shepherd, when she was mistaken for a coyote. I hope he wasnt just paying lip service.
What does a ignorant person who fails to follow rule 1 and 2 have to do with legal responsible hunting.
A politician paying lip service imagine that! It is an oximoron to use politician and lip service in the same sentence. Politics is all about lip service to get me into office hten I will do want I want …can’t you see?
Your post is not accurate. I have all the figures, taken directly from the files of Henry Hilton, showing the numbers of coyotes snared and there were never 50-100 coyotes snared in a deer yard, by any warden or anyone else, except maybe if it was illegal and they didn’t do what the snaring law required, which was report there “catch. Spreading myths about the former, ineffective coyote snaring program seems to be next on the list of what to do to try and bring snaring back. I hope the general public sees through the propaganda.
My post is very accurate. In 1 winter in 1 deer yard, 90 coyotes were taken in Township 19 with snares. 2 years later people were seeing deer again in Township 19. Predator control does work and always has. If 1 coyote is killed, it is successful predator control because that 1 coyote won’t kill anything ever again. It’s reality and there is no arguement. Take your blinders off. You don’t see the big picture.
There is an argument and it is made again and again, but you guys don’t listen. What year was this deer yard snared?It certainly was never documented because I have eleven years (the last eleven years) of snaring statistics. Are you talking about snarers bragging about killing 90 coyotes? That’s different from them actually killing them. I also wonder how many other animals were killed in those snares, including deer and moose. That’s why snaring will not be back in Maine. The people with blinders are those who think that killing a coyote results in one less deer killed. It shows a complete lack of understanding of the biology of a coyote. Justbecause you don’t like predators is no reason to vilify them. They are necessary.
This person who did the snaring is a Sgt. with the Maine Warden Service and I would trust him with my life. Killing a coyote results in MANY less deer killed.
Why oh why would they waste more money on self-defeating coyote control that does not work nor ever will? Oh, that’s right. It’s called coyote phobia, a mental disease that inflicts people who love to kill deer for thrill and brag and who apparently don’t know or care to know that coyotes only kill to survive.
Bil, I think they believe if they just keep on saying it eventually their wish will come true, then they can go out and feel justified for all the killing, pain and suffering they enjoy causing. Sad.
So with that statement it sounds like WAMs’ real goal is to end ALL hunting.
WAM and PETA have the same goals.
I was a member of WAM and know that many of its members and board members were intelligent, experienced sportsmen and professional Maine guides like I was. WAM is not anti-hunting but they are for fair-chase hunting. Time you grew up and responded responsibly rather than demeaning them as PETA people.
That is another of your ignorant replies. You’re always good for a couple, keep it up!
So, in your mind, 205,000 people bought a Maine hunting license in 2010 just to inflict pain and suffering to an animal. Now that is sad.
Not all, but my main point is that few do it for food nor by fair chase. The pain and suffering is a by product that largely is disregarded by the majority of those doing the killing. Hunting these days is largely about bragging rights, driving around showing off what you killed at the weigh station and other less than traditional reasons for hunting. I am not saying all hunters do this. I do know a few who hunt for food and I can understand that. The way some people answer on here shows exactly how they think. It is either all or nothing. For or against…..there is no attempts at understanding a changing society, changing what is acceptable to most people and changing what is considered “recreation”. Fewer and fewer people want to kill for fun. We advocate for those people but with the understanding that there are others who hunt for food and the belief that that is living within the way we were meant to. They are not the ones hounding, heater hunting, baiting, trapping and showing up at the weigh station to hang around for a couple hours showing off their kill. We do not advocate nor agree with that. It is disrespectful to the animal and to the good hunters in Maine.
Oh, and there was not 205,000 hunters in Maine last year. This is another way to distort the size of the vocal minority. There were 205,000 licenses sold, but many hunters buy more than one license. This is another way the hunting and trapping lobby attempts to artificially increase their numbers. Number of licenses sold does not equal number of hunters.
Why would anybody take advise from a self-admitted and convicted poacher of Maines’ wildlife?
You stole fish and game from generations of Mainers.
Just can’t help yourself, can you. Personal attacks are what ignorant people do who cannot respond to an issue intelligently. And what has my killing of many deer more than 50 years ago like all of the Maine guides did have to do with the issue or my knowledge? Fact of the matter, it probably enhances my knowledge for I have learned (apparently) far more than you have. PS: I was NEVER a convicted poacher – nor a PETA person, as you will likely call me next.
When people have been on both sides they make a choice. Now Bill is one of the good guys.
In my 77 years of life, I have seen an extraordinary effort by IF&W and people
who call themselves sportsmen to exterminate the wolf, the porcupine, the bear,
the bobcat, the crow, and the hawks and owls – most of which bounties were paid
to kill them. The only creatures I know that nearly was exterminated were the
beaver by trapping and the moose and the caribou by hunting. For some reason,
we elderly sportsmen cannot get through the thick skulls of the younger hunters
and trappers, or the IF&W people, that habitat and the cyclic nature of
Mother Nature is the ultimate manager of all wildlife with some exception
caused by human destruction of habitat, etc. The coyote, of course, is the most
recent scapegoat of the hunting crowd who has placed the whitetail deer on a
godly pedestal. That is, until it is time to shoot and kill it for a trophy to
hang on their wall.
Well, I guess we know where his priorities are. We could cry, “Fowl!”
In my view, Daryl DeJoy speaks with a good fundamental understanding of the balance of nature and with an genuine concern for Maine’s wildlife. Around our area Coyotes howl almost every night but you seldom see them during the day. The deer come into our back yard & munch on grass & apples in the Fall. They seem to have found their own balance with coyotes without human interference. The obsession people have with trapping/shooting coyotes is based on the fixation that we have some absolute right to shape the ecological balance as we see fit, but in the long run, it will prove to be just another egocentric delusion.
I love how Daryl always speaks for the majority of Mainer’s.
Well Kurt, there are only two choices, the minority and the majority. You are in the minority statistically because you hunt and advocate for trapping. I do not, could not, speak for the minority. That only leaves me one choice, love it or not.
Nice spin, however, any issue regarding fish a nd game that has come to the people of Maine for a vote shows different. Your claim to represent the majority of Mainers has no basis in facts.
Kurt, you rail against me and those who disagree with you because you are being forced to see that the majority does not agree with you, nor do the wildlife biologists , only their political bosses. This whole thing is about politics and lobbyists, cronyism and good old boy networks, but the handwriting is on the wall. Things have changed a lot since WAM was formed and they are going to change a lot more. Gradual change is what speaks the truth, not fooling people with politics at the polls. Look where eight years of Geo W Bush got us….we’re still trying to dig out of that hole. That will take time, so will this, but I’ll still be here and so will WAM.
typical, get the mis-information in first then respond to facts with replies off topic but inline with the political views of those you have deemed easy targets. George W Bush? Really?
MA-NE.net: DeerCare Funded