AUGUSTA, Maine — With hopes of rebuilding a deer herd that has shrunk sharply in parts of Maine, Gov. Paul LePage has signed legislation to implement strategies that include restoring habitats that shelter the animals in the winter and thinning out the population of their main predator, the coyote.
One concern that has prompted the new laws signed Monday is that areas known as “deer yards” have been lost due to logging and to spruce budworms, pests that have killed large tracts of forest.
Deer yards are stands of trees — typically cedar, spruce or hemlock — that protect deer from the snow and cold. Deer venture from these natural shelters to feeding areas.
Wildlife officials say one of the best ways of protecting deer yards is through cooperative working agreements with large timberland owners to leave those areas intact. The agreements would not be required, and they could come in the form of easements or even sales of areas containing deer yards.
The loss of deer, which are central to Maine’s hunting tradition, has been a major worry especially in eastern, northern and western regions of the state. Deer density in those regions has plummeted to one to four per square mile, a fraction of the optimum number, while it hovers around 40-50 in southern and some coastal areas and islands, said David Trahan, executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine.
The optimum number can vary and is based on how many deer a given piece of land can sustain, but is usually between the extremes found in Maine, Trahan said.
Maine’s deer herd is estimated to be in the 250,000 range, with annual harvests on the decline to about 19,000. The number of deer killed by hunters exceeded 28,000 annually in the 1980s.
The disappearance of deer in much of the state has had an effect on hunting, which “is vital to our heritage and economy,” said Rep. David Burns, R-Whiting, sponsor of a new law that expands the mission of a state deer-management fund to include preserving deer yards, in addition to its traditional focus on controlling coyotes.
Deer hunting and viewing in Maine generate at least $200 million per year in spending on guide and outfitting services, hunting camps, motels, restaurants and related businesses, Burns said.
“Maine has traditionally been famous for its big bucks, but as this No. 1 game animal becomes scarce, hunters will find Maine less desirable,” he said.
To support the new deer management fund, $2 of each $5 collected in “tagging” fees hunters pay after killing a deer must be deposited in the fund. The new law also establishes a check-off on the hunting license application for donations to the fund.
The law authorizes fish and game officials to impose limits on the feeding of deer by the public when it’s believed that feeding is having a detrimental effect on deer. Examples are placing food across the highway from the woods, which puts them in danger of being struck by a vehicle, or feeding them the wrong foods, such as hay or whole corn, which take too much energy to digest.
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 the coyote population in specific areas of the state.
Maine does not offer bounties for the hunting and trapping of coyotes. The department instead determines specific areas most hard-hit by the predators and assists in bringing in hunters and trappers to lower their numbers.
Sporting groups see a proposal to borrow $5 million to preserve forests and farmland as another tool to protect deer yard. The proposal awaited LePage’s signature in order to be sent to voters for authorization.
How refreshing to have a governor who will react to issues that hurt this state. Keep up the good work, Gov. LePage.
Let’s see. One bill was aimed at protecting deer yards. Nothing will compel pulp companies to preserve them, it just jawbones that we should have deer yards. So far, this is not a change, only more mumbling about doing something. And just more leaving it to private enterprise to maintain a deer herd. How’s that working out so far? This looks like another provision to transfer money to the ones who already own the woods and have cut the deer yards. I guess we have to use public money to pay the landowner, but buying the land outright smacks of socialism. Right.
So now there will be a “deer management fund”. Anybody know what the money will be spent on? A slush fund for game wardens? For logging outfits? For political cronies? I can’t find the text to that bill, maybe in coming days it will go on-line.
Now there is 150,000 dollars for a campaign against coyotes. Well, one western state spent 30 million on coyote eradication with no results. Throwing a pitiful 100 thousand is just feel good with no benefits. Again, the state is getting into hiring people to hunt and trap? How is that going to work. The money is used to “encourage” hunters and trappers. Hmmmm. How can I get some of that money? Are they going to pay my tab at some sporting camps? Or do I have to be a friend of somebody to get at that money.
The 4th part of these bills is about feeding them at the wrong places. Great. Another law the wardens can use to harrass the people. Who will determine what is right and what is wrong? The person who puts corn out or the warden whose friend is baiting down the road and doesn’t want his friend to have competition? Just another rule to clobber the ones who dare to assert any rights we have left.
So, in reality, little is being done, but some people will jump and scream Rah! Rah! for LePage even if he is just clearing his throat.
http://www.umaine.edu/cfru/Events/Munsungan_DWA_12.07/Harrison_Predation.pdf
This is terrific. We need to stock those places where deer have become scarce not only for sources of food for Maine folks but also to keep the out of state hunters coming to Maine to spend their money. They are a good source of revenue for Maine businesses and we need them to help the economy here.
The deer herd has not shrunk on MDI…please come get some of them and move them elsewhere…along with the coyotes…
Why doesn’t the state permit hunting on non-Acadia lands, just like the rest of the state? The herd there is too large. I have never understood that. We were allowed to hunt the off islands, (some only a long golf shot off shore) but, oh no, not the hallowed MDI.
Same with Eastport. We might even deliver.
I was just thinking this and there was your comment. Use the 15 minutes at the start of Bar Harbor Town Council meetings to bring this up if youd like…
I thought Lepage and his Tea party supporters didn’t believe in government interfering with private property owners rights to use their land as they see fit.
Where is the money to compensate for the lost revenues from this government intrusion into our lives?
If you want to ‘rebuild’ the deer population, allow hunters to shoot less of them. This baloney about predator reduction is just standard issue NRA-type thinking about how the solution to every problem is found in the barrel of a gun. The ‘let’s kill more animals so that we have more animals to kill’ mentality. Yawn.
They need to do whatever is necessary to kill coyotes anywhere at any time.
Come up here a bit north I will be happy to show you what yotes do to deer. Many of us have suggested a two or three year moratorium on deer hunting in Maine. The problem is the people who regulate this are also funded by it. The wardens care about money first. They will not do anything to loose money. Take turkeys they where down for years just when they start to make a comeback the IFW says hey buy another tag and you can shoot another one. The IFW and the wardens are the problem as it is not in there interest to help the wildlife as doing so would reduce there income. This is why Maine wardens are ticket writes and no longer get support from the majority of hunters they harass because they think everyone in the woods in a criminal.
That step has been taken in the form of doe permits and bucks only areas.
I live next to a state wildlife preserve, been here nearly 50 years. It’s a bird preserve not a deer preserve but the deer were always smart enough to somehow figure out that they were safe there. So the deer were so plentiful that you could see them any morning or evening. And sometimes in the winter the wardens would have to feed them because they had basically denuded the place of deer edible vegetation.
All that changed 2 winters ago. I looked out my back window to see eagles feeding on carrion. Huge graphic red blotches in the snow. Over the next few weeks I woke up to more and more red blotches. It’s creeping me out. Then I see a huge coyote fighting with a deer in the snow. So I start asking around I find out that coyotes have taken over the preserve. And two years later there are almost no deer there. But at night when I walk the dog I can hear the coyotes howling at the moon.
So don’t give me that “coyotes don’t kill deer” BS.
“And sometimes in the winter the wardens would have to feed them because
they had basically denuded the place of deer edible vegetation. ”
It is illegal to feed wildlife in Maine. Well for us non wardens anyway we get a ticket for it..
Not every solution is found in the barrel of a gun…High explosives have their place as well….LOL…
DeerCare funded…
Glad he’s working hard on jobs, jobs, jobs, that he promised when he was running for governor. It seems he’s working on everything else but jobs.
Wildlife creates jobs and $200 million per year in spending by sportsmen.
Deer are stripping the cedars bare in some areas, overpopulation. They know where hunting is forbidden . . .
Hoofed rats, and they help transmit Lyme disease.
Bout time that money from licenses, fees and taxes on sportsmen is used for the sportsmen and not rescuing some tree hugger who gets lost and contributed nothing to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife for their rescue. Its not a matter of habitat, it has been a series of bad winters up to this last one. That and the coyotes took a toll, but forestry operations have not. Anyone with a half a sense knows that a couple year old chopping does more to help wildlife than a mature stand, its not like all the fir/spruce is gone from the state.
Glad my money is going to serve the purpose it was intended for and not pad the general fund and support the welfare state.
In Eastport they’re complete pests, infested with ticks and fleas, walking in front of cars, leaving their droppings everywhere and destroying shrubs and gardens. Come and get ’em, Guv, and we’ll throw you a parade.
Ah, yes, a conspiracy behind every tree. “Slush funds” and “political cronies”….a reference to “some western state” spending a kings fortune with no evidence. Wardens who go to work to “harrass” people. Then you reference some twenty plus year old study out of Nova Scotia as “evidence”?….Cmon, is that all you got? Where are the black helicopters? Even a closet lib could do better than that.
So in reality, someone is actually doing something positive to help the deer herd in this state but some people will jump and scream “Conspiracy, Conspiracy” at Governor LePage no matter what he does. Its called LePage Derangement Syndrome.
Finally a governor with logic and common sense.
This sounds like government acting as a “nanny” state. It will be interesting if the conservatives will complain about this form of welfare.
The state needs to start rotating kill zones for bucks, it takes a buck to make a doe.
I see a poison campaign for coyotes in our future that will certainly have undesired effects.
Few will recall the fact that it the state brought coyotes to Maine in the first place. A well kept secret akin to the fact that there are cougars (of the 4 legged variety) in Maine.
There hasn’t been a Spuce Budworm problem in Maine since the late ’70’s.
The ‘bucks only law’ with a 3″ minimum antler has done little except kill off the best of the bucks. There have been various management attempts, but this law went into effect in 1984 and we’re still waiting for it to be rescinded. Deer drives were outlawed in 1971.
Finally, LePage wants to free up the business crowd from regulations, but will he actually protect deer yards – only if hot air protects them.
Deer density is a by product of suburban sprawl – more lawns, less habitat.
And if I haven’t ticked everyone off already – our deer season is too early as winters become milder due to Global Warming. For many recent winters, it hasn’t been cold enough in November to hang a deer let alone start the rut anywhere except maybe in northern Aroostook County.
Leave the coyotes alone.
I’d keep a watch on this one as LePage has a tendency to mimic what other Tea Party governors are trying to pull, notably embattled Gov Scott Walker in Wisconsin. As I understand it, he is trying to create exclusive hunting areas (deer farms) available only to the paying wealthy patron.
He’ll have a hard time, of course,once everyone becomes aware, as the WI voting constituency is made up of hunters and fishermen – at every income level. Much like Maine.