PORTLAND, Maine — State officials say fewer out-of-state hunters have been visiting Maine in recent years, which is having a negative impact on the economy.
While sales of hunting licenses rise nationally, the decline in Maine is causing a loss of revenue for the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and decreased income for sporting camps and hunting guides.
Department officials tell The Portland Press Herald that 9,000 fewer out-of-state hunters came to Maine last year than five years ago, when 35,301 non-residents bought licenses.
Department officials say the decline in out-of-state hunters caused a loss of $1.2 million in license fees for the state from 2006 through 2011.
The state and hunting guides blame the drop in hunters on a sharp decline in the deer population, caused in part by coyotes.
Sure, blame the coyote for the ramp down. Most certainly, the plan to balance the state budget by increasing the amount of seasonal deer guts left in the woods had nothing to do with the population decrease. The wildlife management service has made a mess of the natural habitat.
Blame the coyotes for illegal aliens.
What effect have ticks had on the deer population? I’ve read that hunters are finding heavily tick-infested game.
The spread of the ticks range and the increase in their numbers are one of the predicted effects of Global Warming. Remember that when people mention it.
Ticks and West Nile Virus are to people and wildlife just like the pine beetle and spruce bud worm are to the forests.
So if they are to blame for the effect on the economy that less hunters will have,
then it is fair, if not politically correct, to blame at least part of the economic decline
on Global Warming, too, isn’t it ?
Hunters kill about 40,000 deer per year and coyotes kill about 10,000 per year and yet we blame the coyotes for the decline in the deer population. Hunters kill for thrill and coyotes kill to survive and yet we blame the coyotes. Perhaps we should arm the coyotes and give them a free lifetime hunting license to hunt men to restore the deer population. Just a thought.
Bring back the snaring program and allow trapping of coyotes later into the winter.
Coyotes kill because it is what they are programed to do!
Tell me you have never come across a deer carcass that has been nothing more than chewed on and left to rot!
Relative to the reduction of out of State hunters, I blame the gay boycott,
because of how we voted last time.
Most people do not realize just how gay going on a hunting trip really is.
Having been a trapper, fur buyer and a close associate and witness to the coyote snaring progam, I can only tell those who don’t hunt or trap, that snaring a coyote is the most cruel thing I have even known. After seeing what happens, and seeing the incredible suffering and how long it took some of the snared coyotes to die, even the State wildlife biologists were against the coyote snaring program. I wish I could post my coyote snaring photos here as they tell the message loud and clear. Even the hunters who hunt coyotes with their dogs were opposed to it. Snares, like traps, are not selective and even the Maine wardens who were the first to use snares to save a deer actually caught and killed more deer than they did coyotes. After all that has been learned in the stupid effort to rid the State of coyotes, I shudder to think of what kind of person would still support this incredibly cruel venture – that does NOT reduce the coyote population by a single coyote in the long run. Sorry, I didn’t mean to write a book on this subject but I surely have the knowledge and experience to do so.
I wonder if the new highway tool schedule is keeping out of state hunters away. Tax em here, tax em there, and eventually they stop coming.
Understandably it’s difficult to get good statistics, but biologists don’t seem to dispute the possibility highway morality is a factor in problems facing Maine deer. Habitat change is a major one, as old brushy edges and woods adjacent to farmland get filled in by forest habitats. Whitetail deer came north to the edge of their range because of agricultural settlement. As that goes, so do the deer. Ticks and disease also take a toll. So does poaching. Omnivores like coyotes and bears do kill and eat deer when it makes sense to them, but neither predator will ever hunt a prey to extinction. They’re hard-wired not to do it. We humans, on the other hand, are on record for having done so, and we’re not done yet. We simply enjoy killing things, eating some and decorating our bodies and homes with the rest. Our penchant for killing and displaying the best genetic examples, known as trophies, even when they aren’t particularly tasty. It’s all part of the belief that we and only we are entitled to do what we will with our fellow beings – mainly because we can, while they cannot. Somehow, it’s all mixed up with the myth of being hand-picked by some inexplicable force. Because of this, the only predator we can really control is us, and that’s a tall enough order. I think, the bigger picture is pretty complicated and beyond a matter of offing old Wiley Coyote.
Coyotes; sure. Deer-vehicle crashes; sure. Turkeys; yes. Misuse of Pittman Robertson Act funds; absolutley. Crappy hunting will keep people from making their way north. Go to New Jersey instead.
Considering the quality and quantity of the varmints folks are after, Maine doesn’t rank very high.