The sky was just beginning to brighten as Doug settled into the tree stand overlooking pastures that stretched across the ridge. Watching the landscape wake, he noted that Farmer Bray’s fields looked especially lush that season — a good sign. In all his years hunting this spot, he’d never failed to bag a deer.
Doug hunted these working farmlands because his father and grandfather had before him. Continuing that tradition was his way of honoring their memory. His family had a longstanding relationship with the Brays, who had farmed the property for generations, grazing sheep on the rocky terrain. He admired their commitment to conservation and remained grateful for the opportunity to hunt there.
Maine’s deer hunting success story
The numbers are impressive: 42,258 deer harvested in 2024, 38,215 in 2023 and 43,787 in 2022. But healthy deer populations don’t happen by accident. Habitat quality is the foundation, and working farmlands play a crucial but often overlooked role.
Why deer love working lands
Deer thrive along habitat edges — where forest meets farmland — because those areas offer both food and cover. Farm edges provide the best of both worlds: open foraging with nearby escape routes.
Well-managed pastures support diverse vegetation — grasses, clovers, legumes and forbs. With no forest canopy blocking sunlight, nutritious low-growing plants thrive. Good grazing management keeps grass height down, letting sunlight reach deer’s preferred forbs. Clovers provide high-protein forage while fixing nitrogen in the soil.
In spring and early summer, new pasture growth runs high in protein and complex carbohydrates — critical for does nursing fawns and bucks growing antlers. In fall, agricultural areas supply high-energy food before winter. Farmers practicing rotational grazing create ideal conditions, preventing overgrazing while maintaining productive plant communities.
Working lands make up more than half of the lower 48 states — the core of deer range. Maine’s mix of forest and farmland creates ideal conditions: agricultural areas offer food, while adjacent forests provide cover and winter yards. This combination supports higher deer densities than forest alone, and recent harvest numbers reflect that quality.
What happens when farms disappear
Maine lost 82,567 acres of farmland between 2017 and 2022 — about 16,500 acres each year. In that same period, 564 farms disappeared. The previous five years saw even steeper losses: 146,491 acres, nearly 29,300 per year. Maine dropped from a peak of 1.45 million acres across 8,173 farms in 2012 to 1.23 million acres across 7,036 farms in 2022 — the fewest in 25 years.
The irony isn’t lost on wildlife biologists. As farmland disappears, hunters are experiencing some of the best deer hunting in decades.
Maine’s deer biologist Nathan Bieber says the higher harvests are partly due to recent regulatory changes: “A lot of the reason for the higher deer harvests lately has been the changes to the antlerless deer permit system and some other regulatory changes as well. We’ve tried to make it a lot more appealing for hunters to take antlerless deer, and it’s had a big impact.”
Those regulatory changes were only possible because the deer population could sustain higher harvest rates — a reflection of habitat quality. But deer populations respond slowly to habitat changes. Today’s strong numbers likely reflect conditions from five to 10 years ago when Maine had far more farmland. A stretch of mild winters has helped, but the concern isn’t about this season — it’s about what the landscape will support in another decade if losses continue.
Behind every lost acre is a farmer facing hard economics. Development pressure is especially strong in southern Maine. Meanwhile, the average age of Maine farmers has risen to 57.5, with many at or near retirement and few successors lined up.
When farmland disappears, the loss to deer habitat is immediate. Each acre of well-managed pasture supports higher deer density than mature forest. These annual losses remove prime foraging ground during critical nutritional periods. What we celebrate now could soon become memories of “the good old days.”
The economic stakes are significant. Maine’s hunting economy generates more than $350 million each year, supporting rural communities, sporting goods stores, processors and countless small businesses that depend on the fall hunting season. That revenue relies entirely on robust deer populations — and those populations depend on quality habitat.
Perhaps most concerning is what this means for the next generation. Young hunters depend on abundant deer for early success and continued engagement. The tradition that brought Doug to his father’s hunting spot relies on landscapes that sustain wildlife. As farmland disappears, those traditions grow harder to keep.
Hunters and the future
The relationship between farmers and hunters has always been mutually beneficial. Farmers provide the habitat — pastures, hayfields and crop edges that concentrate deer. Hunters help manage wildlife and often become the most vocal advocates for keeping land in agricultural use.
The Bray family exemplifies that partnership. For generations, Doug’s family has had access to prime hunting ground. The Brays have benefited from responsible hunters who respect the land. These relationships connect hunters directly to habitat conservation.
But hunters can do more. Buying local farm products keeps money in the rural economy. Supporting farmland conservation through land trusts or easements protects critical habitat permanently. Building relationships with farming families fosters understanding on both sides. And when policies affecting farmland preservation come before town councils or the Legislature, hunters have a stake in the outcome.
A landscape that works
As the sun climbed higher, Doug spotted movement at the far edge of Farmer Bray’s pasture. A doe stepped from the tree line, followed by two more, moving toward a thick patch of clover. Minutes later, an 8-point buck emerged from the shadows, its rack catching the morning light as it paused to survey the field.
Doug’s pulse quickened. He watched the buck move confidently across the pasture, stopping to nibble clover. This was the moment — tradition, patience and landscape working exactly as it should.
He understood what his father and grandfather had known: that buck wasn’t there despite the farm — it was there because of it. The Brays’ commitment to working the land and maintaining healthy pastures had created the conditions for wildlife to thrive.
Maine’s recent hunting success isn’t accidental. It’s the result of a landscape that works — a balanced mosaic of farms and forests providing everything deer need. But that landscape depends on farms remaining viable and families continuing to work the land.
As hunters across the state settle into their stands this season, they have an opportunity — not just to harvest deer, but to become champions for the farms that make those harvests possible. Support Maine’s working farmlands now, or risk losing both the farms and the hunting traditions they sustain.
Doug bagged his buck that morning, continuing a tradition that spanned generations. Whether his children and grandchildren will have the same chance depends on whether farms like the Brays’ — and thousands like it across Maine — remain in the hands of families committed to working the land. That’s a future worth fighting for — one local purchase, one acre, one season at a time.