Maine Hunters Unhappy with Deer Management
In central and southern Maine, deer populations are healthy, and the deer hunting is good.
The same cannot be said for deer and deer hunting in northern and eastern Maine, where there are fewer than five deer per square mile. "If you sit all day, you're lucky if you see one deer," said Deborah Blood, a registered guide and co-owner of Cedar Ridge Outfitters.
Concerns among legislators and the public prompted the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) to form the Northern and Eastern Maine Deer Task Force. In 2007, the task force released a report noting that population densities are well below Maine's long-term population goals in the north and east. The report also stated that deer densities are "greatly below the desires and expectations of resident and non-resident deer hunters, guides and outfitters, business owners located in rural Maine, and those who enjoy watching deer."--too bad....not supposed to be a lot of deer there.........restore caribou!--blogger Rick
In April 2008, the Maine Legislature passed LD 2288, creating a deer predation working group. Comprised of state officials and representatives of hunting and wildlife conservation organizations, the working group was charged with developing methods for coyote control, establishing a protocol to determine when and where to deploy animal-control agents, and examining whether bear population reductions are needed to allow the deer population to recover.
The workgroup proposed a boatload of promising recommendations that have the potential to improve deer numbers and deer hunting. To date, none of them have been implemented.
MDIFW officials argue that they lack the money to carry out the recommendations.
"Our financial resources limit what we can do to manage whitetail deer," said Lee Kantar, state deer and moose biologist. Others aren't so sure.
"The general opinion is that the workgroup was just a way to put this issue to sleep," said Dale Goodman, co-owner of North Country Lodge, a family-owned outfitting business in northern Maine.
Where Does the Money Go?Although the MDIFW doesn't conduct whitetail population studies, several MDIFW officials believe the state has about 127,000 deer. In 2009, 200,239 big-game licenses were sold, enabling hunters to take deer and/or turkey throughout Maine's generous hunting seasons. (Big-game licensees may also harvest a bear during deer season.) Charging $25 apiece, Maine is bringing in around $5 million from big-game license sales.
"The vast majority of these licenses are sold to deer hunters," said MDIFW Wildlife Division Director Mark Stadler.--and as a result, fish and wildlife caves to their demands even if ecologically faulty--blogger Rick
On top of the money received from license sales, Maine also receives funding from the federal Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act. The Pittman-Robertson Act levies an excise tax on the sale of firearms, ammunition, archery equipment and arrow components and returns that money to the states for wildlife management and habitat projects, hunter education, public access programs, and the development and management of shooting ranges. For fiscal year 2010, Maine received $5.4 million in federal Pittman-Robertson appropriations.
Altogether, Maine nets somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million annually from license revenues and federal Pittman-Robertson funds. Where does all of that money go? Most of it isn't used to manage whitetails. According to Stadler, Maine spent $268,288 on its deer management program in 2009. In contrast, the state spent $126,518 to manage its 27,000 black bears.
"Historically, funds are spent on the coast to manage the wildlife there, primarily for tourism," explained Goodman. "Little if anything is spent to manage inland wildlife."
A key recommendation of the predation workgroup was the development of an animal damage control (ADC) program that would involve state officials shooting coyotes over bait and hunting coyotes with dogs. But the workgroup made it clear that additional revenue was needed to fund such a program.
"The Working Group was unanimous that funds to implement an ADC program be new funds and not come from the Department's existing revenues," its report stated. In other words, the workgroup strongly opposed any reallocation of resources to carry out predator removal efforts.
Perhaps the biggest factor working against whitetails in northern Maine is winter. Snowfalls in 2007 and 2008 meant death to many northern deer, further stressing the population. But it's difficult to say how much of an effect the winters had on deer, because the MDIFW doesn't carry out any deer population studies. In contrast, bear researchers routinely perform production studies, combining the results with harvest data to set future bear harvest quotas.
But given the fact that nine out of 29 deer management units have such low deer numbers that officials don't allow hunters to harvest adult females, it's safe to say that much of the state's deer herds are severely stressed.
State officials also believe loss of habitat is to blame for precarious whitetail numbers. "Forestry companies have destroyed many wintering areas, creating small islands of timber that make deer vulnerable to coyotes," said Kantar.
According to Stadler, private land ownership limits what the MDIFW can do for northern whitetails.
"Most of the land in the north is owned by large forestry companies and industrial firms, and our relationship with private landowners has been tenuous at best," he said. Consider the North Maine Woods, a 3.5 million-acre area owned by large companies such as J.D. Irving, Seven Island Land Company, and Huber Woodlands. The North Maine Woods are open to hunting, but hunters must pay $7 a day, or $110 for a full-time pass during Maine's hunting seasons.
There is also some state-owned land in the north. The Allagash Wilderness Waterway and Public Reserved Lands of Deboullie, Eagle Lake, Holeb and Squapan provide more than 100,000 acres of free hunting, yet the MDIFW has only one biologist and one technician located in the entire northern region.
Dave Rochester, a district forester for the Maine Forest Service, doesn't believe low deer numbers are the result of private companies' dealings.
"All of the companies have to follow Maine law, and many of them have joined the Forest Certification Program, which ensures regenerating forests that support wildlife populations. If anyone is to take the blame, it should be state government," Rochester said.
Further tying the hands of the MDIFW is the Endangered Species Act. In 2003, animal rights groups like the Animal Protection Institute filed a lawsuit against the state of Maine over its coyote-trapping regulations that allowed the use of snares. Lynx have occasionally been caught in the snares, prompting those who oppose coyote trapping to argue that snaring violates the Endangered Species Act, under which lynx are protected. In order to avoid further lawsuits, Maine discontinued the use of snares, the most effective tool for reducing coyotes in deer wintering areas.
Currently Maine is waiting for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) to grant an Incidental Take Permit (ITP), which would reinstate the winter coyote snaring program. Given that the USFWS is under the control of the Obama administration, Maine probably shouldn't expect an ITP anytime soon.
"Although the central issue is supposed to be whether Maine has the right to protect its wintering deer from coyote predation, that concern seems to have been upstaged by a bureaucratic paperwork shuffle between Augusta [Maine's capitol] and Washington," said V. Paul Reynolds, editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. "Other states like Montana haven't sought an Incidental Take Permit and they snare coyotes, so why can't Maine?"
Predation Studies…Not Worth the Taxpayers' MoneyAlthough the Deer Predation Workgroup recommended examining what's killing whitetails, the MDIFW hasn't studied whitetail predation.
"It isn't a question [that] coyotes prey on deer, especially in northern and eastern zones, where they have the greatest impact on whitetails," said MDIFW Mammal Group Leader Wally Jakubus. "But I don't think it's worth the taxpayers' money."
Other states do believe studying whitetail predation is a good use of resources. State officials in Pennsylvania, Texas and South Carolina have all conducted studies to determine the effects of coyotes on fawn survival, and all of them concluded that coyotes take a big bite out of whitetail population. Between 2006 and 2008, the USDA Forest Service and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources studied the effects of coyotes on fawn survival in west-central South Carolina. They found that coyotes killed 47 to 62 percent of all fawns monitored, and coyote predation accounted for 64 to 84 percent of all fawn mortality.
Studies also have shown that intensive predator removal dramatically improves whitetail numbers. For example, University of Georgia (UGA) graduate student Cory VanGilder found that removing 22 coyotes and 10 bobcats prior to fawning season increased fawn survival on a 2,000-acre study area in Alabama by 256 percent! Another UGA graduate student, Brent Howz, compared the effects of predation removal on fawn recruitment in southwest Georgia to a control area where coyotes weren't removed. Howz found that two fawns were recruited for every three does in the removal zone, while it took 28 more does to recruit the same number of fawns in the non-removal zone.--you have to remove 75% of the coyotes annually to make a dent--expensive!!--blogger Rick
"Because of our harsh winters and habitat reductions in the north and east, there are limits to what you can do with the deer population," explained Jakubus. "We try to work with landowners to increase deer wintering habitat, but that's more long-range management."
Although its bear population is booming and bear hunting is thriving, Maine continues to study bears and closely monitor the population. Unfortunately for deer hunters, the same cannot be said for whitetails. "Black bears and bear hunting are a big deal in Maine," noted Randy Cross, an MDIFW bear researcher. Until the MDIFW puts as great an emphasis on managing whitetails as it does bears, deer hunters will continue to be the ones who bear the brunt of the state's neglect of this precious resource.
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