Maine Deer Management Heading South, Warden Service Investigating Illegal Waste Dumping

Home > Maine Deer Management Heading South, Warden Service Investigating Illegal Waste Dumping

Most of you know that I have complained for years that fish and game departments funded mostly by license fees cannot do their job of managing our game populations when resources are used up taking care of non-game business. The state of Maine is no exception.

Maine is in the middle of a serious deer management problem. There is a lot of finger pointing to go around and the majority of it of late seems to want to end up pointing at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

In a related article, I asked several questions about how MDIFW was spending its money, allocating resources and how this was affecting deer management; specifically how it contributed to the demise of the state’s deer population. One of those questions was in regards to non-game activities.

3). How much of Maine’s licensed deer hunters’ money is going to pay for non-game programs at MDIFW? Along with that cost analysis could we also be given an evaluation of how taking license fee money away from game management has hindered the ability of MDIFW to properly manage the deer herd and other game species.

Not included in my list of questions is one about poaching and its effects on Maine’s deer herd. Perhaps it should have. George Smith, Executive Director for Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, in his latest article in Downeast Magazine talks mostly about what a safe hunting season Maine just had. But in the midst of his article he drops this bomb on us.

Interestingly, game wardens investigated 48 cases of illegal waste dumping, a good example of the mission creep that has caused serious problems for the Warden Service.

Some may question what’s the big deal in the Maine Warden Service investigating 48 cases of illegal waste dumping. Considering there were only 248 total Warden investigations last year, it becomes a clearer question to ask why are MDIFW resources being used for non-game activities that take up nearly 20% of all investigations? Smith describes this as “mission creep” but combine this with all the other “creeps” and we have mission leaps and bounds away from MDIFW’s appointed mission.

I guess many of us have been asleep at the wheel while MDIFW “crept” into areas that clearly have taken away from deer management. This negligence seems to be more telltale of the reasons Maine’s deer herd is in disarray. This is another example of why there needs to be a serious reformatting of the mission of MDIFW, which should include turning such activities as non-game Warden Service investigations and all others not directly related to game management over to the Department of Conservation and fund those activities with tax payer dollars instead of license fees.

Poaching is always a serious concern and in some cases can seriously damage the ability of any fish and game department of protect and manage a game specie. It is the function of the Maine Warden Service to enforce poaching laws and investigate all activities concerning those laws. Pulling wardens from their “normal” duties to go investigate illegal dumping should not be part of the job description.

Now all Maine licensed hunters want to know how many deer and other game were poached while our Maine Warden Service looked into illegal dumping? And while we’re at it, how much did that cost licensed hunters?

Tom Remington

Richard Paradis

Tom,

I have been trying to figure out – from a scientists point of view – why Maine Wildlife Biologists were not more aware, or at least did not make the state’s deer hunters more aware, of the dangers related to the loss of deer wintering area when Maine winters come year after year. Or uster…

Now they musta known the dangers that Maine winters would cause but is the reason why it didn’t become an incessant and shrill warning is that they never believed we would again have real Maine winters? Did they just buy into the whole Global Warming thing as did many other scientists and expect that an invasion of Cyprus Trees and Armadillos rated more concern?

I can understand the politics related to the Coyote and the Lynx issues as well as anti-trapping fever but is the position of IF&W made clearer under the lens of Global Warming (we are never gonna have another big winter and winter is when the deer are most likely to fall to Coyotes Do nothing, say nothing and the problem will never come anyway).

Yikes!!!!!
http://www.blackbearblog.com Tom Remington

Isn’t Baldacci a big AGW cheerleader? So, yes, I believe this position plays a role. However, I think more than anything else, IFW just doesn’t place deer management as a high priority. We are seeing more and more resources going toward, search and rescue, building bird watching platforms to track the ruby-throated cruple poop, investigating illegal dumping, etc. etc.

As our education system continues to pump out biologists who have been indoctrinated into the Disney form of wildlife management, how can we seriously expect these people to have any interest in managing game species.

The next governor for Maine should be one who would support an amendment to the Maine constitution that would guarantee the right to hunt, fish and trap. Along with this comes the law that fish and game must manage game species for surplus to provide hunting opportunities.

Maine Deer Management Heading South, Warden Service Investigating Illegal Waste Dumping

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