It’s probably safe to say that the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is operating under a lame duck session. In November, Maine will elect a new governor and generally speaking along with that changing of the guard comes a change at the leadership levels of the MDIFW and sometimes even deeper into the ranks of biologists. Many hope there will be a change but not all for the same reasons.
Maine has lousy hunting in the northern climes and Downeast. For MDIFW the excuse has mostly been bad weather and if that’s not viable then the problem is assigned to greedy landowners cutting down good deer habitat. Personally, I know of no one who would disagree that weather and loss of habitat are serious contenders for the disruption of deer management.
My beef, as with a few other hunters in Maine and abroad, is that there is a serious predator problem, a problem MDIFW sort of recognizes but refuses to do anything about other than lay claim that there’s a year round hunting season on coyotes. They plant the blame squarely in the lap of hunters and tell them that if they think there are too many coyotes, go shoot them.
Maine’s predator problems aren’t restricted to coyotes. And for those who may not be aware, there is mounting evidence that many, if not most, of Maine’s coyote population is actually a wolf/dog/coyote hybrid. Not only are coyotes a problem but so are black bears, mountain lions and bobcats. The reason they are a problem is because portions of Maine have become a quasi predator pit. A predator pit is a situation where prey species become so low that with a too large population(s) of predators, they prohibit the prey species, in this case deer, from ever recovering.
Enough of that! Matt Dunlap, Maine’s Secretary of State, has an article in the September issue of the Northwoods Sporting Journal (subscription). It is believed by some that Mr. Dunlap may replace the soon to retire Executive Director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, George Smith.
Dunlap spends some time with Maine State Senator, Troy Jackson, a democrat from Aroostook. Jackson is quick to acknowledge there is a predator problem in much of Maine and in particular his neck of the woods.
We need to do something drastic about coyotes. We’ve got to protect the deer in the deer yards.
One of the things Jackson is working on that he hopes will help to stem the tide of further destruction of deer herds, is to introduce a bill that will bring back the snaring program, a controversial method of trapping that MDIFW is afraid to implement due to threats of lawsuits from the animal rights, anti-hunting and environmental groups.
Sen. Jackson said, “We’ve been sitting on our hands for six or seven years, waiting for the Feds.” Assuming he is talking about the fact that MDIFW has not received an “Incidental Take Permit“, there is some differing opinions as to who is waiting on whom.
Jackson also suggests that Maine needs to dip into the fund of money set aside as part of the Baxter Land Swap agreement and use that money to buy up deer wintering areas across the state.
It will be interesting to see what transpires during the next session of the Maine Legislature as it pertains to Sen. Jackson’s bill proposal. I certainly hope that Jackson’s bill puts mandates in it that force the next MDIFW Commissioner to comply and not simply give him the authority to if he or she so wishes.
The glimmer of hope is that at least one senator believes strongly enough that there’s a serious enough problem that requires serious steps to resolve. What little I know of Sen. Jackson, I’m sure he can rally up support for his bill, whether he’ll have enough remains to be seen.
Now, if Maine residents can figure a way to get more people who think like Sen. Jackson infiltrated back into the MDIFW, then perhaps there is also hope that MIDFW will once again focus their efforts more on providing hunting, fishing and trapping opportunities than having so much concern on social implications of wildlife management.
Tom Remington
