Deer Herd Recommendations Rejected But Still Needed

DSCN8230Three dozen outdoor leaders spent December 13, 2010 at the Augusta conference center of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to help create recommendations to rebuild and sustain a large deer herd throughout the state. The group gathered at the invitation of Senator David Trahan. I organized and facilitated the meeting.

Dave and I continued to work on the plan, gathering ideas over the next two months, and created what was called the Trahan/Smith Deer plan.  The plan was consistent with the recommendations of DIF&W’s Deer Task Force, issued in December of 2007, and DIF&W’s Deer Predation Working Group, issued in January of 2009. Dave and I recognized and applauded their work while noting that our plan proposed a much more aggressive effort in all areas and a greater emphasis on some elements.

Today I’m going to share Dave’s statement, issued on March 29, 2011, and a checklist of items we thought should be added to Maine’s Game Plan for Deer, along with a report on a final unsuccessful effort we made in May of that year to expand the Game Plan. It’s important to note that none of our recommendations were in the Game Plan created by the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and announced the day Dave issued his statement. Nor are they in the plan today.

Statement of Senator David Trahan, March 28, 2011

Three dozen outdoor leaders, including wildlife staff from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and representatives of the state’s major sportsmen’s groups and clubs, spent December 13, 2010 at the Augusta conference center of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to help create a comprehensive deer initiative designed to build and sustain a large deer herd throughout the state. The group gathered at my invitation.

George Smith of Mount Vernon organized and facilitated the meeting. Based on the suggestions gathered at that meeting, George wrote a Deer Action Plan and continued to work me over the past two months as we hosted meetings with key individuals and revised the plan based on their input. I thank George today for his work and commitment to this important project.

I am especially grateful to the staff of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife for their enthusiastic participation in this process and the commitments they are making today, through the Governor, to implement key portions of our plan.

This plan should be considered a work in progress. And it needs to be said that only George and I are responsible for the entire plan that we are distributing today. Those who have participated in its preparation should not be assumed to have endorsed each and every aspect of the plan. Nor will each recommendation in the plan being addressed in the actions we’re announcing today. This plan will be a work in progress until Maine’s deer herd is rebuilt and our goals are met.

We also recognize that we’re asking DIF&W to do a lot, and eventually more money will be required to get the entire job done. For now, we’re only recommending that the existing staff, resources, and priorities be directed to the tasks outlined here, recognizing that some things the department is now doing will have to end or be postponed.

As far as specific elements of the plan go, I will sponsor a new bond issue for the Land for Maine’s Future Program, with a requirement that the program focus its purchases on deer wintering areas and habitat.

I will also sponsor legislation to change DIF&W’s deer predation permit system that allows farmers to kill deer to protect crops into a hunter-opportunity system that allows farmers to sell deer hunting opportunity on lands where deer are harming crops.

And I will be actively supporting Representative John Martin’s bill, sponsored on behalf of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, to appropriate funds for DIF&W’s Animal Damage Control program to reduce coyote predation of deer.

Finally, I will volunteer to serve on the advisory group that will be organized to lead, manage, monitor, and regularly report on this effort to rebuild and sustain Maine’s deer herd.

Checklist for Deer Resolve

Add the following elements to the Maine Game Plan for Deer.

1) Establish annual population benchmarks by Wildlife Management District and report annually on progress toward the established annual and long-term population goals.

2) Focus the existing budget and staff more intensely on deer management by shifting staff and other resources from other programs and projects to deer management.

3) Recognize that the short-term greatest gains in deer population can be obtained in central Maine and that higher populations are necessary in central and southern Maine to satisfy hunter demand, and expand the Maine Game Plan for Deer to include all of the state.

4) Increase the number of staff members working on cooperative habitat management agreements with large landowners.

5) Create a strong on-going relationship with the state’s deer hunters, using modern techniques including surveys, emailed newsletters, and its website, to communicate regularly, gather ideas and feedback, keep hunters up-to-date on the elements of this action plan, and educate and involve hunters in all aspects of the plan.

6) Make the protection of deer wintering areas and habitat and intensive predator controls to reduce deer predation high priorities on all lands owned by the state. Also pursue these goals on land on which the state holds conservation easements, if the easements authorize and allow these opportunities.

7) Make the availability and quality of deer wintering area and habitat a key criterion for all state programs that purchase land.

8) Target state funds remaining from the Katahdin Lake deal to protect critical deeryards in the respective counties. Aggressively seek projects in those counties where Katahdin Lake funds have not yet been spent, particularly Aroostook County.

9) Establish an aggressive coyote control program in all areas of the state where coyote predation is keeping deer populations below the department’s goals. Use both paid Animal Damage Control Agents and unpaid trappers and hunters to implement the program that should include both trapping and hunting.

10) Create an opportunity for individuals to voluntarily contribute to a DIF&W Predator Control Fund to augment funds allocated by DIF&W to this program.

11) Organize an advisory group of trappers and guides, with participants selected by the Maine Trappers Association and Maine Professional Guides Association, to help implement and direct the Predator Control Program.

12) Provide educational material explaining how to feed deer correctly, to avoid problems such as deer killed crossing the road to get to the feed.

13) Create a plan for legislative consideration that offers incentives that encourage landowners to manage their property to increase deer numbers.

14) Change the depredation permit system that allows farmers to kill deer to protect crops, into a hunter-opportunity system that allows farmers to sell deer hunting opportunity on lands where deer are harming crops.

15) Refocus the work of DIF&W’s Information and Education Division to achieve the goals of the plan.

One More Try

Before the legislature adjourned in 2011, Dave and I made one more try to enact some of our recommendations into law. We were unsuccessful. But these things still need to be done. Here they are.

Deer: The DIF&W Commissioner shall work with the Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture and organizations representing farmers and sportsmen to develop recommendations to change the nuisance deer predation program and permit system to a system that offers farmers incentives to maintain a population of deer on their lands.

Predator control and habitat protection on public lands: DIF&W shall develop and implement two plans for all state owned lands including but not limited to easements: a plan to control predation of deer, and a plan to protect, manage, and enhance deer wintering habitat.

Outreach and public education: DIF&W shall develop plans to restructure and increase the budget of the Information and Education Bureau to create an on-going relationship with the state’s deer hunters using surveys, newsletters, and its website, to keep hunters up-to-date and involved in the implementation of the Maine Game Plan for Deer.

Landowner incentives: DIF&W shall develop recommendations to provide incentives for landowners who manage their property to increase the deer population.

Game Plan for Deer: DIF&W shall expand its Maine Game Plan for Deer to the entire state.

Predator Control: DIF&W shall develop and implement a program to control predation of deer that includes organization of an advisory group of guides and trappers to develop and implement the program; utilization of both hunters and trappers in the program; utilization of the Animal Damage Control program and agents for the program; and increased in the funding for the Animal Damage Control program for this purpose.

NOTE: Some of the predator control recommendations have been implemented, but not to the extent we anticipated. For example, DIF&W continues to ignore bear predation of fawns, although the professional staff recognizes that this is a significant problem.

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.