Is it too late?  #12

This past week, the Governor signed two bills that were passed by the 125^th Maine legislature. The bills are L.D. 372 and L.D. 1242. Both make an effort to help with deer predation. L.D. 372 sets aside money from the general fund to help control predators harmful to deer on public and private land. L.D. 1242 does two things. It provides that there be a check off box when getting your hunting license that allows you to donate money to help fund for predator control and deer habitat enhancement. It also requires that $2.00 of each deer registration fee be credited to the Maine Deer Management Fund.

L.D. 372 although a step forward does not necessarily remedy the problem. Predators come in a number of different forms. They include, but are not limited to coyotes and the loss of winter yards.

Now, I am by far no expert on deer and the many challenges that face them. Much of what I will say is gathered from talking with people with far more information and understanding than I. In terms of predators, nothing shows the need to control coyotes any more than just being in the woods during hunting season and seeing all of the tracks. Not deer track, but coyote tracks. Generally where you find any deer tracks, you also find coyote tracks. Two years ago, I was hunting in the Rangeley area and was walking in on an old abandoned grown up road when I heard a crack behind me. I turned quickly in time to see a big coyote behind me. As it saw me turn, it jumped off to the left and in the woods out of sight. Last year while hunting in the Ashland area, I came upon a nice bunch of deer. I hunted them for a couple of days, seeing only doe’s. When I returned the following week, all the deer had moved out toward the swamps.  But, it had just snowed a bit and I could clearly see a number of different coyote tracks walking down the dirt road following where the deer were going. Although, I have spoken with several people that spend a lot of their time in the North Maine Woods that are not convinced that coyotes are the big problem that we think they are, I am not convinced.

Yards or lack thereof continues to be a problem. When there is no place to yard for the winter, the deer will move to other areas that offer better cover.  Landowners are exercising their right to cut their land and I understand that. I am just wondering if there is a happy medium that will allow certain areas to remain available for deer to yard up in during the winter.

The last issue is weather. We had two years where the amount of snow was detrimental to our deer population.  The inability to move around and feed caused a lot of animals to perish. However, I had an old wise man tell me that he finds this hard to believe. He cites the fact that in earlier years when the deer were more plentiful, they had winters that either rivaled or surpassed the ones we had and the deer seemed to handle it well.

I was talking with a warden this past winter who told me this story. He lived not far from a big deer yard and the deer had all gone into the yard for the winter. He decided to take a trip into the yard to see how they were faring. As he got there, he saw a number of deer lying dead on the snow. Clearly he could tell that they had been killed by coyotes. He contacted a well know trapper in the area and asked him if he would put out some snares to catch the coyotes. (This was back when snares were used) The trapper eventually decided to do so and set a snare in the yard. Several days later, the trapper caught a huge coyote and after that, the warden did not find any dead deer for the rest of the year.  It begs the question, had he not taken this action, how many deer would have died at the hands of this one coyote?

Clearly, having hunted for a number of years I am noticing that the deer population is down significantly in Northern Maine. I believe it is time to undertake measures that will ensure that we have a healthy deer herd for years to come.  Recently I heard that the white tail deer is not native to this area and was not supposed to survive this long. To that I say, deer are survivors if they have the right odds. Whatever we can do to help them survive should be done and done QUICKLY.

I had a reader send me some great photos that were taken in the Limestone area this past week. They are priceless. Hope you enjoy them.

I also wanted to say that I did find my way to two separate ponds over the weekend and caught some nice trout. That will be for another blog, but on my way into the North Maine Woods, I could not help but think about something that we need to keep in mind all of the time. On Friday, I had put my American flag out in front of my home as I do each year to show my support for Memorial Day weekend. But, as I was entering the North Maine Woods, I reflected upon the reason that I could and why we have so much freedom in this country. It is because of all of our veterans and their families and all the sacrifices they have made to ensure that we can all do the things we want to do with little restriction. To all the veterans and their families, I say thank you very much.  I for one will never forget what you have done for this country and for me.

I also had a reader email me and say that they have been out to their favorite pond fishing and did not catch a single fish. Thanks for telling me. It makes me feel much better about the lack of tugs on my line.

If you would like to contact or send me photos of your adventures, you can reach me at 42adjuster@gmail.com