Written by Gary Anderson | 16 November 2009

One of the problems with the managing wildlife in Maine is the awful weather. From Aroostook County to York County it can, however, vary by a month on either end from fall to spring. For this reason biologists at Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IF&W) have divided the state into management zones. Currently these zones deal primarily with whitetail deer so we'll start there. Before we start, perhaps, I should remind you that according to Gov. Baldacci, 200,000 people hunt, generate $300 million in retail sales, another $130 million in wages and $27 million in taxes. People that hunt pay the bills for protection and stewardship for all species, hunted or not.
Cape Elizabeth and South Portland are illustrations of deer problems. Since these ocean towns have mild winters and no hunting, there is nothing but automobiles to decrease the deer there. We'll submit it is unpleasant, dangerous and expensive to strike deer with your motor vehicle. We encouraged the town governments to allow archery hunting, certainly an unproductive way to harvest deer. Many truck farmers simply refused to plant some crops knowing full well they'd not realize a penny for their efforts. While there's little to be done in these instances, the rest of southern Maine can easily support the harvesting of both sexes in managed numbers.

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