Balance Needed In The Maine Woods

An Op-Ed appears today in the Bangor Daily News from Steven Michaud, a self-proclaimed native of Caribou, Maine, current resident of Topsham, and an avid outdoorsman and hunter for over 35 years. Readers should take note of Michaud’s opinion as it is probably a decent image of the way the majority of hunters feel and in particular those in Maine. The title could just as easily contain your state’s name.

Michaud tosses out some anecdotal evidence of the demise of the whitetail deer in the northern half of the state of Maine.

For the past 30 years or so, quietly lost on the vast majority of Maine people and policymakers, a key aspect of our outdoor heritage has taken a dramatic turn for the worse and has declined so markedly that it is nearly non-existent. That is the hunting of whitetail deer.

Over this time while the deer population has grown in the lower part of Maine and in overall numbers, our rural areas in the north, east and west have experienced a steep decline to a level where it is near death. A quick look at deer kill numbers bear that out. In township after township throughout the vast North Woods the deer kill is either zero, one or two in number. A stunning and tragic decline over the past 30 years.

Michaud relates this demise to that of mostly large woodlot owners cutting of traditional deer yards that shelter and protect deer herds during the long harsh winters of the north. I must point out so that all readers understand, this is only one aspect of what is being perceived as a rapidly shrinking northern Maine deer herd.

The writer is asking for balance. A balance that will somehow prevent the cutting of these valuable deer habitats while somehow looking to protect the landowner of their property rights. Mixed in with this call for balance is the need to preserve Maine’s outdoor heritage. Michaud describes it well.

What is at stake? Some of the very experiences I referred to earlier that make us who we are and our lives rich. Is this only about killing deer? Not even close. It’s stopping into a coffee shop and seeing a sea of orange. It’s about being woken by your dad to head to the woods long before you’re ready to leave your warm bed. It’s meeting your sons, your dad or your best friends back at the truck at noon to compare notes on the morning’s hunt and warm up with a cup of coffee.

It’s meeting back at the truck at twilight when the cold has set in right through your green wool pants and your cheeks are numb from the cold. It’s long talks about life during breaks in the hunt. It’s passing on hunting stories to sons and grandsons over and over. These experiences have lifelong affects, deepen important bonds and change lives for the better. They need to be preserved.

Striving to achieve this somewhat mythical balance is difficult and complex. Perhaps not even realizing it, Michaud shows the contradictions that can exist when tackling this issue. This is Michaud’s plea.

We need to find a balance of private property rights and the rights of all Mainers to enjoy the outdoors and the pursuit of happiness. One need not be exclusive of the other, yet right now they are. We also need leadership on this issue. We need leaders willing to fight for the rural Maine way of life and take this issue head on even if they’re not outdoors people themselves. Without this leadership generations of young Mainers will never experience the full richness of November in Maine.

When seeking to protect Maine’s heritage, which in this case involves finding a way to preserve deer habitat, it seems that the call may be going beyond exactly what Michaud values most – the way life has always been in Maine. We are witness to landowners cutting their forests, their right as a landowner. Mainers have always respected the landowner, understood and stood up for their rights. That is the way Maine life has always been. Now we are looking at ways of crimping the rights of those same landowners that have made life in Maine what it is today.

This issue becomes confusing, difficult and complex, almost a “Catch-22″. We, the respectful Mainer, the ones who have perhaps preserved “the way life should be” longer than many other states, now are considering doing what in order to preserve this, “rights of all Mainers to enjoy the outdoors and the pursuit of happiness“, as Michaud says?

The difficulty comes in first determining what is balance. If somehow that could be determined, maybe how to achieve it would be simpler. Not knowing what the writer is thinking as tangible solutions to a problem, leaves us to only begin making our own suggestions.

While I am one who completely understands and embraces the outdoor heritage as described by Michaud, in my efforts to preserve that way of life, I cannot trample on the property rights of others. Some have suggested making laws to prohibit the landowner from cutting or disturbing prime deer habitat. What kind of a message does this send? How will this ultimately affect the relationship between us outdoor freaks who need their land to play on and the landowner? What kind of precedence will this set? Will we then need to make more laws to prevent the landowner from doing anything to their land to protect the famed, “Rubythroatedcrupplepoop”?(joke)

There has to be a way that we can achieve a better way of conserving our wildlife without destroying an economy and/or the magical Maine way of life. We the hunter, understand the value that protected deer habit has on our way of life, our heritage and the local economy. How can we translate a similar value to the landowner? There has to be a way that we can work with the landowner to find a solution that will provide them an incentive to change the way they are using their land now, in order to realize an equal or greater return on their investment.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has undertaken a program similar to this. I know very little about this program or what kind of successes they are having. We should find out.

I have even heard talk of finding ways to actually pay for or find recreational easements that will protect some of these deer yards and other valuable wildlife habitat. There are those out there that I’m sure are far more creative than I in finding ways to make this work without calling for the enactment of laws. Laws create only losing situations and the last thing Maine hunters need right now is to further alienate themselves with more landowners.

I too call for a protection of the outdoor heritage that much of America values. In northern Maine there is a definite need to do something about a dwindling deer herd. This shrinking deer herd is eroding a valued way of life. Let’s approach this task the Maine way by not forcing laws on anyone. Hunters have something to protect. Landowners have something to protect. Now let’s find out how both can continue to protect what they value without having to give something up. Can it be done? I guess that’s up to us isn’t it.

Tom Remington

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