Downeast Hunting Report: December 27, 2006
Downeast Deer Habitat Management
Despite more than 20 years of conservative hunting regulations, downeast deer populations continue at a depressed level from the benchmark period of the 1950′s. While it is probably not realistic to expect a full return to those days of yesteryear, which were characterized by the peak period of farm abandonment that produced ideal habitat conditions against a backdrop of relatively small scale logging operations, limited access, and the post-World War II era, the general lack of population response has been a source of concern for the public and the Department alike. It should be noted that lower deer populations are not exclusive to the downeast region. Much of the northeastern fringe of deer range including northern Maine and the Maritime Provinces, an area generally characterized by northern spruce-fir forest type, have experienced deer population declines over this same period. It would seem, then, that habitat is a major, underlying factor in addressing this issue.
Many potential causes have been targeted by a frustrated public including commercial timber harvesting, chemical spraying by the blueberry and forestry industries, poaching of one form or another, predation by coyotes, black bear, and other predators, lack of fawns, unprecedented back road development and the resulting access, and the list goes on. Certainly, some of these issues have an impact and were closely examined by two different Department committees that explored alternative management strategies. But habitat, both quantity and quality, is the common thread which incorporates most of these concerns.
As a result of the second committee’s deliberations in 1995, the downeast Regional Wildlife staff developed a proposal at the request of then Commissioner Bucky Owen, to help “jumpstart” the deer herd in eastern Maine. This strategy was focused on habitat management and enhancement over fairly large land areas termed “habitat focus areas.” The core of these focus areas were based on historical locations of deer wintering areas (DWA) … a critical, softwood shelter based, habitat component, which directly affects deer survival during harsh winter periods. Given that a high percentage of DWA normally occur in upland habitats along watercourses (riparian), the skeletal framework of these habitat focus areas were historically documented river and stream corridors that would be managed to provide contiguous softwood shelter for wintering deer and connectivity. Additional uplands were added to the proposal sufficient to meet the size and requirements of a deer’s home range. Various management techniques were identified for discussion that would enhance these upland habitats for deer while maintaining commercial operations flexibility. Five focus areas were taken to industrial forest landowners for their consideration. Unfortunately, none were ever implemented.
Only remnants remain of historical deer yards in the unorganized towns of central and northern Washington and Hancock Counties, as these areas failed to meet final zoning criteria of the Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) back in the early 1980′s. This was due primarily to a combination of the effects of the spruce-budworm epidemic which devastated many thousands of acres of maturing softwood stands downeast and the related lack of sufficient densities of wintering deer. The budworm epidemic resulted in extensive salvage harvesting operations and a corresponding, unprecedented level of road development, which produced dramatic changes to the forest landscape. The effects continue as now regenerated, maturing stands have been influenced by subsequent events which include contemporary, mechanical harvesting methods, outbreaks of balsam wooly adelgid (an insect pest which has produced significant mortality in balsam fir), and the wave of recent, investment-based land acquisitions that have resulted in renewal of wide scale, intensive timber harvesting.
Due to both private and publicly funded efforts, the ability to manage core habitat areas across the downeast region for the benefit of not only deer, but also a wide array of wildlife, appears to be taking shape. Acquired under various resource initiatives, certain lands under conservation ownership by private, non-governmental, and government interests are providing some of the skeletal framework of riparian habitats targeted originally by the habitat focus area proposal. As an example, a community led effort to sustain a resource-based economy resulted in the recent acquisition of two townships totaling over 27,000 acres owned by the Downeast Lakes Land Trust (DLLT). Region C Wildlife Biologists provided the DLLT with historical locations of deer wintering areas and advocated for a riparian-based approach to habitat management, which has been successfully incorporated into a comprehensive forest management plan. This land includes much of what was one of the original habitat focus area proposals focused on the upper Machias watershed.
To the west, the DLLT purchase abuts another 27,000 acres of public reserved lands of the Duck Lake Unit where DWA and riparian habitats have received priority management through the efforts of a Department wildlife biologist assigned to the Department of Conservation’s Bureau of Parks and Lands (BPL), their district forester, and Region F Regional Wildlife Biologists. Foresters and biologists met several times this winter to examine and coordinate management efforts targeted at perpetuating DWA, travel corridors, and other upland habitats on both the Duck Lake Unit and DLLT lands. This evolving partnership is seeking to coordinate management efforts with the Passamaquoddy Nation with adjacent lands to the north, as well as with other conservation lands on the watershed.
An initiative targeted at restoration of the endangered Atlantic salmon and involving partners such as The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, and the Land for Maine’s Future Board, resulted in the fee and easement acquisition of 25,000 acres along a 1000 foot corridor on each side of the Machias River, and six major tributaries, to the south of the DLLT purchase. This area includes the core of another one of the habitat focus areas, which was historically utilized by wintering deer. Under BPL management, Regional Wildlife Biologists will promote actions to perpetuate DWA and travel corridor stand characteristics during the Bureau’s development of a management plan. Soon to be completed, a third phase of this land acquisition project will provide similar management oversight to 83% of the upper Machias watershed, and will link approximately 450,000 acres of conservation lands.
Another purchase focused on salmon restoration along the Dennys River resulted in the acquisition of 4,600 acres of riparian and upland habitats. This area was also identified in the Department’s habitat focus area proposal, and historically was a very large, well-known DWA in the downeast area. Other conservation lands, such as Department-owned Wildlife Management Areas, prioritize the management and maintenance of key habitat features including substantial, riparian buffers. When viewed collectively then, conservation lands are forming a landscape framework of core habitats, which will undoubtedly have significant, long-term benefits to wildlife including wintering white-tailed deer. Department wildlife biologists will continue to work
cooperatively with various landowners to support these efforts and implement appropriate management strategies.
