Resolve to Change MDI Deer Hunting Rules Draws Mixed Response
Legislative Committee Held Public Hearing, April 16
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AUGUSTA—The possibility of changing deer hunting rules currently in place on Mount Desert Island since the 1930s is proving a bit more complicated, a state wildlife official explained in April 16 testimony during the legislative public hearing on those potential changes proposed in LD 1438, HP 947.
Nathan Webb, wildlife division director of Maine’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, told the few legislators that attended their committee meeting that because of state law the commission can’t lift bans on deer hunting in Mount Desert Island towns without each town indicating that it was in favor of that ban.
The department doesn’t know with certainty and data that the deer density is higher on the island than in the rest of Hancock County, but Webb believes that might be true.
Some deer hunting does occasionally occur on the island. Individual permits are issued to MDI land owners to address serious conflicts, Webb said.
Maine House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) had presented the bill to the Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife on April 3 with the intention of allowing the commission to enact changes that would allow people to hunt deer on Mount Desert Island.
VERBAL SUPPORT AT THE APRIL 16 HEARING
Rep. Faulkingham spoke in support of his resolve.
“This bill is a common sense step toward addressing a serious issue,” he said, adding that it would help restore ecological balance and better health outcomes for humans and other species on the island.
Rep. Faulkingham’s bill was cosponsored by Rep. Richard Mason (R-Lisbon), Rep. James Thorne (R-Carmel), and Rep. David Woodsome (R-Waterboro) and consists of one short section.
It reads, “Mount Desert Island deer hunting rulemaking. Resolved: That the Commissioner of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife shall adopt rules opening Mount Desert Island to deer hunting in accordance with the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 12, section 11402, subsection 4.”
It also contains a summary of substantially the same language. “This resolve directs the Commissioner of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to adopt rules opening Mount Desert Island to deer hunting in accordance with the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 12, section 11402, subsection 4.”
The April 16 public hearing was delayed because the joint standing committee was waiting for a senator to arrive. Only five members of the 13-member committee attended.
There are severe forest regeneration issues on the island, Rep. Faulkingham said. He mentioned that deer are consuming native species, over-browsing to an extent that they are threatening rare plant species, and displacing understory vegetation. There is also a higher risk of human and deer conflicts in areas where there is no deer hunting, he said. High deer densities also correlate with elevated populations of ticks, which can spread Lyme disease.
This is not the first time MDI communities have recognized this as a problem, he said, citing previous efforts in Bar Harbor and Mount Desert. Broader authority and managed hunts such as those that have occurred on Isleboro and Peaks Island have worked, he said.
“The state can help communities regain control” of a public health and wildlife management problem, Rep. Faulkingham said.
James Dow, an island resident who owns property in Bar Harbor (44 acres) and Tremont (10 acres), approached Rep. Faulkingham last summer about the problem and asked for his help. Dow said he had a conversation with Rep. Faulkingham, who then told Dow that he would be supportive of putting in a bill for Dow and some of his friends.
“You can already hunt everything else on Mount Desert Island,” Dow told the committee. “The only thing you can’t hunt is deer.”
He said deer devastate his properties of perennials and even his fenced-in vegetable garden. He was also concerned about Lyme disease and deer-motor vehicle collisions. Those comments were echoed in multiple pieces of written testimony from island residents in various towns.
“I’d like to see it changed,” Dow said.
Dow was in favor of an expanded archery zone and shot-gun or rifle hunting.
“No one can hunt on a national park,” he said. “At this point, we are overrun and they need to be managed.”
VERBAL OPPOSITION AT THE HEARING
Rep. Gary Friedmann (D-Bar Harbor) testified in opposition.
“I do believe we have a deer problem,” Rep. Friedmann said, adding that approximately 12 years ago when he was a Bar Harbor town councilor, the town hoped to create a culling program, which was voted down by less than 50 votes in late 2014.
Rep. Friedmann also said he was surprised that Rep. Faulkingham presented the bill without consulting any of the towns or the town managers or select board members or councilors. He told the committee that he believes that the best way to approach the deer issue is with a collaborative and inclusive process that would include town officials and representatives.
“It’s important for all the select boards to have input into this process,” Friedmann said. And the towns themselves need time to work on the issue. “It’s a very divisive issue, I would say, on the island.”
Rep. Stephen Wood (R-Greene) said that two MDI residents had contacted him because they’d reached out to state representatives about the bill. Rep. Friedmann said those men were from Tremont, which is not one the towns he represents. Rep. Friedmann said he’s never been approached to sponsor a bill himself, though he’s talked about the issues with people for years.
Rep. Friedmann said he’s personally in favor of some kind of deer control, but doesn’t believe the towns have had enough time to respond to the issue, which was presented April 3, thirteen days before the public hearing.
HISTORY
Deer hunting was not allowed on all offshore islands in Maine about 100 years ago, Rep. Friedmann said, but there is a process that municipalities can work with IFW to have cullings. People can also apply for nuisance deer permits for their own property via the state game warden’s office.
Rep. Faulkingham said the deer hunting ban came when a man from another state had people hunting deer on his summer estate and he had the state law passed.
Webb said that present ban was implemented by the 85th Maine Legislature and reference to a closed season on deer on MDI first appeared in 1931. Some island residents—whether seasonal or year-round, he wasn’t sure—were against it due to proximity to the park, safety concerns, and desire to ensure tranquility on the island, he said.
Even back in 1939, there were complaints of deer overrunning the island. A Portland Press Herald clip from October 30, 1922 said that deer were protected from hunting on Mount Desert Island then.
And it was. In 1916 Chairman Harry Austin of the Maine Inland Fish and Game Commission supported the deer hunting ban.
That same year, the Bar Harbor Times had printed blank petitions week after week for its readers to print out and use to ban deer hunting.
In 1903-1905 deer hunting was allowed for only one month each year. In 1913, it was prohibited the Bangor Daily Commercial wrote in 1916. Also in 1913, the state prohibited the “hunting and killing of any wild animal or any game or other wild bird in the part of Eden bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, south by the highway from Hull’s Cove bridge to Beaver Dam Bridge” and so on. There were some exceptions for certain birds and for wild animals destroying property.
In 1930, the Bangor Daily News reported a hearing in Bar Harbor to make a “four-town sanctuary” for deer. Islanders presented a petition to Commissioner of Inland Fisheries and Game George J. Stoble. The language used indicated that the intent was to make the island “a game preserve.”
The paper states that only the night before deer season that year, did residents realize that the island was “no longer safe from the hunters of deer.”
The selectmen of the townships, Acadia National Park Supt. George B. Dorr and Hon. Guy E. Torrey created the petition and gave it to Chief Ranger B.L. Hadley. Approximately 30 deer were shot that first day prior to the week-long notice of the petition, during which the state could take no action.
At the time Senator Harris McLean said, “It is a fact that the island has been open to deer hunting for two seasons but nobody seemed to have knowledge of the fact until this season.”
The island residents found out when one citizen wrote Commissioner Stoble and asked if he could hunt. The commissioner said yes. Senator McLean then sent in a bill to reverse that. The legislature agreed.
“Efforts to open the island to deer hunting have occurred periodically,” Webb said during the public hearing, April 16.
Previously and historically, island towns that wanted to allow deer hunting have been unable to find a path forward. By law, Webb said that his department is prohibited from opening deer hunting in towns that are closed if the towns do not support that opening.
The statute specifies that although the commissioner can open a closure, the body of each town has to approve that first.
The town doesn’t need to initiate the conversation but would have to approve deer hunting before the department can create change.
WRITTEN TESTIMONY
At the time of this article’s publication, 22 members of the public had sent in written testimony about the proposed bill. That testimony both supported and opposed deer hunting. Some testimony didn’t declare support or opposition, but instead objected to the speed of the process, lack of involvement and notice to island towns, and the fact that it wasn’t an elected official from Mount Desert Island that had brought it before the legislature.
Anne Swann of Bar Harbor, and who also has property in Tremont, urged against passing the bill. She said residential property in the area was dense and not safe to discharge a firearm. She also said that the deer population was locally known to be stable.
Jayne Ashworth of Tremont also urged the committee to not support the bill because none of its sponsors live on the island.
Bar Harbor’s Anna Durand said that while she “Loves venison and hates Lyme disease and deer in her garden, the risk is not worth the benefit.” She also urged consultation with towns.
George Sanker of Bass Harbor said he lives on Mount Desert Island because of its hunting laws and because of Acadia National Park.
“Four million people, many, if not most, families with children, visited MDI and Acadia last year. The last thing these people came to see are once beautiful white-tailed deer dead and bloodied in the back of a pick-up truck,” Sanker wrote. “If you are really concerned about cars striking deer, which I doubt, then lower the speed limit on the island to a maximum of 40 mph.”
He also said that even if all the deer on MDI were killed, he didn’t believe it would make a dent in Lyme disease, citing deer culling in Massachusetts, where a majority of the herd was killed and the number of infections did not decrease.
“So please, take your bloodlust elsewhere and leave MDI as the spectacular and beautiful sanctuary it is for its wildlife, its residents, and the millions of people who visit every year,” he wrote.
Tremont Select Board member Kevin Buck said that he was disappointed that a legislator who wasn’t a representative of the island towns was sponsoring a bill impacting those towns.
“Like Tremont, none of the others have received so much as a heads up. None have been asked how this would affect them,” Buck wrote. “Even further insult is added by having a public hearing scheduled in such a quick fashion that it isn’t possible for towns to hold local discussion about the bill due to public notice requirements and meeting schedules.”
Buck added, “Keeping our towns from voicing concerns over breaking with over a century of tradition and suddenly allowing potentially hundreds of strangers with high powered weapons to wander around unsupervised is extremely troubling.”
Tremont Town Manager Jesse Dunbar requested the committee delay the bill’s passing and said the town is not currently taking a position for or against the bill, saying that each island town needs a “fair opportunity to bring the matter before its governing board, consider the potential impacts, and engage with the public.”
Concerns about the process were echoed by Rep. Holly Rae Eaton (D-Deer Isle), stating that neither she, Rep. Friedmann, or Senator Nicole Grohoski (D-Ellsworth) were consulted. Current law, she stressed, already allows municipalities to lift the ban on deer hunting.
Dean Barrett of Addison wrote that there should be some measures in place to allow deer hunting on the island. Tremont’s Ellen Church agreed as did Michael Crepps of Southwest Harbor, who was particularly in favor of bow hunting.
Emily Beck, of Seal Cove, supported the bill though she is not a hunter or “a fan of hunting generally.” She said the deer population was out of control and needed thinning.
“Here in Seal Cove, there is a herd of nine deer who wander around our property for several hours almost every day,” she wrote. “They are impervious to virtually any effort to drive them away, including a maniacally barking dog. The ticks they are an uncontrollable menace.”
She, like many testifying, has had Lyme disease or worried about Lyme disease and habitat stress due to the grazing by what Bar Harbor’s Dennis Bracale called “one of the most efficient herbivores.”
However, Beck’s property was also the location of a deer poaching incident. The hunter cut off the head and left the body on their land. A neighbor heard the shot during the night and alerted game wardens.
“My husband and I not only found the incident gruesome but personally threatening to know that an intruder was walking around our property using a gun in the dark,” she wrote.
Ashley Witkowski of Southwest Harbor agreed that the deer were expanding and a nuisance and supported the bill.
“I have lived in my house with my husband and two children for nearly 11 years and have watched the deer population absolutely explode,” Witkowski wrote. “For the first five-to-six years, we were able to walk around our entire yard barefoot all summer long. In that entire time we had never once found a tick on any of us after being out in our yard. Back then we didn’t even consider the deer much of a nuisance. But things have changed. Drastically. Since 2019, we have sent in about five ticks per year for testing, all of them found on us after playing in our yard. Long gone are the days of walking barefoot in our yard. My children actually now refuse to play in our yard at all due to it being a constant minefield of deer droppings, no matter how much we try to keep on top of cleaning it all up.”
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This is the best in-depth article I've read on the deer hunting topic. We see 3-4 deer regularly around our property in Tremont. They ensure that we never have to pick up apples from the tree before we mow. I wish they would stop eating my flowers. But the houses are too close for safe hunting in this location. That's likely true for most of the communities on the island.