Coyotes versus deer. That contest may never end whether it takes place in a winter deer yard or a court room. When Maine’s Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Dan Martin elected to suspend Maine’s hard-won coyote snaring program this winter, we knew that there would be consequences. Logic told us that a coyote population left unchecked would kill more wintering deer.

What we didn’t know was just how consequential and far-reaching Martin’s decision could be beyond Augusta. We have seen the impact and it’s not a pretty picture.

This winter Washington County guide and trapper Bill Gillespie discovered 21 coyote-killed deer along a shelf of ice on the St. Croix River. All but one of the deer were females and most were carrying fawns. According to Gillespie it’s an old story. Coyotes drive the late wintering deer to the river. The frantic deer have a death option. Be torn apart alive by the coyotes, or perish from hypothermia while using the river as a haven from the attacking coyotes.

For Gillispie and some area game wardens and outdoorsman who are used to seeing nature’s predation cycle, the shocker was the sheer numbers of animals. None of them had ever seen anything quite like it. Since the does were carrying fawns, the coyotes, in effect, succeeded in taking about 40 deer from this section of Washington County. This is especially bad news when you consider how daunting a task it has been to manage a recovery of Washington County’s declining whitetail populations. Coyotes are not the sole culprits in this equation, but most experienced woodsmen name a burgeoning Washington County coyote population as the chief cause in the decline of deer Downeast.

Before the commissioner suspended the coyote snaring statewide, a group of dedicated and skillful snarers were making some headway in controlling coyotes Downeast. In fact, in some sections of the county where snarers were most active, the deer were coming back.

The pity is that commissioner Martin did not have to suspend the snaring program. He did so out of concern for threatened litigation from the No Snare Task Force. The Fish and Wildlife Department has made application for a federal snaring permit as a way to minimize the legal threats. He could have “toughed it out” and told the potential litigants what to do with their huffing and puffing. The Downeast deer population might be the better for it.

The irony is that on Passamaquoddy Indian land, not all that far from the scene of the St Croix slaughter, snaring was not suspended. There, 36 coyotes were trapped by certified snarers and no coyote-killed deer were found on reservation land, according to Passamaquoddy Warden Chief Bill Nicholas.

The conventional wisdom among naturalists and biologists is that coyotes are here to stay. The best we can do as long as we value our whitetail populations as both a natural resource and an economic commodity is to keep coyotes in check. And, as Maine’s deer biologist Gerry Lavigne has said, a coyote control program becomes especially critical in areas where deer densities are low or in trouble such as Washington County.

It is probable that in other areas of the state where deer numbers are low and coyote numbers high – Aroostook County for example – the St. Croix scenario repeated itself undiscovered.

With deer numbers down as a result of some tough wintering conditions, northern and eastern Maine whitetail populations can ill afford another winter without a coyote control program.

V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide, co-host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network (WVOM-FM 103.9, WCME-FM 96.7) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected].