COPLIN PLANTATION — To the delight of visitors every winter, Basil and Harriet Powers are continuing their tradition of feeding deer through winter.

They do this on their Kennebago Road land, even though state officials discourage the practice.

The couple said they’ve helped deer get through harsh winters for more than 50 years, just like Harriet’s parents did before them, and they’re not about to stop now.

“With the cold and the snow, the deer are returning to their wintering areas they have been coming to for a hundred years or so,” Basil Powers said Sunday in the family’s Deer Feeding Program report.

In recent years, they’ve had more than 200 deer feeding in the yard, but numbers are declining. Last winter, Basil said they counted 90, but this winter only 40 have returned to a decreased feeding program.

Instead of twice-a-day feedings — mornings and afternoons — deer are being fed on afternoons only due to higher costs for corn feed. One deer will eat 2 to 3 pounds of grain a day.

“I regret to announce that after all these years I have been feeding the deer twice a day, I have now had to cut back to one feeding a day, of which the animals just don’t understand,” Basil Powers said.

He said feed corn used to cost $200 a ton, but now it’s $250 a ton.

“Last year, he figured he fed out 8 tons of grain, so it’s quite a lot to put into it,” Harriet Powers said.

That’s why the family relies on donations from the public. However, those have dwindled due to the recession.

“Donations have always been the driving force of the feeding program,” he said.

“Without donations, I would have (had) to abandon it long ago. I am not a wealthy farmer. I do appreciate each and every donation, but due to the economic state of the world, they have dried up to just a trickle.”

That’s why Harriet Powers said she thinks the state ought to help by donating to people who feed deer during winter in deer wintering areas, one of which is on part of the Powers’ land.

However, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has published a position statement on the practice on its website, strongly discouraging such feedings.

The site details a long list of problems the department associates with supplemental deer feeding, such as saying it may disrupt migration to natural wintering areas, leaving them vulnerable to malnutrition, severe winter weather and predation.

The site states that predation — not starvation — is the major cause of winter mortality among deer in Maine. Additionally, deer feeding sites, which are usually near homes and highways, may increase deer-vehicle collisions.

Harriet Powers said she and Basil are well aware of the department’s reasons, but believe they don’t apply to their program.

“It’s natural for the deer to be here on our property because they’ve got the cover, and they’ve got the water, and we haven’t clear-cut or anything like that, so there’s food for them out there,” she said.

They also feed deer apple chunks left over from cider-making processes that are given to them.

As for predators, Harriet Powers said they have coyotes in the woods, but family members keep them in check by occasionally killing them.

As for cars, she recalled only one instance many years ago when someone driving too fast on the 35 mph stretch by their land hit and killed two deer that jumped in front of his truck.

“Most of the people that travel it know we feed the deer, and where Basil feeds them here, it’s quite a long open shot for people to see them if they are crossing the road,” she said.

On Tuesday morning, people were parked in two vehicles watching the deer. That number climbs to about 20 cars by afternoon feeding time when Basil rings a large bell and deer come running.

“A lot of people say the deer look good, and why should they not look good? They have everything they want here,” Harriet Powers said.

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