To be brutally honest about it, Maine’s government-operated coyote control program has been impotent since former Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Roland Martin banned the snaring program almost ten years ago.

On and off during that period there have been a number of studies, legislative decrees and promises, but beyond the chest-thumping and bureaucratic dithering, out in the woods the coyotes have been having a field day preying on Maine’s wintering whitetails.

To some extent, recreational predator hunters have taken up some of the slack and made inroads on coyote populations. But what has been long needed is an organized and amply funded, state-sanctioned program to reduce coyote numbers.

It looks like things are about to change. Under the leadership of the new commissioner, Chandler Woodcock, a working committee has launched a new coyote control plan called the 2012 Predator Management Program.

The committee, made up of Regional Wildlife Biologists Tom Schaefer, Mark Caron and Warden Sgt. Dave Craven, issued its report and plan in late August. Its stated objective: “to reduce the impact of predation by coyotes on wintering deer in active, priority areas supporting deer as identified by regional wildlife biologists.”

The plan goes on to state: “The predation management program is focused on Designated Areas that currently support populations of wintering deer, and that lie within the defined NEWME Deer Recovery Area. The objective is to proactively reduce coyote density in these Designated Areas between early autumn and early-winter that may be present during winter periods of vulnerability.”

Not only was the plan completed on schedule, it seems to me to be comprehensive, refreshingly straightforward and well thought out. And most importantly of all, it is funded.

Last winter, you may recall, the commissioner — with the the help of the state legislature — managed to find $150,000.00 and earmark it for coyote reduction. The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine (SAM) and it’s deer advisor, Gerry Lavigne, as well as a dedicated group of knowledgeable outdoorsmen, have provided significant input to the Department in putting together this plan.

The operational phases of the plan include the use of designated trappers from Oct. 17 to Nov. 30 this fall. The hunting phase, using designated hunters, begins with the first snow cover in December and extends until May 15, 2013. There is also a provision within the operational plan for the use of houndsmen.

To the committee’s credit, the plan places a lot of operational authority in the hands of the respective regional biologists and area game wardens. It will be their responsibility to select qualified control agents, trappers, hunters and houndsmen with proven experience in coyote removal.

The coyote control agents under contract will, in effect, be working with and reporting bi-weekly to the regional biologists and area game wardens. Areas selected by regional biologists for targeted control efforts will be known deer wintering areas.

In many cases these “Designated Areas” will be the more remote areas where casual trappers and hunters may not frequent. It will be interesting to see precisely which areas are designated by regional biologists for coyote removal, and to look back next May and take stock of the program’s effectiveness.

These contract control agents will be paid $7.50 an hour and 44 cents a mile. Houndsmen will be paid $100 a day, plus mileage.

Unfortunately, this coyote control plan, however well prepared, is short on budgetary information and gives no indication of how the $150,000 will be parceled out among the various wildlfe regions.

While this may have been accomplished by the Department with an internal staff memorandum, the funds are, after all, publicly derived. Sportsmen, and any citizen at large, interested in this substantial coyote control program might like to know, region by region, how the funds are being allocated.

With indications that Maine’s waning deer numbers have begun a modest recovery in some areas of the state, this coyote control program, if it is well-managed, has the potential to give a measure of protection to Maine’s hard-pressed winter deer. It can only serve to enhance overall deer recovery, especially in the North Woods.

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, WQVM-FM 101.3) and former information officer for the Maine Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. His e-mail address is [email protected] and his new book is “A Maine Deer Hunter’s Logbook.”