Talk about an unscientific approach to deer management, according to V. Paul Reynolds in his column Jan. 2, “It’s a fact the coyotes kill deer, especially weakened and vulnerable deer in winter yards.” Isn’t that exactly what nature is supposed to do? It is called “survival of the fittest” and it’s an important part of nature’s balance.

In Reynolds’ world, it’s called “let sportsmen snare the coyotes now so there are enough deer for sportsmen to kill later.”

It’s ironic that in southern and western Maine, the argument is there are no natural predators for the deer so we have to hunt the weak so they don’t starve to death (forget the fact that hunters go after the strong, trophy deer). In northern and eastern Maine, there are natural predators for the deer, so we have to kill the predators so that they don’t kill the weak deer. Which is it?

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s “Incidental Take Plan,” soundly rejected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, projects that the accidental take of lynx would be two over 11 years. Without knowing how many lynx there actually are in Maine, how does Reynolds know that two lynx are indeed “negligible”?

Two additional deaths of an already threatened species may not be negligible at all.

It’s time for Maine to stop managing its wildlife so that it can be killed for sport, and start managing it in a sensible and ethical way.

Sharon Secovich, Lyman