Marsh Island to deal with deer Committee to evaluate options for reducing nuisance population

ORONO – With the addition of three Town Council members, the naming of a committee that will evaluate the possibility of allowing bowhunting for deer on Marsh Island is nearly complete.

The island, a wildlife sanctuary, has a large deer population.

The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife believes that an average of 15 deer per square mile is adequate for any given area of land, but Marsh Island harbors around 75-85 deer per square mile, said Rep. Matthew Dunlap, D-Old Town. “To be frank and honest, there could probably be more there because the deer don’t cross the river.”

The result has created continuing problems on Marsh Island. The island is surrounded by the Penobscot and Stillwater rivers, and is mostly located in Old Town, while part of the island is in Orono and includes the University of Maine campus.

Geoff Gordon, John Bradson and Stanley Borodko each volunteered to take part in the committee. Chief Noel March from the University of Maine Police Department and Bruce Wiersma, dean of the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture, will represent UMaine on the committee.

Dunlap and Gerry Lavigne, a state deer biologist with IF&W, will next approach the Old Town City Council to find volunteers to complete the committee.

“We need to develop and agree to a management plan that will outline how to achieve the initial reduction and long-term maintenance of the deer population,” Dunlap said. “This has continued to grow as a problem because the deer don’t migrate. They hang around where they are born and their numbers continue to increase.”

The deer problem has forced the construction of fences at Old Town’s airport to keep deer off the runways and around gardens at the university and homes throughout the area to keep the deer from grazing, Dunlap said. Marsh Island has five times as many car-deer accidents per year than the rest of the state, and the damage the deer have caused to vegetation throughout the area is incalculable.

Deer hunting has been banned on Marsh Island since the state declared it a wildlife sanctuary about 40 years ago, Dunlap said. That ban, an absence of large-scale lumbering and an abundance of feeding grounds are some of the factors that have combined to create an ideal habitat for deer to multiply on the island.

In August 1992, concerned Marsh Islanders, citing car-deer accidents, concerns about deer on the airport runway, crop and ornamental plant damage, and worries about Lyme disease carried by ticks that live on deer, petitioned former IF&W Commissioner William Vail for help with deer-related problems. They received no response.

The presence of the deer on the island again has reached a point where many residents can no longer tolerate the damage the deer are doing to their property, Dunlap said. The IF&W commissioner has the power to allow hunting on a wildlife refuge if the community favors doing so.

Once the committee is completed, it will attempt to gather opinions from the public and discern a need for reducing the deer population on the island, Dunlap said. Among the options that the committee will weigh are creating a recreational deer hunting season on the island with the intent of significantly reducing the deer population, specifically controlled hunting, hiring a sharpshooter to come in and harvest a number of the deer, trapping or methods of fertility control.

Though only three joined the committee, the councilors ultimately agreed to look into the matter thoroughly.

NEWS reporter Dawn Gagnon contributed to this report.