Attempted coyote control has failed

I read Tom Hennessey’s most recent column (BDN, Feb. 5-6) on Maine’s problems with coyotes with the same sort of bemusement that I usually reserve for listening to stories of the tooth fairy or Santa Claus. I realize the tellers of the stories really and truly believe them, regardless of their truth. The only difference in this case is that Mr. Hennessey is an adult who has the capability of doing his homework and finding out the facts.

Coyote control has been attempted for the last 100 years. It has absolutely no record of success. Predator/prey relationships are as valuable to nature as man is destructive. We are the only predator who seeks the biggest and strongest. That is not the intent of nature. Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife biologists freely and publicly admit that the primary reason for the lower deer numbers in northern Maine is habitat loss. It is also the uppermost 5 percent of the range of the whitetail deer.

As we speak, the department is scurrying to put together a plan to try to convince the United States Fish and Wildlife Service that they can develop a snaring program that will not endanger threatened or endangered species like a lynx, eagle, gray wolf or Eastern mountain lion. They will attempt this in order not to have to develop an actual plan to attempt to obtain a permit to legally kill these species. This permit is federally mandated. They don’t care about the other species snares catch. All this in the name of killing a few hundred coyotes who might kill deer to survive so that they themselves can kill those same deer. This is a purely political battle. It has nothing to do with science.

I have a suggestion. If you really care about the deer population up north, stop hunting deer, except for food. Stop the poaching so common there. Restore habitat that offers deer protection. Let nature return to northern Maine. One hundred years ago there were no deer in northern Maine, only moose and caribou. There were no coyotes, only wolves. We killed all the wolves for the same reason we kill the coyote. Men viewed them as competition and they feared them.

Let’s stop acting out of fear and start learning from 100 years of experience.

Daryl DeJoy

Wildlife Alliance of Maine

Penobscot

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