PRESQUE ISLE – State wildlife officials have encountered scant resistance from hunters to a proposal to slash the number of antlerless deer permits in order to help fragile whitetail populations rebound after one of the worst winters in generations.

But hunters are urging the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to continue allowing the youngest sportsmen to target female deer on the single day of hunting reserved for youth.

“Hunting in Maine is a dying sport and we have to encourage the young people to hunt, and this is one way to do it,” Dave Bell of Caribou told DIF&W representatives Thursday evening.

This past winter’s heavy, persistent snows took a heavy toll on deer populations throughout Maine but were particularly deadly for deer in far northern Maine.

Biologists say they are still calculating mortality figures, but initial predictions are that up to 30 percent of the deer herd in some of the hardest-hit areas may have starved, frozen to death or fallen victim to predators this winter.

“Catastrophic may be too strong of a word, but we know it was extremely difficult for deer,” said Mark Stadler, director of DIF&W’s wildlife division.

To compensate for the extreme losses, DIF&W officials have recommended reducing the number of any-deer permits – also known as “antlerless” or “doe” permits – issued to hunters in 2008 to 51,850, which is 14,425, or 21 percent less than 2007.

Additionally, DIF&W wants to more than double the number of wildlife management districts where all hunters – including bowhunters and young people participating in Youth Deer Day – would be allowed to kill only bucks. All of northern Maine and Down East, as well as the upper half of western Maine would be affected.

No one opposed the proposal to reduce the total number of doe permits at public hearings held Thursday at the Presque Isle Fish & Game Club and in Greenville last week. About 18 residents attended the two meetings combined.

Most of those who spoke at both meetings urged the department to drop the prohibition on doe hunting on Youth Deer Day.

A total of 42 antlerless deer were killed in far northern Maine on Youth Deer Day in 2007. Jerry McLaughlin of New Sweden said that if such large districts could not accommodate so few doe losses, then the deer population is in dire shape.

But Stadler warned that with only one or two deer per square mile in many of these areas, every doe becomes even more important to future generations.

Hunters at both meetings also pressed DIF&W officials on what the department is doing to protect so-called “deer wintering areas,” which are sizable groves of mature trees that offer deer critical shelter from the deep snow and frigid winds.

Although the state has the capacity to protect deer wintering areas, or deer yards, through restrictive zoning, DIF&W has typically tried to negotiate agreements with timberland owners.

But the department has struggled to maintain some of those voluntary management agreements in recent years as much of northern Maine’s commercial timberland was sold off to other entities and forestry practices changed. As a result, the acreage of quality deer yards has decreased, thereby making it more difficult for deer to survive the long, cold and snowpacked winters.

In response to growing public pressure, timberland owners have agreed to a voluntary framework that state officials hope will lead to better protections for deer yards.

DIF&W will accept public comments on the antlerless deer permits proposal through 5 p.m. on May 19. The department’s Advisory Council is expected to vote on the proposal during its next meeting at the end of May.

Comments should be sent to: Andrea Erskine, Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, No. 41 SHS, Augusta, ME 04333, or e-mailed to andrea.erskine@maine.gov