SUN JOURNAL • July 17, 2021
In a deep-winter state like Maine, deer-wintering areas, or yards, are a critical component of deer survival. Our deer yards have declined from 12% of the forest to just 3%. We have not done a very good job of identifying major deer-wintering areas and protecting them from the logger’s ax. Lack of deer wintering areas are the main cause in the decline of whitetail deer, particularly in Western, Eastern and Northern Maine. State regulations, along with cooperative management agreements with some big landowners, were supposed to have protected these critical deer-wintering areas. But they just have not done the job. The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will now receive funds to actually purchase these significant deer-wintering areas and protect them in perpetuity. ~ V. Paul Reynolds