An Oct. 3 announcement that the Land For Maine’s Future board had just approved a big part of the funding package for the acquisition of an historic 3,000-acre deer-wintering area in Southern Aroostook County is big news.
The growing decline in deer yards, especially in the North Woods, has contributed to the lower deer survival numbers, especially in Aroostook County. New legislation this year earmarked $40 million in the state biennial budget for the express purpose of protecting historic deer-wintering areas by outright purchase and subsequent management by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
V. Paul Reynolds, Outdoors Columnist
The funding for these deer-yard purchases comes from a number of sources, along with Land For Maine’s Future (LMF) funding. Some of the money comes from federal matching funds (Pittman-Robertson) and from new state revenues generated by hunters when they purchase any-deer permits in Maine.
Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has identified 7,500 acres of deer-wintering areas in Aroostook County for proposed purchase. A half-dozen other deer yards in other parts of the state are being “negotiated.” Insofar as we can determine, there has yet to be a solid “closing” on any of these deer-yard purchases.
Some media accounts of the LMF funding vote suggested that the land deal was a fait accompli — in other words, had already decided beforehand. This is not the case. Despite the public victory laps by Fisheries and Wildlife Commissioner Judy Camuso and Gov. Janet Mills following the LMF vote, the 3,000-acre Reed Deadwater tract won’t actually be owned by the state until appraisals are completed and title searches are complete, and signatures are on the dotted line.
When the deal is really sealed, the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, which played a pivotal role in this deer-yard protection legislation, deserves to be standing alongside Gov. Mills and Commissioner Camuso when they take their bows.
If past is prologue, real estate transactions can be tricky. The act of buying deer-wintering areas from a willing seller are no different. As historic and hope-augering as all of this is for Maine and its deer populations, taxpayers, which includes hunters, still need to be paying attention and asking questions once the yard purchases are final. Are we paying a fair price per acre for these deer-wintering areas? And do these state land purchases remove taxable property from the tax base? Who makes up the difference?
Interestingly, Maine gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage got in a dust-up with the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine over this very issue, the loss of state-purchased wildlands from the property tax rolls. LePage’s concern is justified. Sportsman’s Alliance executive director, David Trahan, concedes that the tax concern is not frivolous. He told LePage that the Alliance is prepared to support legislation that might address these concerns over lost tax revenues. According to the Sportsman’s Alliance, many of Maine’s conserved lands (four out of every five acres) pay PILOTS (Payments in Lieu of Taxes).
On balance, these initiatives to protect deer-wintering areas were inevitable if Maine is to be serious about being proactive stewards of its whitetail deer populations. The tools of state-enforced code ordinances and voluntary cooperative agreements with landowners just weren’t getting the job done.
V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal, an author, a Maine guide and host of a weekly radio program, “Maine Outdoors,” heard at 7 p.m. Sundays on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. Contact him at vpaulr@tds.net.
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