How Do We Manage Wildlife?
by Ken Elowe
Director of Resource Management
How does the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (MDIF&W) manage wildlife? What does manage mean?
In general, our role is to conserve and protect wildlife, while providing opportunities for people to enjoy and interact with wildlife, including through strong traditions such as hunting.This means that we must figure out what affects the health and population of different wildlife species, and somehow, balance the impacts to ensure that we will continue to have wildlife into the future. This is no easy task, as the impacts of hunting, habitat loss or change, loss to disease and other natural causes, road mortality, and the effects of nuisance wildlife on farmers, and landowners represent an extremely varied and challenging set of viewpoints to balance.
So, where do we start?
In Maine, 75 percent of the cost of managing our wildlife is provided by Pittman-Robertson dollars, which come from a tax on firearms paid by America's sportsmen.
First, for any species, we have to assess, through field surveys and research, the status of the population and what factors are affecting population levels. Then, we need help to decide how we should balance the desires of hunters, who want more game, with the desires of landowners or farmers, who may be heavily impacted by high population levels of some animals, such as deer. To get help, we form working groups representing a cross-section of Maine citizens. These are made up of representatives from sportsmen's groups, environmental groups, farmers, forest industry, landowners, and the general public. All these people have an interest in the future of wildlife, and we discuss options for balancing varied interests with the entire group. The working group then decides what population level should be the management goal for that species. Proposed goals for different wildlife populations are then approved by the Department's Advisory Committee.
This provides the guidance for the Department's management efforts for the next 10-year period. This fall, we will begin this process to develop management goals for deer, bear, and moose with the help of a public working group. The last management goals were set in the same manner back in 1985. Changes to population levels, habitat, public interest, and demand mean that it is time to revisit the goals for major game species, as well as many other small game and nongame wildlife species over the next few years.
