Eastport ponders options to control island's deer herd

Thinning the large herd of deer in Eastport without compromising public safety has been a hot-button topic on Moose Island this autumn. Eastport Police Chief Matt Vinson says his department has not made any arrests for illegal bow hunting, but there are charges pending in an incident involving the disposal of a deer's innards after it had been gutted.

Early on the morning of Saturday, September 29, a Clark Street resident notice a black SUV containing four men "suspiciously" cruising in the neighborhood, which includes Hillside Cemetery. When one got out of the vehicle and walked onto the property of a neighbor who had left the island for the winter, she phoned that neighbor in Massachusetts. Although the property is not posted "No hunting," the neighbor said no permission had been given to anyone to be on his land. The Clark Street resident then walked over to investigate what was going on and was startled to find two men and a dead doe. Worried about exactly where and how the animal was killed, she immediately went home and called the police. "I want the woods to be safe. If they're going to kill deer, I want them to do it humanely and safely C not around here where there are homes and people."

Susan Watts was at work in the Moose Island Country Store at 8:30 a.m. that same morning when she looked out the window to see a dark SUV being backed down the boat ramp. Four bow hunters dressed in camouflage colors jumped out, opened the end of the vehicle, pulled out a small deer and, to Watts' shock, threw the dead animal into the water where they began gutting it. She gave them a piece of her mind and called 911. However, the quartet loaded the deer carcass back in their vehicle and drove away before the arrival of a police officer.

"It's being investigated by the Eastport Police Department and the Maine Warden Service," says Vinson of the incident.

"We haven't witnessed any illegal hunting," he points out. "We can't prove they were hunting if they are driving around in a vehicle. We can't effectively police hunters. We're not game wardens."

Several Eastport residents, including Eastport city councillor Julie Leppin, contacted Senator Kevin Raye and asked him to help find a way to control the deer herd without compromising public safety. In response, Raye contacted Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IF&W) Commissioner Danny Martin and Deputy Commissioner Paul Jacques "to get the ball rolling on a state response."

"Also, I have spoken directly with Ken Elowe, director of the Bureau of Resource Management at [IF&W], to express my concern to him about the situation in Eastport. He assured me that the department is moving aggressively to work with the city to come up with a solution to this problem. IF&W biologist Tom Schaeffer of Jonesboro is working on this with Julie, and Ken said that IF&W's landowner relations warden Joel Wilkinson is also getting involved. Local wardens are also working this from an enforcement perspective."

Raye notes that one promising approach under discussion is based on what has been done in the Hancock County town of Castine. "It would involve the city preparing a map showing which properties are open to hunting. It's what he called the 'stop light' approach. Literally, green would be open, yellow would be open by permission only, and red would be closed. It strikes me that this could be a reasonable solution, but it will be up to the city to make that determination."

"Another option which could be pursued in conjunction with this is to further refine the [City of Eastport's] discharge ordinance so archery is permitted only where the landowner has given permission. Again, it would be up to the city council whether or not they wanted to do this.