The Advisory Council for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is considering increasing the number of any-deer permits by nearly 60 percent this year in response to the increased numbers of deer in several regions of the state.
Kyle Ravana, the state deer biologist for IF&W, said this year’s mild winter was responsible for a lower than average deer mortality rate, adding that the increase varied depending on the region of the state.
“As many people know we’re chronically under goal in terms of our deer population and in other areas, we’re generally running above goal so because of the mild winter, in those areas where we are above goal, we increased the number of permits by a bit to account for the increased productivity that’s going to be expressed this year and continue to try and bring that population down,” Ravana said.
Last year’s any-deer permits topped off at nearly 28,800. Ravana said the number this year could be increased by about 17,000 permits.
The IF&W Council is expected to make a decision on the exact number later this month.