To the Editor:
In response to the article last week about expanding the moose hunt to Lincoln County, I believe there are several important factors that hunters and non-hunters alike need to remember and take into consideration.
It has always been thought that hunting helps to maintain a healthy and stable population of grazing animals that out-compete each other for food sources and therefore starve. Mike Witte of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife was correct in saying that typically these animals such as deer and moose do not face this type of demise in the wild due to the presence of wolves, coyotes, and large cats that help to keep the natural order in balance.
However, in Lincoln County, where the human population exceeded 34,600 in 2008 (according to the US Census Bureau), these predators are considerably scarcer than they used to be.
As a graduate of environmental studies, I am aware of an emerging viewpoint held by many wildlife biologists that hunting causes more harm to ecosystems than good. Natural predators such as wolves know that the easiest moose for them to kill are the ones that are old, very young, weak, or sick. This is how nature keeps itself in check. By eliminating these members of any animal population, the more likely it is that the population will not starve itself and the best genes will be passed on to each generation.
Human hunters on the other hand are encouraged to kill the biggest, strongest, healthiest-looking members of the animal kingdom. This leaves poor genes to be carried on through the population, thus adversely affecting breeding and impairing the species’ evolutionary fitness.
In a report sponsored by GrowSmart Maine (titled “Charting Maine’s Future”), it is estimated that from 1980 to 2000, over 135,000 acres in Midcoast Maine were converted from rural land to suburban land. This meant that within a span of 20 years, rural land in the Midcoast was down from 55 percent to 43 percent.
Lincoln County lost 36,000 acres to development. The remaining large tracts of land that are left in this county are crisscrossed by roads and other infrastructure, so it is no wonder that the few large wild mammals that still want to make this place home come into contact with our lives once in a while.
Every time that people construct a new building or cut down a stand of trees, the remaining mammals that live in our county are pushed into smaller and smaller patches of wilderness. It is incredible that moose even live in this area, as humans have been creating an environment in the Midcoast through centuries of development that is no longer suitable for large mammals that are native to Maine.
It bothered me to read that the moose population is believed to be too high in this area, even though nobody knows for sure exactly how many there are, which seemed very unprofessional of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to declare. If anything is to be done to control the moose population in Lincoln County, I think that biologists need to step up and conduct a survey to find out exactly how many moose there are living in the area, then have highly trained individuals thin out the herd by only killing the very old, weak or sick members.
I think this would be a better situation than having many hunters taking the biggest, healthiest bulls they could find, thereby decreasing the health of the moose population. After all, moose have every right as us, if not more, to be living in an area where they have survived for thousands of years. Not only are they amazing animals to observe in person, but they are also a huge tourist attraction, drawing millions of people to our state each year and boosting our economy.
Above all, moose add to the vitality of Lincoln County’s ecosystems, as the presence of many different species in an area creates more opportunity for additional species, thus enriching the biodiversity and overall health of the natural environment.
Heather Bolint, Damariscotta
