Portage Lake deer yard in jeopardy
To the editor:
A recent article in the Star-Herald addressed tree harvesting in the deer yard at Portage. The town forest committee acknowledged that deer migrate every winter to the Portage because cutting practices have caused the deer to abandon those other wintering areas. Thirty percent of this zoned deer wintering area has been cut since 2001. The town plans to cut again.
Armed with a vast amount of knowledge, the forester and deer biologist attempted to dispel the fears of the audience that such action compromises the deer wintering habitat in Portage. The harsh reality is that the yard will again be disturbed for 45 cords of wood from two 3-acre cuts. When another piece of this yard was cut in 2008, the deer followed the chainsaws to browse on the discarded tops. The coyotes converged in this area for their food, killing deer nightly during the worst period of the slaughter. Mr. Raymond suggested that this was a natural occurrence. He then ended public discussion with the statement that I was only interested in preserving my deer hunting area.
The forester summarized her position as needing to get the trees cut while they were still millable. Ironically, the only person at the front table who spoke favorably about the people’s concerns was the gentleman from Irving Woodlands. He acknowledged that the residents had reservations about the proposed cut and that they should possibly discuss the matter with the selectmen at the next meeting. Indeed, that is what we did.
Most working residents could not attend the selectmen’s meeting on March 10th because it was held at 9 in the morning. Once again those residents opposing any additional cutting of the deer yard were educated in the ways of properly managing the town’s forest. Again our only support came from the Irving Woodlands representative, Mr. Coffin, who offered that perhaps the proposed cuts could be done next winter or at a different time of year.
After public comment ceased, Mr. Raymond offered his overall opinion of this situation. He stated that Mr. Farnum was only trying to preserve his personal playground for hunting coyotes. Needless to say, this remark was both inappropriate and untrue. The board of selectmen then voted to accept the town forest advisory committee’s recommendation to continue cutting the deer yard.
In addition, the Portage planning board that same evening approved a variance to allow 100 percent harvest in the 40 percent restricted zone cut adjacent to a wetland. The experts responsible for managing our deer yards appear to be so unreceptive to public requests and so inflexible to change that in addition to supplemental deer feeding perhaps we need to build winter shelters for the deer and arm them against coyotes as well. Until then, anyone interested in saving the deer can attend the “Public Forum on the Future of the Northern Whitetail Deer Herd” on Friday, March 25th at 6:30 pm in Wieden Auditoruim hosted by the PI Fish & Game and the ACCA. Chandler Woodcock, Senator Trahan and the new leader of SAM are expected to be present.
David Farnum
Portage Lake
