This letter is in regard to Mark Latti’s Aug. 17 Outdoors column, “Moose herd calls for sound management.”

It is unfortunate that after mentioning the collaring of 50 moose by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in the Moosehead region this past winter, the column becomes the usual public relations drivel that we have come to expect from the department.

While mentioning the fertility ratio of the 20 pregnant cows, the mortality rate of the 50 collared moose somehow was never mentioned. In fact, the biggest threat to the health of the herd, winter ticks, was not mentioned at all.

How many of those 50 moose survived the winter? Rumor in the community suggests a severely high overall mortality rate, with winter ticks being the primary cause.

“Sound management” practices in the past have been reflected by PR blitzes not based on reality: from the fact that coyotes don’t eat deer, that our deer herd is in fine shape, increase in turkey permits after a disastrous winter kill, disappearance of a world-class brown trout fishery in the Kennebec River, etc.

It appears to many of us in central and southern Maine that the moose herd is already in severe decline in our area and winter ticks appear to be the primary factor. The implications for the tourist and hunting industries are obvious.

Until the Fisheries and Wildlife Department is funded from the General Fund instead of license fees only, politics and financial need will continue to fuel columns like Mr. Latti’s that reflect slick PR releases and not the sound scientific facts that our fish and game biologists are actually quite capably acquiring.

Steven Brod

Master Maine Guide

Farmington

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