BANGOR DAILY NEWS • November 6, 2025
Healthy deer populations don’t happen by accident. Habitat quality is the foundation, and working farmlands play a crucial but often overlooked role. Deer thrive along habitat edges — where forest meets farmland — because those areas offer both food and cover. Farm edges provide the best of both worlds: open foraging with nearby escape routes. Maine lost 82,567 acres of farmland between 2017 and 2022 — about 16,500 acres each year. In that same period, 564 farms disappeared. As farmland disappears, hunters are experiencing some of the best deer hunting in decades. Maine’s recent hunting success isn’t accidental. It’s the result of a landscape that works — a balanced mosaic of farms and forests providing everything deer need. But that landscape depends on farms remaining viable and families continuing to work the land. ~ Samantha Burns