State officials want to increase the number of moose-hunting permits in the Northeast Kingdom for the second year in a row as a way to combat the spread of winter ticks.
The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department’s 2021 moose harvest recommendation calls for awarding 100 permits in the state’s northeasternmost wildlife management unit, which is made up mostly of Essex County.
Sixty of those permits would allow hunters to bag either gender of moose, and 40 would allow only antlerless moose, according to the document. The regular season begins Oct. 3 and runs for six days. The archery season has yet to be scheduled.
State Fish and Wildlife Board members gave officials the green light to continue with their plan after a presentation Feb. 17. The public comment period ended this week, and the board will vote on the proposal next Wednesday.
The most dense populations of moose in Vermont are found in the Essex County area, which is split into two subdivisions. In the northern subdivision, covering places such Canaan, the state estimates a population density of 2.19 moose per square mile. The figure for the southern subdivision sits at 1.71 moose per square mile. No other region of the state comes close.
Last year, officials recommended issuing 55 either-sex permits, a significant shift from 2019, when the department proposed no permits at all.
The recommendations over the past two years come after research showed a link between declining moose health in the region and an increasing number of winter ticks. Officials believe the ticks have caused lower birth and calf-survival rates.
The state has been grappling with that trend in recent years.
In a state study from 2017 to 2019, researchers fitted GPS collars to 126 moose in the area — 36 adult cows and 90 calves. Field tests attributed almost three-quarters of deaths in that study population to winter ticks.
In all three winters, most of the adults survived. But in the winters of 2017 and 2018, at least half of the monitored calves died. Nearly all of them showed signs of winter tick infestation or brain worm infection, another ailment affecting the species, according to a January 2019 video from the department.
The state’s theory is that reducing the density of moose in the area will make it harder for the ticks to spread.
“Research has shown that lower moose densities, like in the rest of Vermont, support relatively few winter ticks that do not impact moose populations,” Nick Fortin, head of the state department’s moose project, said in a February statement. “Reducing moose density decreases the number of available hosts, which in turn decreases the number of winter ticks on the landscape.”
With the 2021 proposal, officials expect between 51 and 66 moose to be killed this season.
At the Feb. 17 state board meeting, Fortin said that tick impacts during the winter of 2020 seem to have been less intense than previous winters.
The same conclusion was drawn in the 2021 proposal, though it was based on anecdotal evidence. Summer calf recruitment among collared cows — the number of calves that have lived long enough to join the population — was the highest since collaring began four years ago, according to the report.
The 13 board members present Feb. 17 unanimously approved moving forward with the proposal, but it hasn’t come without criticism.
Brenna Galdenzi, president of Protect Our Wildlife, said her group is concerned with how the moose study was funded and how data has been collected.
From 2018 to 2020, the Fish and Wildlife Department received $120,800 from a group called Safari Club International, which has been criticized by animal protection advocates for promoting big-game trophy hunting.
The organization says its funding has supported “in major part” the state’s moose research.
“If you’re going to accept that kind of money … it creates a level of skepticism over the end result,” Galdenzi said.
She said her group would like the state to address the tick problem by looking at alternatives to killing moose. She said research is being done on the impact of tick-killing fungi that might help.
“What if killing moose to save moose is wrong?” Galdenzi asked. “That’s a really, really big decision that they’re making. I would like to see something less aggressive.”
The lottery for this year’s moose permits is slated to open April 9, provided the Fish and Wildlife Board approves the plan.
