The Hawai’i Department of Natural of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) is currently accepting applications from landowners and lessees to participate in a unique “incentive program” that encourages the removal of invasive axis deer on the island of Maui.
The program, dubbed the Landowner Incentive Program, was initially launched in 2024 to reduce axis deer numbers to manageable levels. It is essentially a bounty program, offering compensation of up to $50 for each deer tail submitted. The number of tails each landowner can submit in the program is calculated using a deer-to-acreage ratio, and the axis deer are required to be hunted in accordance with state regulations. The DLNR is accepting applications for the next round of the program until February 15.
Maui, as with other Hawaiian islands, has struggled to manage invasive axis deer populations. According to the DLNR, the deer, which are native to India and Nepal, were first introduced to Maui when ten were released there in 1959. The population exploded to over 26,000 animals “due to a lack of natural predators and natural environmental controls such as extreme weather or population-culling diseases, as well as the limited capacity to control population size through hunting.”
The invasive population has significantly impacted the local ecosystem and agriculture industry, as well as threatening human health and safety. They have been known to cause over $1 million in crop damage annually.
The Landowner Incentive Program plays an important role in mitigating the impact of the deer. “With a large portion of the Axis deer congregating on private land, the support of landowners will be vital to the success of any population management program,” explains the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation in a press release. “This [program] is somewhat similar, in practice, to big game landowner vouchers that are issued in other western states to encourage public access and sustainable hunter harvest.”
So far, the program appears to be working. “Recent harvest rates suggest a promising trend toward minimizing environmental and economic damage to property and land and reducing the overall deer population,” said a DLNR spokesperson.
While the program appears to be effective so far, it remains controversial among some local hunters, who say that it would be just as effective—and perhaps less costly—to develop better systems for hunters to access private land. “You actually don’t need a bounty,” wrote Brandon Napaepae Soong, of Waimea, Hawaii, in a Facebook comment. “You just need organized access and safety rules enforced.”
“Axis deer is considered some of the best wild game meat in the world,” echoed Erik Kucera. “If the private landowners could be freed from their liability worries somehow, they could allow heavy hunting pressure to eliminate the problem.”
Feature image from Jordan Budd’s axis deer hunt in Lanai. Click here to watch the hunt.
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