Had a great phone conversation yesterday with John Chapman in Athens.

Chapman's been feeding deer throughout winters harsh and mild for the last two decades. A member of a national group known as the Quality Deer Management Association, Chapman wants to educate people about feeding deer. Earlier this winter, I wrote a column about the deadly diseases threatening the state's deer herd when humans intervened.

I'll admit, when John told me he wanted to talk about feeding deer, I thought for sure he was going to spend the next several minutes lecturing me. He talked about things like salt licks, bi-carbonate feed and deer yards.

Turns out, he's just as worried about people feeding deer as you and I are.

"If you're going to feed them anywhere near a road, you might as well just throw the bag of feed right out into the middle of the Interstate," Chapman said. "They're going to end up walking across there anyway to get to it."

The Quality Deer Management Association aims to protect existing deer yards, especially ones north of the "snow line" in Maine's northern reaches. Instead of allowing development to simply squash the yards that we do have -- further threatening deer habitat -- QDM wants to Maine's lawmakers to help protect the areas by installing measures that keep deer yards safe.

QDM also wants to educate people about the right ways to feed deer, Chapman said. Not only do people need to be aware of what foods could be lethal in a deer's winter diet, but he also wants people to understand the peril of over-feeding, domestication and mismanagement of deer yards.

"It’s a way of giving back to nature," Chapman said of his feeding, which he says he does only enough to help the population survive and not to fatten them up for hunting season in the fall. "I think (the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife) should organize it. It's a great resource we have, why not protect it?"

It's probably a discussion worth having.

-- TB