ANother reason for the tremendous population problem is that Maryland is the land of treehuggers. Land access is really tough to come by. Even when you get it you can have problems with the neighbors. We had a piece of property one time that was adjacent to a large all woods park on one side and a neighborhood of 2-5 acre lots with $500,000 to million dollar homes on the other. When we first started hunting the neighbors called the DNR. They came by and checked us...no problem. They took our vehicle tag numbers and said they wouldn't bother us. The neighbors called again... the DNR/Park police said we were legitimate and not to worry. Then they neighbors started on the land owner. When they got no results they started making false complaints about us shooting dogs and gunshots in the neighborhood. We were bowhunting only. The landowner finally caved in and said they just had too many people pestering the crap out of them and they didn't need it. She knew it wasn't happening but decided it was easier to cave into the treehuggers than answer the phone calls and threats. I did get to hunt it for 3 years. It was probably the most over populated and beautiful piece of woods I've ever hunted in Maryland. It's still there and not being hunted.