Lyme Disease And Deer Management

It appears that one of the first New Year’s resolutions to be tackled by Newtown’s Board of Selectmen in 2009 is a problem of Auld Lang Syne (Old Long Since). Just as everything old becomes new again, the problem of managing Lyme disease through management of the town’s exploding deer population has once again bubbled to the surface with all the emotional pop and fizz befitting a controversy where public health bumps up against animal welfare.

It was more than three years ago, however, that we first urged Newtown’s selectmen in this space to appoint a panel to review the science behind the claims and counterclaims about the potential efficacy of an aggressive program of deer culling in reducing the incidence of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. It appears that now that the selectmen are finally prepared to do that at their first meeting in January.

Provided some last minute arguments over the name of the panel can be resolved, the Tick-Borne Disease (And Deer?) Action Task Force will be appointed to begin the process of parsing the facts and fictions that have attached themselves to the Lyme disease / deer management issue.

We would caution the selectmen, however, against populating the new task force with advocates, either pro or con, on the deer management issue. First Selectman Joe Borst has already indicated that he has asked a vocal proponent of a local deer culling program to serve, at least initially, as chairman of the group — a man who told the Board of Selectmen last October, in no uncertain terms, that further study of the issue was unnecessary, since Brookfield and Ridgefield had studied the issue thoroughly and had reached conclusions that could be quickly and easily adopted by Newtown. Newtown needs to have confidence in the research and conclusions of this task force, which will be nearly impossible if the panel starts out with members who appear to have made up their minds before their work even begins.

No matter where one stands on this issue, Lyme disease and the burgeoning deer population are degrading the quality of life in Newtown — and not just through the effects of infectious spirochetes on human life. Entire ecosystems have been disrupted in areas where the natural predators of deer have been driven off by development, leaving the native plants in the understory of woodlands and forests to be stripped away by unchallenged deer. The native biodiversity is rapidly being replaced by monocultures of invasive species that do not support deer or many of the other living things that make up the rich ecosystems of our northeastern woodlands.

If a task force that has given a fair hearing to all sides concludes that the deer herds in Newtown must be reduced, careful consideration must be given to how best to kill deer in a humane way. Responsible hunters will be the first to point out that terrorizing and maiming an animal, and letting it die a slow and painful death is not sport and has no redeeming merits — it is a deep wound to the conscience of anyone who respects and honors life.

In the end, this task force and the consequences of its work will have meaning beyond its impact on Lyme disease, or wildlife, or Newtown’s ecosystems. It will be a measure of the integrity of our town. Consequently, let us resolve at the turning of this new year that its work be done with the utmost care and consideration for all living things.