Deer Management:

An Issue Fraught With Emotion

By Kendra Bobowick

“I feed them, I love them. I put apples and fruit out for them,” Lorrie Silber said. She feeds deer that graze in her more than two-and-a-half-acre backyard on Riverside Road. “It’s a beautiful piece of wilderness. You can sit and admire the deer. They stop and look at you.”

In tears, Ms Silber contacted The Bee on Friday, November 21, when she learned that a deer had been shot by a neighbor using a bow and arrow. Upset, she said, “Little did I know that I was feeding them and bringing them right to him.” Animal Control Officer Carolee Mason soon arrived at the address. The deer, “a beautiful buck,” had bled to death, she said Monday. “I went and I saw this buck bleeding.”

Looking for answers, Ms Silber sought to understand the hunting laws for the state. “I want to know the rules. Where is hunting allowed?” she asked. Speaking for those who may not want hunting nearby, she said, “We want to know what we can or can’t expect.”

Ms Mason, also opposed to hunting, had asked, “Are you safe in your own yard?” Young children might be playing outdoors, both women noted. “I’m upset about this,” Ms Mason said. The Department of Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Conservation Division Captain Rick Lewis listened to the circumstances of Friday’s incident, then clarified, “If you have an archery permit and you’re on your own property and if you are shooting in a safe direction — it can be done.”

Unclear are accounts about where the deer fell. Was it in Ms Silber’s yard, or the neighboring hunter’s? Captain Lewis specified, “Number one, if you are archery hunting and you strike a deer and it goes into a neighboring property, the hunter needs verbal permission [to enter the neighbor’s land].” If the neighbor denies the hunter access to the property, either the neighbor or the hunter can call his division. “If [the deer] is suffering we’ll come put the animal down.” Residents also should contact his office to report illegal activity, such as trespassing, Captain Lewis said.

Ms Sibley hopes to learn more, and possibly “pursue regulations on that. What if I had small children? It’s dangerous.”

Available in the town clerk’s office is the Connecticut Hunting and Trapping Guide 2008, which provides hunting requirements and laws. The state website also provides the rules electronically at www.ct.gov/dep/hunting, which lists the hunting guide and license and permit information.

Other larger questions remain. Since the Lyme Disease Task Force appealed to the town recently to become involved in fighting tick-borne diseases, officials as of last month have agreed to investigate the possibility of instituting a deer culling program, which have Ms Mason and Ms Silber concerned.

Deer Culling Programs

In recent weeks First Selectman Joe Borst had vowed to “put together a committee to set up an action plan,” after Lyme Disease Task Force member Maggie Shaw asked the Board of Selectmen to make a public health plan to stop tick-borne disease. The board heard arguments that deer culling programs could be a possible preventative measure against the number of ticks in residents’ backyards, for one. Mr Borst had previously said he wants answers about how and where to proceed with deer management, and to “cover everything,” including public education about precautions against Lyme disease.

Newtown Health District Director Donna Culbert and Land Use Deputy Director Rob Sibley have also met with the first selectman regarding a possible Deer Action Ad Hoc Task Force. As of this week no group had been appointed, and no deer culling programs have been adopted.

The incident in Ms Silber’s neighborhood Friday has her upset at the possibility that Newtown may enact a program to diminish the deer population. “There has got to be some other way,” she said. Looking for a meaning from Friday, she said, “Maybe this will get me more involved.” Regarding the deer culling, she said, “My worry is there will be deer culling before anyone knows about it. I want to change that.”

Selectmen Herb Rosenthal stresses that he will approach the topic with an open mind. Although not a hunter, Mr Rosenthal said, “If it’s the only solution, then I guess we’ll see what we have to do. We have to see how to rectify the problem of deer overpopulation and tick diseases.”

Already nearby towns of Ridgefield and Brookfield have begun deer culling programs and have various studies to substantiate their conclusions. Newtown resident Dave Shugarts has made presentations to town officials regarding his findings regarding deer culling. The state Department of Public Health also has Lyme disease information. (Visit ct.gov/dph and select from the left-hand menu the link for disease and prevention. )

According to one document, Managing Urban Deer In Connecticut, assembled by the state Department of Environmental Protection, Wildlife Division, “High incidences of Lyme disease have been associated with deer overabundance. The adult tick requires a blood meal from a medium to large size mammal to reproduce and lay thousands of eggs. Deer are the primary host for the adult deer tick and are key to the reproductive success of ticks.” The end of the 40-page report offers roughly 50 references and suggested readings.

As Mr Shugarts told the selectman during an October meeting, Newtown need not reresearch the information assembled by towns including Brookfield and Ridgefield, which, he said, already have data supporting their decisions for establishing a deer culling program.

Russ Cornelius, Brookfield Lyme Disease Task Force member and his town’s representative to the Fairfield County Municipal Deer Management Alliance, confirmed that Brookfield’s deer management program, in its first year, is underway. Nodding to expenses saved, he referred to an expert hunting team that has donated services. In turn, venison is delivered to the Connecticut food bank.

How did Brookfield officials’ reach their decision? “The principal effort here was related to Lyme,” Mr Cornelius said. Various sources and research cemented their thinking, specifically, the data in Managing Urban Deer In Connecticut, and another source, written by Dr Kirby Stafford. Dr Stafford is a medical-veterinary entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station whose research focuses on the ecology and control of the tick that transmits the agents of Lyme disease. In one paragraph on page 52 of his Tick Management Handbook he empathizes with the struggle animal lovers likely have with deer management initiatives:

“Overabundance of deer is associated with problems such as … the rising incidence of Lyme disease. The fault is not in the animal. Who has not appreciated the thrill of a glimpse of these animals in the meadow or grazing in our landscapes? The problem is in their numbers. There only need be fewer of them.” The doctor’s research goes on to note, however, that “it has been estimated that over 90 percent of adult ticks feed on deer, each laying [roughly] 3,000 eggs. Therefore, deer are the key to the reproductive success of the tick.”

Residents can read for themselves the information in his handbook by visiting www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/resources/handbook.pdf.

With these and other pieces of research supporting the Brookfield decision, Mr Cornelius explained, “It wasn’t a hard conclusion.” Other towns had already come to the conclusion that deer culling programs are necessary. Referring to programs in place in New Canaan, Ridgefield, and elsewhere, he said, “They studied all the alternatives.”

Understanding that deer hunting often spurs an emotional response, he said, “You can’t always get everyone to agree. There is an attachment to animals.” Emotions aside and speaking practically, he said, “The obvious thing to do is cull the deer. We’re trying to manage their numbers.” The decision, he said, was “not at all hasty.”

A bow hunting program is now in place in Brookfield as one way to get around the “likelihood of an accident with a firearm. The risk is too great,” Mr Cornelius said.

Further supporting the reasoning behind deer management is Georgina Scholl, ND, the research chair for the Fairfield County Municipal Deer Management Alliance. In a recent email she explained that the deer population and Lyme disease and prevention are “of course, intimately connected.” She wrote, “We only have Lyme disease because we have deer overpopulation supporting the tick population.” Offering one example of where the culling program has worked, she offers: “When deer numbers are low enough, deer ticks cannot breed successfully and they die off, thus ending the cycle of tick-borne diseases in the smaller mammals and ending the spread of these diseases to humans. This dependence of ticks on deer for fertility was dramatically demonstrated in Mumford Cove [Connecticut], where deer densities were lowered to the balanced level of 10 deer per sq mile in 2000 and Lyme cases in the community fell from 30 a year to between zero and two per year. This low level of Lyme cases has been maintained now for eight years since the deer numbers were lowered.”

She wrote, “We have a deer overpopulation problem that is allowing the ticks to breed. If the underlying deer problem is not resolved then there will be a never ending supply of ticks to deal with.

“Current efforts to prevent Lyme disease without addressing the underlying cause are just attempts to mop up the floor without first turning off the faucet and will consume all our resources, both human and financial,” she wrote. Learn more at www.deeralliance.com