The State Division of Fisheries and Wildlife held a public informational hearing at the West Tisbury Agricultural Hall Wednesday afternoon that attracted close to a hundred Vineyarders. Opponents and proponents, about equally matched in numbers, faced off in a tense but mostly civil discussion of the state division’s plan, endorsed by hunters, to increase the bag limit from one to two deer a season.
State wildlife officials spoke strongly in defense of their rule changes as the best way to manage the Vineyard’s deer herd. Island critics and supporters of the plan alike made public safety the center of Wednesday’s debate. A mother spoke about her concerns for her children during the hunting season. A West Tisbury police officer, speaking in support of the larger hunt, spoke of a concern about an increase in vehicular accidents caused by deer.
Hunters and property owners who had suffered damage by deer predation praised the state’s plan to double the hunter’s bag limit per season. But others charged that the state had not looked hard enough at other ways of controlling the Island’s growing deer herd.
Dr. Steve A. Williams, a wildlife biologist for the state, outlined the division’s years of research on deer populations and gave the division’s rationale for bringing the bag limit on the Vineyard, Nantucket and the Cape in line with the rest of the state.
He said though the three counties had been excluded from the two-bag limit increase in 1982, increased development in deer habitat, a growing deer population and the frequency of automobile accidents related to deer were indices used by biologists to suggest that more deer should be killed during the deer hunting season. The proposed regulation would take effect in the late fall of 1988.
The meeting was also attended by Jack Creedon of the division, one of the seven board members charged with voting on the bag limit change and all regulations that concern wildlife. Mr. Creedon, a gubernatorial appointee, represents the southeastern wildlife district which includes the Vineyard. A state hearing on the changes has been scheduled for June 30 at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay, he said. Because of the Island’s isolation, officials decided to come here to seek comment.
A West Tisbury resident and an Edgartown farmer praised the state plan reasoning that they had suffered increased crop and property damage in recent years due to the size of the deer herd.
Favoring the new change, Susan Whiting, a Chilmark naturalist, said: “By not shooting deer, you allow the deer herd to get larger. You will have sick deer. You will have a large deer population that will crash.”
Maitland Edey Jr. of West Tisbury said he saw two areas of concern that the state should be addressing: how big should the deer herd be on the Island and “given the size, how do you stabilize it.”
He criticized the state for not looking hard enough at other alternatives to controlling the size of the deer herd.
Karen Bunting of Chilmark said if the state wanted to control growth, then a larger percentage of female (antlerless deer) deer could be killed than are being allowed. She charged the state with encouraging the killing of bucks as a way to assure hunters that they’d have more deer to kill from season to season.
Martin V. (Skip) Tomassian Jr., president of the Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club, said: “You’ve told us that you have been able to maintain the herds elsewhere in the state so much so that the state is a showplace of deer management. You do that by a bag limit of two. The bag limit on the Island has been one deer per hunter for a long time and that long time has been sufficient enough to throw the deer population out of whack. It would seem that this plan is the appropriate thing to do.”
Jeffrey (Skip) Manter, a West Tisbury policeman, said: “The number of deer related automobile accidents has doubled. Half of the 60 accidents recorded on the Island last year are in West Tisbury and I’ve responded to most of them myself. It is not unusual before deer season to have a couple of automobile accidents. This past year we were averaging two accidents a week prior to the season.”
Frank Dunkl of Chilmark, citing a Supreme Court decision years back, said: “To my knowledge, the Supreme Court instructed all 50 states to put more research money into developing non-game programs and alternatives to killing deer. I for one, as a landowner, do not feel that the state has made a good faith attempt to look into alternative methods of regulating the deer.”
Mr. Williams said the state had looked at other studies on deer management. “None of them had been tested. We have a proven technique,” he said.
Miss Bunting said: “We are also concerned with the welfare of the deer.”
Kathleen Young, who lives near the State Forest, read a letter to the division expressing concerns about hunter safety during deer week. “As the last days of deer week approach, the danger and recklessness becomes more and more pronounced, as some hunters who have not yet made their kill become less cautious.”
Mrs. Young said she has seen hunters trespassing on her property where she is fearful for her children. “During deer week, the State Forest becomes for me, for my children, for my animals, a no man’s land of immeasurable danger because there is hunting in it.”
Bob Maciel of West Tisbury answered: “The way the state is treating the forest now it is going to be a dump.”
Lewis C. Schlotterbeck, a deputy director with the division, said that it was not within the purview of his division to be concerned with how hunting regulations were enforced. He said those issues were to be taken to enforcement agencies and to local police.
Ruth Emerson of Chilmark said that in her town “we can’t get protection because our police are all hunters. Why can’t we have some management?”
Moon Benning of Vineyard Haven said she once lived in Colorado, where there is considerable argument between hunters and anti-hunters over the management of deer. “I don’t have serious opposition to the hunting of deer. But the increasing of the bag limit means there will be more bullets flying around. Can you show an interest in viable alternatives?”
Mr. Williams said: “For a free running herd, there is no other proven technique. We have had an active program in the state. I’d like to put it up against any other state.”
JoAnn Wakeman said her husband used to be a hunter but had given it up when while hunting in a forest, a bullet from another hunter’s rifle passed close to his head. “He asked the guy who shot the gun why he had done that. The man said it was just a test fire.”
State officials heard few criticisms of other aspects of their proposed regulations. One new rule will require all hunters who kill deer on the Vineyard to register at the state check-in station at the State Forest prior to leaving the Island. Under current regulations, hunters are not required to go to the Vineyard check-in station, though they must go to a state weigh-in station.
Wayne MacCallum of the division said that hunters on the mainland have complained strongly against the proposal. “They say that the regulation will make them miss a boat,” he said. State officials, he said, like the proposal as it keeps a hunter from being tempted not to tag his deer and then go out and exceed the bag limit.
Further opinions on the proposed changes can be sent to Mr. Creedon at the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, 100 Cambridge street, Boston, Mass. 02202.
Mr. Creedon said a decision is likely this summer.