Vineyard Residents Pour Out Stories of Tick Illnesses Before
Wildlife Agency

By IAN FEIN

After listening to a crowd of Vineyard residents describe the high
prevalence of tick-borne diseases on the Island as a public health
crisis, the chairman of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries &
Wildlife board promised this week that the state agency will take action
to address the Dukes County deer population.

"This board, I can guarantee, is going to do something and
respond to this problem. You will hear from us in a very timely
fashion," wildlife board chairman George Darey of Lenox told
Island residents at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven on
Wednesday. "We've heard you loud and clear, and will act
accordingly."

The remarks came during a rare visit to the Vineyard by the wildlife
board, which held its official monthly meeting on the Island this week
for what may have been the first time.

The board held the meeting, in part, to accept public comment about
possibly extending the deer hunting season on the Island, where
debilitating tick-borne diseases, such as Lyme disease, have reached
epidemic proportions. Deer ticks are the primary - and possibly
only - known transmitter of Lyme disease in the United States.

A large turnout of Vineyard residents told personal stories of
suffering from the disease, and put a human face on some of the
startling numbers that have emerged in recent months.

A comprehensive health study made public last winter found that one
in five Vineyard residents reported having some form of a documented
tick-borne disease, and earlier this month officials from the
Martha's Vineyard Hospital said they saw a sharp increase in Lyme
disease cases this summer, possibly in record numbers.

A significant number of residents at the meeting on Wednesday came
from Chilmark - where the health report found 37 per cent of the
year-round population said they had a documented tick-borne disease.

Chilmark resident Elizabeth Zane described a near-fatal bout she had
with babesiosis last summer, which resulted in the loss of her spleen.

"And now if I were to be reinfected by a tick with babesiosis,
I could possibly die," Mrs. Zane told the wildlife board.
"People ask me why I still live on Martha's Vineyard, and
that's a very good question. But I love it here and am going to
try to stick it out. I encourage you to act as quickly as possible, and
am considering becoming a hunter myself."

Chilmark resident Gertrude (Trudy) Taylor, 82, recounted her first
of two bouts with Lyme disease several years ago, and the difficulty she
faced in finding appropriate treatment.

"It is a really devastating illness, and I want you to do
something about it. One person getting this sick is not worth looking at
a beautiful deer," Mrs. Taylor said. "I used to interrupt my
mother's telephone conversations years ago to say ‘look at
this beautiful deer.' Now I don't do that anymore,"
she told the board. "Today I could drown it."

Chilmark resident Samuel Feldman - a member of the informal
tick task force - called it a public health crisis and asked the
board to help. Mr. Feldman and others at the meeting also suggested that
the high rates of Lyme disease could pose a threat to the Island tourist
economy.

"The suffering of these people is amazing, and very sad. But
it's obviously something that could be helped if the deer
population is reduced," Mr. Feldman said. "So we would like
your help - we need your help - to reduce the deer
population to a manageable density. We implore you to extend the deer
hunting season."

Prior to the public comments, state deer biologist William Woytek
gave a presentation about deer management on Martha's Vineyard and
across the commonwealth. Mr. Woytek noted that while the division is
meeting most of its goals and doing better than many other states in the
region, Dukes County is one of four areas in the commonwealth where the
deer population is greater than the desired density.

The division estimates the Vineyard population at about 40-to-50
deer per square mile, but would like to get that number down closer to
15.

Tufts University parasitologist Sam Telford, who has been studying
deer and tick populations on the Vineyard and Nantucket for more than a
decade, has said that such a reduction would reduce the prevalence of
tick-borne diseases by as much as 85 per cent. A single deer can feed
dozens of ticks, Mr. Telford said, and each female tick can lay between
2000 and 3000 eggs.

Mr. Woytek said that the current population density is healthy for
the native deer from a biological and ecological standpoint, but their
interaction with the human population - through tick-borne
disease, automobile accidents and property damage - causes the
problems.

Hunting is the primary tool for deer management in the state, which
for at least the last 15 years has engaged in an ongoing effort to
increase its annual harvest - a term used to describe the number
of animals killed during a season. Mr. Woytek said the Vineyard
population leveled off in recent years as a result of an increased doe
harvest, but the division goal is still to see the density decline.

One of the fastest ways to see that goal realized, he suggested, is
to extend the shotgun season here from one week to two. Dukes County and
Cape Cod are currently the only two regions in the commonwealth with a
one-week season.

Vineyard residents several years ago had the option of changing
their shotgun season to two weeks, but requested instead to remain at
one week while the division extended the season elsewhere in the state.

The Island now appears to have changed its mind.

"If you could make a 52-week deer hunting season on this
Island I would support it," said Frank Ferro of West Tisbury.
"And I'm not a member of the NRA [National Rifle
Association]. I haven't fired a weapon since I was discharged from
the Army 50 years ago."

Not one Vineyard resident at the meeting on Wednesday opposed
increased hunting opportunities. The only concerns came from a
representative of the national Humane Society, who asked the board to
provide more accurate deer population numbers before increasing the
hunting season and to involve the Massachusetts Department of Public
Health in addressing the Lyme disease situation.

The fisheries and wildlife board is required to hold a public
hearing before making any changes to deer hunting regulations. Board
members indicated this week that they would schedule a public hearing
soon.

"I've got to tell you, the comments we received today
are far different than what we received when we were here before,"
division director Wayne F. MacCallum said. "We listened to the
community then, and I suspect the board is going to listen to you
again."

While much of the discussion on Wednesday focused on extending the
shotgun season to a second week, some Vineyard residents offered other
suggestions that they said would be more effective - in
particular, extending the archery season into Thanksgiving week,
shifting the muzzleloader season to before the shotgun, or possibly
creating a deer hunting derby.

One option not discussed was the institution of a special shotgun
season later in the winter.

Nantucket, which faces a similar tick-borne disease problem with a
similar deer population density, tried such a measure last February. A
large number of off-Island hunters flooded the island, and Nantucket
residents complained to their selectmen about disruptions and general
mayhem.

As part of its monthly business on Wednesday the wildlife board set
a public hearing on Nantucket for Nov. 21 to rescind the special
February shotgun season on the island.

Mr. Woytek also noted that while the length of the season obviously
affects the deer harvest, another factor often overlooked is access.
About half of the Vineyard is forested deer habitat, he said, but much
of that is inaccessible to hunters.

Aquinnah resident Spencer Booker, who is also a conservation ranger
for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), asked other Island
residents at the meeting on Wednesday to take the access issue to heart.

"As you travel up-Island, you see a lot of ‘No
Hunting' signs. This creates oases for deer to thrive," Mr.
Booker said. "If you have any sway to tell these property owners
to open up their land for hunting, even for a year or two, I think you
would be doing all of us a lot of good."