Tick Committee Talks About Deer Management Options

By Kendra Bobowick

“We left off on page 19 under the heading Deer Management, where we get into hunting …” said Tick Borne-Disease Action Committee member Mark Alexander, opening the door to different interpretations of data, study results, and experts’ opinions.

Who has access to private property? Where is hunting permissible? How low a deer count per square mile is necessary to drop incidence of Lyme disease?

Mr Alexander introduced different chapters of his subcommittee’s report for the full commission’s review, which will ultimately see a full committee vote for a final report and recommendations to the Board of Selectman in coming weeks. They are aiming to complete their discussion, vote, and final report by July 4, members agreed Wednesday, May 26.

Referring often to different experts’ comments, studies, statistics, and other materials, members made various points of argument. Mr Alexander noted one area of disagreement about “lower levels of deer,” making it more difficult to lower levels further.

Resident Dave Shugarts said, “The ability of the deer population to increase is a given. If you do nothing they’ll double in two or three years.”

He mentioned a “rebound effect,” as deer begin to reestablish a diminished herd. Would remaining deer therefore have better nutrition?

Mr Shugarts also stated, “Deer reproduce even when they’re starving.”

“Do you have a study to show that?” asked member Mary Gaudet-Wilson.

“I can produce it,” Mr Shugarts said.

“I’d like to see that,” Ms Gaudet-Wilson answered.

Members then argued about various reports’ intentions juggling the equation of deer density, nutrition, and population, concluding, “Maybe we have some editing to do,” said resident Pat Boily.

They then debated about whether a study’s results referred to an island, gated community, or a town like Newtown.

Member Maggie Shaw said, “About towns like Newtown, I think people [in other states] are just beginning to realize to impact a deer can make.” Eschewing comparisons, she said, “We can’t make them. This is relatively new and we can’t box ourselves in. As more people do things in different towns things are changing. I think we’ll see more and more towns looking at this like we are.” She said, “I think we need an open mind.”

Again talking about deer nutrition, Mr Shugarts said, “We’re not going to have starving deer until there are about 200 per square mile. No one wants to see that.” He then indicated that considering the amount of landscaping in backyards throughout town provides “plenty of food plants.”

He warned that starving deer will begin tearing and eating tree bark, “and everything else. Who wants to see that?”

Ms Gaudet-Wilson noted, “[The populations] has been stable for ten years.”

Mr Boily suggested again to “work on revisions,” interrupting another tangent of conversation.

Turning back to the pages of his report outlining hunting, sharpshooting, contraception, application of pesticides that would control ticks, and other methods of deer and tick management, Mr Alexander specified, “Different options are not exclusive of one another.”

Getting Started

Member Kirk Blanchard was blunt: “Getting started [with a management plan] may be the most difficult part.” Noting the number of years that the town has known about Lyme disease, for one, he said, “Newtown hasn’t done anything.”

Vice Chair Michele McLeod noted that the group is doing something.

“Well, we’re talking about it,” Mr Blanchard replied.

Member Peter Licht sought a clearer definition of  “getting started.”

“On a deer management program,” said Mr Blanchard.

Mr Licht noted that hunters are already on the land, “so, we’re not starting from zero.”

Mr Blanchard specified, “We are preparing a report for the town to take action.” So far, the town itself has not taken a formal action, he said. “Individuals and the state have, but the town has not gotten started,” Mr Blanchard said. “The first step is the most difficult.”

The municipality has joined a regional Fairfield County Municipal Deer Management Alliance, Ms Shaw said. “We did something, but it’s talking.”

They talked more about lethal options, such as controlled hunts, recreational hunting, increasing the harvest, and offering incentives to hunters and families to use venison. Can Newtown find a way to get the meat to food pantries, for example? Mr Blanchard suggested recognizing hunters for their contributions, “It’s a different mind-set if we appreciate what they are doing.”

Mr Shugarts mentioned hunt-to-feed programs instituted by groups as close by as Oxford. Mr Alexander agreed to include some of the suggestions in his subcommittee’s report.

Overall, the group will discuss all subcommittees’ reports about automobile accidents, forestry, education, deer management, and more with the intention of representing what they have learned about deer, and tick-borne disease prevention in past months with the primary goal of protecting public health and reducing the incidence of illness among residents.