Annual deer hunt under way to thin herd at Bluff Point
By Judy Benson Day Staff Writer
After 15 years, DEP treats event as maintenance
Groton - After dark last Wednesday, when Bluff Point Coastal Reserve was closed to dog-walkers, bird watchers, bikers, hikers and cross-country skiers, a team of hunters from the state Department of Environmental Protection entered the park to finish what's become routine maintenance.
They weren't clipping tree branches to clear trails, or replacing damaged signs, or fixing broken picnic tables, but loading, aiming and firing rifles at white-tailed deer. On Wednesday night, they shot their 10th deer of the winter, the last one until next year.
"Our goal is to leave 25 deer there," said Howard Kilpatrick, DEP wildlife biologist. "At this point it's a maintenance program."
Bluff Point, an 806-acre coastal woodland, is the only state property where DEP staff hunt to keep the deer population at what's considered a healthy level for the habitat. Public hunting or hunting by hand-picked individuals is the state's preferred antidote to the problem of deer overpopulation on state and privately owned lands throughout Connecticut.
While methods such as sterilization and fencing have been tried elsewhere, hunting is considered the most practical, economical and effective approach.
"We recognize deer overpopulation as a threat, but deer are also an important part of forest ecosystems," said Adam Whelchel, director of conservation programming for The Nature Conservancy's Connecticut chapter. "It's a perpetual situation, and one that begs for long-term commitment."
For the past seven years, he said, the conservancy has allowed a limited number of selected hunters onto its properties in East Haddam, New Milford and Weston.
Deer, which can eat 10 pounds per day, destroyed so many of the small trees, plants and shrubs that the conservancy grew concerned about forest regeneration, he said. Deer had left the forest denuded of virtually everything but ferns and large trees.
"Our native wildflowers, like ladyslippers and red triliums and showy orchids are disappearing in a lot of our forests due to overbrowsing by deer," he said. As with the deer from Bluff Point, the conservancy has the deer from its properties butchered by a volunteer organization and donates the meat to soup kitchens.
Evolving under intense pressure from predators such as wolves, mountain lions and humans, deer reproduce quickly, reaching sexual maturity as yearlings. Each doe gives birth to one, two or three offspring annually.
"Deer have a really phenomenal reproductive capacity, and they're protected from most other forms of mortality, other than vehicles," said John McDonald, wildlife research specialist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's regional office in Massachusetts.
The watershed land surrounding the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts, McDonald said, is another location where deer overpopulation was causing serious ecological damage. It was impacting the quality of the water in the reservoir, the main supply for Boston, because the denuded landscape wasn't filtering out sediments and contaminants as well as a healthy one, he said. Managers were considering installing an expensive filtration system. Instead, three years ago, the property was opened up to deer hunters.
"The forest has responded, but it's slow," he said.
Whelchel said annual deer hunts on conservancy property will be a fixture for the forseeable future, because as soon as one herd is brought to a sustainable level, others move in from adjoining properties that aren't being managed.
Deer overpopulation not only damages forests and yards as the animals move into suburban areas to eat landscaping plants and gardens. It also leads to more car-deer accidents. Deer also spread the ticks that carry Lyme disease, and overbrowsing by deer leaves forest habitats compromised for other wildlife.
At Bluff Point, Kilpatrick said, complaints from the public that the habitat was being destroyed prompted the start of the hunt in 1996. At the time, there were about 225 deer in the park. At first the hunt was open to the public, and some animal rights groups protested. As the herd was thinned to maintenance levels, the DEP staff took over the hunt and will probably continue to do so each year for many years to come, Kilpatrick said. For the last five years, he and his colleagues have hunted 10 to 15 deer there each winter.
There are signs of habitat recovery at Bluff Point, he said, as the shrubs and plants return and saplings are allowed to grow.
"Before the hunt, everything below four or five feet had been eliminated," he said.
By Judy Benson Day Staff Writer
After 15 years, DEP treats event as maintenance
Groton - After dark last Wednesday, when Bluff Point Coastal Reserve was closed to dog-walkers, bird watchers, bikers, hikers and cross-country skiers, a team of hunters from the state Department of Environmental Protection entered the park to finish what's become routine maintenance.
They weren't clipping tree branches to clear trails, or replacing damaged signs, or fixing broken picnic tables, but loading, aiming and firing rifles at white-tailed deer. On Wednesday night, they shot their 10th deer of the winter, the last one until next year.
"Our goal is to leave 25 deer there," said Howard Kilpatrick, DEP wildlife biologist. "At this point it's a maintenance program."
Bluff Point, an 806-acre coastal woodland, is the only state property where DEP staff hunt to keep the deer population at what's considered a healthy level for the habitat. Public hunting or hunting by hand-picked individuals is the state's preferred antidote to the problem of deer overpopulation on state and privately owned lands throughout Connecticut.
While methods such as sterilization and fencing have been tried elsewhere, hunting is considered the most practical, economical and effective approach.
"We recognize deer overpopulation as a threat, but deer are also an important part of forest ecosystems," said Adam Whelchel, director of conservation programming for The Nature Conservancy's Connecticut chapter. "It's a perpetual situation, and one that begs for long-term commitment."
For the past seven years, he said, the conservancy has allowed a limited number of selected hunters onto its properties in East Haddam, New Milford and Weston.
Deer, which can eat 10 pounds per day, destroyed so many of the small trees, plants and shrubs that the conservancy grew concerned about forest regeneration, he said. Deer had left the forest denuded of virtually everything but ferns and large trees.
"Our native wildflowers, like ladyslippers and red triliums and showy orchids are disappearing in a lot of our forests due to overbrowsing by deer," he said. As with the deer from Bluff Point, the conservancy has the deer from its properties butchered by a volunteer organization and donates the meat to soup kitchens.
Evolving under intense pressure from predators such as wolves, mountain lions and humans, deer reproduce quickly, reaching sexual maturity as yearlings. Each doe gives birth to one, two or three offspring annually.
"Deer have a really phenomenal reproductive capacity, and they're protected from most other forms of mortality, other than vehicles," said John McDonald, wildlife research specialist with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's regional office in Massachusetts.
The watershed land surrounding the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts, McDonald said, is another location where deer overpopulation was causing serious ecological damage. It was impacting the quality of the water in the reservoir, the main supply for Boston, because the denuded landscape wasn't filtering out sediments and contaminants as well as a healthy one, he said. Managers were considering installing an expensive filtration system. Instead, three years ago, the property was opened up to deer hunters.
"The forest has responded, but it's slow," he said.
Whelchel said annual deer hunts on conservancy property will be a fixture for the forseeable future, because as soon as one herd is brought to a sustainable level, others move in from adjoining properties that aren't being managed.
Deer overpopulation not only damages forests and yards as the animals move into suburban areas to eat landscaping plants and gardens. It also leads to more car-deer accidents. Deer also spread the ticks that carry Lyme disease, and overbrowsing by deer leaves forest habitats compromised for other wildlife.
At Bluff Point, Kilpatrick said, complaints from the public that the habitat was being destroyed prompted the start of the hunt in 1996. At the time, there were about 225 deer in the park. At first the hunt was open to the public, and some animal rights groups protested. As the herd was thinned to maintenance levels, the DEP staff took over the hunt and will probably continue to do so each year for many years to come, Kilpatrick said. For the last five years, he and his colleagues have hunted 10 to 15 deer there each winter.
There are signs of habitat recovery at Bluff Point, he said, as the shrubs and plants return and saplings are allowed to grow.
"Before the hunt, everything below four or five feet had been eliminated," he said.