The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is accepting comments on the goals, objectives and strategies for Maryland's Deer Management Plan..
Deer overpopulation is a serious problem. There are no longer predators such as wolves and cougars. Deer overpopulation threatens human health with increased risk of lyme disease and car - deer crashes. These hungry unhealthy deer damage farms and gardens and wipe out native plants destroying forest ecosystems so that birds, insects, and mammals like racoons and foxes have nowhere to raise their young.
Alternatives to hunting such as birth control injections and sterilization are expensive and ineffective. Hunters supply deer meat to their families and soup kitchens, connect with nature and care for the environment. There is a higher deer population and less skilled hunters in urban areas. Thus the club supports an unlimited antlerless Suburban Archery Corridor in Montgomery, Howard, Prince Georges, Anne Arundel, and Baltimore counties without point restrictions or buck limits.
Below are some suggested Talking Points and a sample comment, information about deer overpopulation, and a brochure Sierra Club interns created about the threat of lyme disease.
Once the public meetings (see below) and comment period conclude at the end of February, Maryland DNR will reconvene the stakeholders to summarize the results of the public opinion survey and public comments.
Here is the website where you can learn about the past and current management plans, see comments that have already been submitted, and submit your own comments. https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Pages/hunt_trap/Comments/Deer_Management_Plan/How-to-Comment.aspx
Please send a copy of comments you have submitted to outings.intern@mdsierra.org
And thank you for taking our deer management survey to let us know your opinions on the deer populations! If you would like to join the Maryland Chapter’s Natural Places Committee please comment on the survey or contact marc.imlay @ mdsierra.org.
Sincerely,
Marc Imlay
Natural Places Chair
Sierra Club Maryland Chapter
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A brief summary of the current status of white-tailed deer management will be presented by MD DNR at two more locations in February:
Wye Mills - Wednesday, February 20 at 7 pm
Chesapeake College
Room 127, Health Professions and Athletics Center
1000 College Drive,
Wye Mills, MD 21679
More INFO
Owings Mills - Thursday, February 21 at 7 pm
New Town High School
4931 New Town Boulevard
Owings Mills, MD 21117
More INFO
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Sample Comment
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Dear Maryland Department of Natural Resources,
I support deer management and oppose the current bow restrictions.
White-tailed deer populations in my area of Maryland are too high, threatening human health by increasing the risk and incidence of Lyme disease from deer ticks and causing deer-car collisions. In addition to damaging gardens and farms, deer wipe out native plants, killing small trees and new growth, causing soil erosion, degrading water quality, and destroying forest ecosystems, food and habitat which native birds, insects, and mammals such as raccoons, foxes, and other animals depend on to survive and to raise young.
Since we no longer have predators like wolves and cougars to return deer to the natural density, the deer become unhealthy and so it is our responsibility to manage their populations. I support hunting to keep deer population levels in check. Alternatives such as birth control injections and sterilization are expensive and ineffective.
I support eliminating limits on Bow Hunting in Urban and Suburban areas to utilize best practices deer management. The “bag limits”, the number of deer allowed per hunter, should be removed in suburban and urban areas as there are less hunters and higher deer overpopulation in urban and suburban areas than in rural areas. The types of hunters in suburban areas who can hunt with a bow are very skilled and there aren’t that many of them. Thus, there should be no limit to the number of deer an individual hunter can kill. This could be revisited if there ever comes a point when we no longer have such deer overpopulation with sometimes several 100s of deer where the carrying capacity of the land is 15 to 20. We should restore the unlimited archery antlerless deer limit in and make permanent the Suburban Archery Corridor covering Montgomery, Howard, Prince Georges, Anne Arundel, and Baltimore counties. We should also raise the buck limit and remove antler-point restrictions in suburban areas.
Best practices should be used throughout the State, and given the high density of deer in the suburbs, we need a permanent Suburban Archery Corridor allowing the harvest of unlimited archery antlerless deer.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,