MD Sierra Club Needs Your Support for Deer Management Plan

February 20, 2020

selective focus of brown deer lying on green grass during daytime

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources proposal for the next two year’s hunting regulations is out for comment. You can find it here.

The great news is they have proposed to reinstate the Suburban Deer Management Zone: "During the designated Archery season, hunters in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery, and Prince George’s counties may use vertical bows or crossbows to take an unlimited number of antlerless deer."  

Please write the DNR, your County Council, and MD Delegates/Senators to tell them this is a great idea.  

 

The deadline for submitting comments to DNR is Feb 24.  

  • You can submit your comments online.
  • You can call them at 410-260-8540, or FAX comments to 410-260-8596
  • You can write to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service, 580 Taylor Avenue, E-1, Annapolis, Maryland, 21401.

Tell your County Executive and County Council it is important for them to support this change.

 Tell your MD Delegates and Senators it is important for them to support this change.

  • Email your Delegates using the this list 
  • Email your Maryland Senator using the this list

Find your Elected Officials   http://www.mdelect.net    https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials 

Please send a copy of any comments you have submitted to outings.intern@mdsierra.org 

 And thank you for taking our deer management  survey here  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 or Lily.Fountain @ mdsierra.org.

Deer Overpopulation Problem

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.

Information about Deer Management

Animal Connections Deer Management Team   http://acdmt.org/

More information about deer overpopulation and a brochure Sierra Club interns created about the threat of lyme disease and relation to invasive weeds and deer overpopulation.

A Sierra Club member's Q&A about bow hunting management in urban suburban MD

Talking Points

1) Deer management is important and I support managing deer populations in Maryland because:

  • The current white-tailed deer population in suburban and urban Maryland is too high, far above the natural level of ~ 20 deer per square mile sometimes by several hundred.
  • High numbers of deer threaten human health by increasing the risk and incidence of Lyme disease from deer ticks in addition by causing deer-car collisions.
  • Deer eat native plants, killing small trees and new growth, causing soil erosion harming water quality, destroying the forest ecosystems, food and habitat that support birds and insects, and that native mammals such as raccoons, foxes, and other animals need to survive and raise young.
  • in addition overpopulation damages gardens and farms.

2) Support for eliminating limits on Bow Hunting in Urban and Suburban areas

  • Since we no longer have predators like wolves and cougars to return deer to the natural density, the deer become unhealthy and damage the ecosystem 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 birth control injections and sterilizations are expensive and ineffective. Hunters feed their families and contribute to soup kitchens and pantries for the needy with deer meat. Hunters are often natural environmentalists who care about and connect with nature and the land.

  • The “bag limits”, the number of deer allowed per hunter, should be removed in suburban and urban areas because there aren’t enough hunters for the high population of deer. The types of hunters in suburban areas who can hunt with a bow are skilled professionals 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 a deer overpopulation with sometimes several 100s of deer where the carrying capacity of the land is 15 to 20. Therefore DNR should make the following bow hunting changes a permanent part of the deer management plan:
  1. Do not apply the same bag limits for the deer hunting across the state as there are less hunters and higher deer overpopulation in urban and suburban areas than in rural areas.
  2. Restore the unlimited antlerless limit in the Suburban Archery Corridor covering Montgomery, Howard, Prince Georges, Anne Arundel, and Baltimore counties.
  3. Raise the buck limit and remove antler-point restrictions in suburban areas.
  4. Make a permanent Suburban Archery Corridor allowing the harvest of unlimited archery antlerless deer.

 Sample Comment

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,