Two tick committee members challenge extra deer hunting

The Nantucket Tick-borne Disease Committee last week presented its recommendations to reduce the island's incidence of tick-related illness to the selectmen. While the 12-member group's suggestions encompass an integrated approach, its primary suggested goal is to substantially curtail Nantucket's deer population from an estimated 2,500 animals to 500 through a multi-phase hunting program extending over several years.

Increasing the annual deer harvest rate is considered to be the most practical and cost-effective method to thin the deer, according to the report.

Two of the committee members, Beverly McLaughlin and Elizabeth Trillos, take exception to increased hunting and believe that, instead, more emphasis should be placed on the committee's other recommendations such as continued public education, property vegetation

management and careful use of pesticides through placement of numerous four-poster deer feeding stations.

The stations, at least one of which is already on land at the Linda Loring Nature Sanctuary, are installed with permethrincoated applicators that dispense the chemical onto deer coats as the animals eat and kill the ticks using deer as hosts.

These stations are known to be effective, though not inexpensive or without need for oversight, said McLaughlin and Trillos, citing several states using them including Massachusetts, Texas, Maryland, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. They propose that rather than placing a costly burden on taxpayers to bring a quantity of stations to the island, the expense could potentially be covered by neighborhood associations. Trillos also points out that a 2009 article on conclusions from a USDA tick control project notes that the stations are effective, safe and environmentally friendly.

"We have to try to balance the information we're getting and what best applies to Nantucket," said Trillos, who for 10 years has used Damminix, a tick-killing, chemically treated material on her Tom Nevers property. "We could be having less disease by the use of Damminix."

Research data contained in the island's tick report indicates that white-tailed deer are the primary, preferred host for ticks and that "deer density levels, tick abundance and human disease are directly linked." The report further outlines information from the state's Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, noting that the DFW believes it would be ideal to have just six to eight deer per square mile here, compared to an estimated 50 per square mile as currently estimated.

To accomplish an expanded harvest, the DFW suggests it will be necessary to attract numbers of off-island hunters to Nantucket, change the deer hunting season calendar and tag limits and possibly add special hunting or professional sharp-shooting.

McLaughlin and Trillos note that the DFW is primarily supported financially through revenue from sales of hunting and related licenses and federal tax returns on hunting and fishing equipment, among other means.

"The big thing is the hunters are free," Trillos said of the committee's stress on that method to reduce deer and ticks. "But, if we are going to have a longer hunting season we need to have a provision to control the hunters. If we need more hunting it is going to have to be supervised better, and that, too, is going to be costly. This is not going to be a free ride — not if you want to do it effectively.

"We are in a panic mode over this, and getting into a panic mode is not the way to approach this. Personal responsibility is very important here, and if we're not doing all these other things, then I'm opposed to increased deer hunting because that is not going to solve the problem."

The women cited the unprecedented February 2005 special hunt that drew some 700 participants, many from the mainland, who killed 246 deer over six days. Several of the hunters later commented that it did not appear there were as many deer on the island as touted prior to the week, and that perhaps the event was unnecessary.

McLaughlin and Trillos say they are not seeking to eliminate deer hunting, but to better balance it with other proven methods to control ticks, and suggest considering lengthening the shotgun season and shortening the bow and arrow season before increasing hunting periods in general.

"I'm just disappointed [the committee] is not more interested in the Damminix and the four-post feeders," said McLaughlin. I