At the October meeting of the Berkshire County League of Sportsmen, MA DFW Deer and Moose Project Leader Martin Feehan gave a presentation about deer management.
He started by saying, “There have been 0 non-hunters killed due to hunting in Massachusetts and there have been 0 non-hunters injured in Massachusetts from archery hunting.”
Feehan reported that he and other staff continue to work with communities to open more private and municipal lands for hunting, particularly of deer. He noted that the Town of Harvard Conservation Commission has doubled the number of properties open to hunting and that the Town of Brewster approved a 3-week December archery season in the Punkhorn area, as two examples of recent fruits of those efforts
In-person biological deer check resumed in 2012, where staff collects information used for modeling the abundance of deer in each Wildlife Management Zone (WMZ). He stated that MassWildlife uses a Downing Reconstruction Model for harvest-based abundance estimates, noting that this method does not sample areas closed to hunting.
He discussed deer density estimates in each WMZ. He noted that some zones, including zones 2, 4N, and 4S (our area), are maintaining densities well within the Board-approved statewide goal of 12-18 deer per square mile. But data from the other western zones –Zones 1 and 3 – are indicating that densities there are rising and are now slightly above the statewide goal.
picture taken and provided by Mark Thorne
He noted that a similar analysis for Zones 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 showed that 5 through 8 are relatively stable, while Zone 9 is becoming increasingly similar to Zones 10 and 11, which are above the statewide goal with high densities and showing persistent growth. Zone 12 is still relatively stable but increasing in density, and in zones 13-14, where densities are very high, the harvest is actually declining.
Feehan outlined a proposal to the F&W Board’s consideration to unify the archery deer season statewide by extending the archery season 2 weeks earlier in zones 1 through 9 to match that already established in zones 10 through 14, with the change to begin with the 2023 season. He explained that this proposed change simplifies the regulations, the seasons, and enforcement; would allow hunters to spread out their effort and therefore creates more hunting opportunity; and addresses feedback staff receives from many archery hunters wanting more hunting opportunities. He also proposed removing the season harvest cap in Zones 10, 11, 13 and 14.
He reported that the previously extended season in zones 10 through 14 did not increase the harvest beyond the established trajectory but rather redistributed the harvest based on hunter preference and was very popular with archery hunters who don’t want the season to overlap with the pheasant season.
He then discussed the following emerging issues
Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD – So far, they have never had a case. EHD is a disease that is spread by midges that infect deer. In the northern portions of its range, it usually is about 95% fatal for deer, which don’t have any resistance. From the time they show clinical signs, they usually die in 3-5 days. It takes them about a week to show clinical signs from the time that they are bit.
EHD has historically been constrained to southern states where they have evolved resistance and there is about a 50% mortality there. As our winters have become milder, it allows the midges to get further north. New York had its very first outbreak in 2012 and since then they have had 5 outbreaks this year. Last year there was a really bad outbreak, by far the most extensive., It ended up in more than 30 counties. Last year Vermont had its very first outbreak, and a second outbreak occurred in Connecticut. This year it is significantly smaller than last year, but they are seeing a continual northern spread around us. New Hampshire had its very first case about a month ago, Vermont had its second outbreak and Connecticut its third.
In NY they confirmed a little over 3,000 cases. In CT they are now about a dozen cases this year and VT had a similar situation. There is a surveillance issue with EHD because essentially, they don’t really know how many deer are actually getting it unless one finds lots of the dead deer and that is difficult because deer die from different issues going on with the environment.
There are some very distinct traits and patterns of mortality when it comes to EHD. In terms of live deer, they usually have faces with lots of swelling, ulcers around both the lips and nose, tongue and they will look feverish and very exhausted. When they have EHD they become very dehydrated and congregate around water sources. There you usually see lots of mortality issues later in the summer when a lot of the waterways are dried up and you have deer congregated around them. Also, midges congregate around waterways.
Sometimes it can also be behavior. You may see times when deer will look confused. One indicator is when they do tight circles which is a good indicator that the deer has been infected.
NY has their very first Blue Tongue case about a month ago. Blue tongue and EHD are somewhat similar but they are spread in different ways.
If you have a deer that looks sickly, DFW always recommend not to put you and your family health at risk. Make a decision that you are most comfortable with. You can absolutely eat those deer, not a risk whatsoever.
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) In the last 18 months there have been 3 new states and 2 new Canadian provinces found positive for CWD. Across the country there is vigilance to stop its spread. CWD is a disease that is always fatal after deer contract it. It generally takes 1½ to 2 ½ years to get to the point where it is fatal. It is spread by a prion (misshapen protein) that spreads from deer to deer via contact with the environment. Most cases came from deer farms and then spread to the wild deer population. Currently the only place where it is active is Pennsylvania. NY is considered a CWD positive state because once prions are in the environment, it can’t be eliminated.
Massachusetts has joined a regional program called SOP4CWD (Surveillance Optimization Project for Chronic Wasting Disease), a collaborative international effort to develop quantitative tools and software to aid state and provincial wildlife agencies responding to CWD. The project is led jointly by the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab at Cornell University and the Boone and Crockett Quantitative Wildlife Center at Michigan State University. It is a program which makes it able to predict the areas that are most likely to get CWD as well as to develop efficient surveillance techniques and programs based on input and the resources of each individual state.
DFW is planning to disseminate a survey to hunters in coordination with the USGS’s Cooperative Unit at UMass/Amherst, to measure baseline knowledge about CWD and about misinformation that might be circulating. This will allow staff to develop an effective communication plan to improve knowledge about CWD and guide future management.
SARS Covid. Last year DFW participated in a national effort with USDA Covid Services. They are working in target states across the country. MA DFW actually were able to be the very first state in the country to actually fill its sampling requirement last year of 500 deer. They sampled 558 deer within the state. All samples were taken during the first week of shotgun season, when lots of deer were being checked in.
Some 86 deer tested positive. Two random samples were taken from deer that were tested with positive antibodies and those studies were sent to the national veterinarian laboratories. Both of their samples ended up testing positive for live virus with the delta variant. There have been very limited delta cases that confirmed human/deer transmission across the entire continent. That’s part of the reason they do all this testing because in that way they are able to track what variants are moving around in the deer population.
DFW will continue its surveillance program with the USDA this fall targeting 750 samples, equally distributed across the state, so that they can really get an idea of different statewide problems.