Please keep your statements brief,” Moderator Bill Barton said—to little avail—as the 50-minute debate began over deer hunting on town conservation land.
Eve Wittenberg of Prospect Hill Road presented a proposed bylaw to ban the hunting program the Conservation Commission had approved in September. The ban was first put on the warrant simply as Article 18 through a citizen petition, but town counsel had said the measure should be restated as a bylaw.
Wittenberg advanced three arguments for the ban: first, that there was no solid data that the deer population in Harvard was too high; second, the proposed bow hunting program would be ineffective in reducing the number of deer; and third, “the extreme and unacknowledged ugliness of hunting.”
Those arguments framed most of the debate, with more than a dozen people rising to speak for or against the ban.
Eve Wittenberg readies herself for questions related to the citizen petition to ban hunting on town-owned land. (Photo by Tim Clark)
Hunting advocates asserted that the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife’s study indicated the deer population here was high enough to pose a problem for forest regrowth, especially for plants that deer specially favor such as oak and maple saplings and lady slippers. But Daniel Tracey of Shaker Road countered with examples suggesting the state agency’s estimates might be too high.
Jason Cole of the Deer Management Subcommittee said the Agricultural Advisory Commission and Select Board had also expressed support for the subcommittee’s proposed hunting plan, and Police Chief Ed Denmark had said bow hunting under the plan did not present any safety problems. Cole said the increasing numbers of deer were a regional problem.
Speakers also debated the connection between deer and Lyme disease. Thomas Monath of Finn Road, an infectious disease specialist who worked with the Centers for Disease Control, said deer do not contribute to the spread of tick-borne diseases—only to the overall number of ticks. On the other side, Brad Besse of Westcott Road spoke in favor of the hunting program, saying Lyme disease was a major health issue and any reduction in the number of ticks was “a step in the right direction.”
Wounded deer that might make their way onto private property was another concern. So was illegal hunting, which several speakers said is already common in Harvard. Rochelle Greayer of Pinnacle Road said she has seen hunters crossing her property without permission every year, sometimes dragging dead deer or even having killed a deer on her land. She said allowing hunting on conservation lands would increase the problem.
Jack Spero and Jason Cole speak with a Massachusetts Environmental Police officer who never got an opportunity to speak at Town Meeting, because debate was cut off when the question on Article 18 was moved. (Photo by Tim Clark)
The Deer Management Subcommittee had arranged for the presence of three experts who supported the hunting program, and several speakers asked to hear from those experts. The moderator agreed that they could speak to answer specific questions, but only after residents had had their say.
When East Bare Hill Road resident David Durrant got his turn at the mic, he called the discussion “one of the most emotional topics that have come up in my years at town meetings.” He asked people to remember the words often cited by former Moderator Bob Eubank, that when the meeting is over, residents remain friends and neighbors.
Durrant then called the question. Some of those still waiting to speak tried to raise a point of order, but Moderator Barton said Durrant’s action put a stop to debate. Calling the question requires a two-thirds vote, which it received.
Barton then called for a vote on the hunting ban bylaw itself, which—as a general bylaw—required only a simple majority. (Zoning bylaws require a two-thirds majority.) A number of audience members throughout the auditorium protested, saying the moderator had promised the experts would have a chance to speak. But Barton said calling the question had forestalled that.
As voters raised their red cards, first in support of the hunting ban and then against it, Barton made a visual count and declared a majority had defeated the ban. With a rustling of coats and a shuffling of feet, people who had come specifically to vote on that article left the auditorium.
