In its Jan. 20 report to the Conservation Commission, the Deer Management Subcommittee said 14 hunters took a total of three adult does on selected Harvard conservation lands during the 2021 bowhunting season. The hunters were required to pass an archery test to participate in the program.
ConCom’s goal in allowing hunting is to control the size of the deer population and thus to protect local forests from damage by overbrowsing. At last week’s meeting, Eve Wittenberg, an associate member of the commission, said the hunters’ low rate of success indicated the program was not an effective way to limit the deer population. But other members noted the hunting program was new, and they supported giving it more time to protect the native plant ecosystem.
The commission first allowed archery hunting on conservation land in 2020. In that first year, only five parcels of conservation land were available to hunters, and only a single deer was killed there. For the 2021 deer hunting season, which ended Dec. 31, ConCom opened eight more areas to hunting, bringing the total to 13 areas.
In 2020, archers with a Harvard permit were allowed to hunt on any of the five conservation parcels then open. But in 2021 the Deer Management Subcommittee decided on a different system, assigning hunters to specific properties. Feedback from hunters, as summarized in the report, was favorable. For example, one person said the system gave hunters time to study their limited areas, learning where deer fed and what routes they traveled.
Among the problems the report listed for the 2021 hunting season were two incidents the committee classified as “hunter harassment.” A tree stand was vandalized, and a trail camera was stolen. Both incidents were reported to police. A larger problem was unpermitted tree stands on conservation property, of which Deer Management Subcommittee volunteers found five. They tagged the illicit stands, telling owners to remove them; any that remain will be removed by the committee.
The full report should soon be available at the Deer Management Subcommittee’s section of the town
website.
