The following is a press release from the Department of Conservation and Recreation about a series of public hearings on deer management in the Blue Hills.
Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation
Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game
State Senator Brian A. Joyce
State Senator John F. Keenan
State Representative Bruce J. Ayers
State Representative Mark J. Cusack
State Representative William C. Galvin
State Representative Walter F. Timilty
PUBLIC MEETING
Blue Hills State Reservation Deer Management Plan
Thursday, September 24, 2015 – 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Ponkapoag Golf Course – 2167 Washington Street, Canton, MA 02021
Tuesday, September 29, 2015 – 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Blue Hills Trailside Museum – 1904 Canton Avenue, Milton, MA 02186
Thursday, October 1, 2015 – 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Lincoln-Hancock Elementary School Auditorium – 300 Granite Street, Quincy, MA 02169
At these public meetings, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) and Massachusetts Department of Fish and Game will present a proposed Deer Management Plan for the Blue Hills State Reservation.
Please visit this website to view the Draft Management Plan. The presentation made at the public meetings will be available on September 25 using the same link.
If you have comments you wish to submit after the public meeting, please visit http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/public-outreach/submit-public-comments/ or write to the DCR Office of Public Outreach, 251 Causeway Street, 6th Floor, Boston, MA 02114.
If you have questions about the public meeting, please email DCR.Updates@state.ma.us If you have questions, concerns, or would like to be added to an email list to receive DCR project-specific or general announcements, email mass.parks@state.ma.us or call 617-626-4973.
Reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities are available upon request by emailing Agatha Summons-McGuire at agatha.summons@state.ma.us or by calling her at 617-626-1282. Please provide Ms. McGuire with a description of the accommodation you will need, including as much detail as you can, as well as information on how she can contact you if more information is needed. Please allow at least two weeks (14 days) advance notice to Ms. McGuire of a need for reasonable accommodations; last-minute requests will be accepted, but may be impossible to fill. To request materials in accessible formats (Braille, large print, electronic files, audio format), please also contact Ms. McGuire.
This is horrible coming from an animal advocate but I won’t go into that now. My family is buried at the cemetery I go there often I do not want to hear gunshots or witness a deer being killed by a bow in a place I go for peace of mind. I also don’t see many deer I am in area often so the report is not believable.
The DCR report estimates 67 deer per square mile of deer habitat.
The DCR report estimates that deer habitat is 80% of total area.
So the DCR report calculates that there are 67/0.8 = 85 deer per square mile of the total area (simplifying the calculation).
Due to the widespread use of the land (by hikers, dogs, cyclists, park ranger vehicles, busy roads), an additional number is required to show how human activity lowers the area available to deer.
A value of 20% for human disruption factor would lead to a number of about 17 deer per square mile.
Also, the estimated value of deer habitat could be as high as 90% which would lead to 67/0.9*0.2 = 15 deer per square mile.
Another outcome of the human disturbance factor is that deer will concentrate along preferred routes, to avoid human contact, and they will follow these trails fairly closely, probably using scent to guide them. It is therefore likely that some homes that are close to these deer trails will experience higher numbers of deer, while other users of the park will not see the same concentration of deer.
Hi Steve,
I’ll forward your calculations to DCR — and your contact info.
Thanks for your comment!
I would be interested in bow hunting around the blue hill area. I have a son that attends curry college that is looking for landowner permission to hunt the milton area.
There is a mistake in their survey – their estimate of the deer population in the Blue Hill reservation is far too high. The real number is less than 5 deer per square mile using the Hahn line method.
Steve – I’ll let the DCR know about your comment. Thanks for taking the time to read and respond!
Steve,
The Mass Fisheries and Wildlife staff said that “the Hahn method is an outdated and severely negatively-biased technique for estimating deer numbers. Even without the deer survey data, the habitat impacts on and around the reservation provide more than enough data to inform us that deer numbers are high.”
He also suggested you look at the deer study online: http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/dcr/parks/south/blue-hills-deer-survey-report.pdf
Hope that helps!
Haven’t seen more than 30 deer in more than 20 years of hiking around the Blue Hill. The deer count/survey report’s numbers are not believable – perhaps there were some repeat counts during they survey. Do you have access to the original survey forms? A blank form is shown in the report with no observation data – the report would be more believable (or not) if it included copies of the raw data.