Updated Dec. 1
Shotgun season for deer opened Monday across the state, and runs through Dec. 12.
Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society president Brian Athearn reminded hunters reporting deer they’ve harvested that there is a digital process on the state website, MassFishHunt. Because of the pandemic, there will be no state biologist examining deer at Manuel Correllus State Forest station this year, and no need to physically bring deer there, Athearn said.
Unlike hunters themselves, Edgartown Police Chief Bruce McNamee said, folks traveling through areas where hunting is permitted aren’t required to wear hunter orange, but “but it’s certainly a safe practice.” McNamee said his department will be working with the Massachusetts Environmental Police to address any hunting-related law enforcement matters that arise this season.
In a Facebook announcement Monday, the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank pointed out several of its properties would be “closed to the general public” until the end of shotgun season. “Only hunters who have been given written permission from the Land Bank will be allowed to enter,” the post notes. Those properties are Brine’s Pond Preserve, Blackwater Pond Reservation, Chappy Five Corners Preserve, Gay Head Moraine, John Presbury Norton Farm, Middle Line Woods Preserve, Peaked Hill Reservation, Poucha Pond Reservation, Quammox Preserve, Ripley’s Field Preserve, Sepiessa Point Reservation, Southern Woodlands Reservation, Tiasquam Valley Reservation, Tisbury Meadow Preserve, Wapatequa Woods Reservation, and Waskosim’s Rock Reservation.
