Support Sunday deer hunting to reduce tick-borne illness 

It’s that time of year again. The sun is starting to shine brighter, the leaves are slowly unfolding, daffodils are blooming, and one of the Island’s biggest public health enemies is returning: the tick.

In early April, dog ticks emerge, and increase in numbers as we fade into May. Soon it’ll be their more dangerous counterparts, the lone star and deer ticks, spreading terror. Their presence has gotten so bad that many Islanders are fearful of going out in the woods, or even into their gardens, to enjoy nature. So many Islanders — hundreds, according to the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital — are testing positive for alpha-gal, the allergen to red meat given off by the lone star tick. And of course it’s hard to find an Islander who hasn’t had Lyme disease.

It is a serious health concern, and the Island and its representatives should be doing everything possible and logical to slow it down. 

While maybe it’s not a silver bullet, there is something that our state legislatures could do. While controversial, lawmakers should consider opening up deer hunting on Sundays on private property, granted permission from the landowner. 

Deer are the primary hosts for ticks, and the deer population on the Island is raging. Researched through aerial surveys, biologists found in 2013 that the average square mile on the Island had about 50 deer. That was more than 10 years ago, so the statistics are likely higher at this point. Meanwhile, state biologists believe that a healthy deer population is about a dozen deer per square mile. 

With too many deer, there are spikes in traffic accidents, destruction of native vegetation, even erosion issues on bluffs and cliffsides, with deer repeatedly trampling on coastal paths.

But the greatest threat that deer pose is the spread of tick-borne illness. Sometimes called the party bus for ticks, deer play host for the parasitic arachnids looking for a mate and to reproduce and thrive. And thriving they are. Local biologists say that they have surveyed deer on the Island, finding some with a couple of hundred ticks embedded. Even during hunting season, in the dead of winter, ticks are still present on deer. 

One substantial way to reduce tick populations is to reduce deer populations, their hosts.

State biologists have also found that where hunting is not allowed, deer populations are much higher. That’s on private property. State biologists have found that on private property, particularly up-Island, deer populations can grow to 100 per square mile. That’s a frightening statistic.

One obvious way to address this concern is increasing opportunities for hunting, which the state is proposing. It’s likely that by next year, hunters will be able to harvest deer for an additional month, into January.

But while Island hunters say they appreciate the extra month, the reality is many of them also work five to six days a week. The only day they have to hunt now is Saturday, and that’s still a maybe. If it rains on Saturday or they have to work, they’re out of luck. Sundays, many have said, are the perfect days.

While much of the country has moved this way, Massachusetts is still stuck in its puritanical ways — while we’ve finally allowed the public to buy beer on Sundays, state lawmakers have yet to allow hunting. Blue laws in the early days recommended people attend church services on the day of the Lord, instead of drinking, working, or hunting.

There is also an obvious concern for hunting on Sundays for those who enjoy walks. Sometimes Sundays are the one day of the week they don’t have to fear hunters. But on private property, of course with the permission of the landowner, the land isn’t necessarily open to pedestrians anyway.

There have been repeated bills before our state legislature aimed at opening up Sundays to hunting that have not made progress. In speaking with our local lawmakers, they say they have not been approached by Islanders with this concern. While most of the country does allow hunting on Sundays, one state that has held onto blue laws, Virginia, is considering a change. Lawmakers there are exploring opening up some Sundays during the hunting season. 

A possibility for our lawmakers to consider is a pilot program for the Islands (Nantucket also has a problematic deer population) for expanded hunting on Sundays, to see how it works. The idea of just private property we believe will allow residents to still enjoy nature on a weekend stroll. There has been support for it on the Island. While not official, some 300 residents took an online poll produced by The MV Times that showed a little more than 50 percent of readers supported the idea.

The reality is, we have a serious tick problem that is only growing worse. More extreme measures than expanding hunting should also be researched. One idea long pondered is a campaign of sterilization of the deer population to reduce breeding, but those efforts are costly, and have largely failed where they have been attempted. At this moment, there is really only one logical approach that could help, and we encourage our lawmakers to craft and support the idea of allowing deer hunting on private property on Sundays. Lord knows, we have to do something.