The members of the Deer Task Force know they are on the horns of a dilemma: How to reduce the deer herd when hunters are restricted on how many bucks they can take and when homeowners are reluctant to allow hunting on their property due to safety concerns.
These were the questions the members mulled at their most recent meeting on Monday, Nov. 30.
They came to a trio of conclusions: embarking on an education program that would espouse the safety of bow hunting on private property, petitioning the Town Council to remove the restrictions on the numbers of bucks that can be taken by each hunter, and to also let island hunters know that there is an organization on the mainland that will accept whole deer carcasses that have been field dressed but not fully butchered.
This last bit of news, which was announced by DTF member Heather Hatfield, was welcomed by a new member of the DTF, Tom Walsh, who is a hunter.
“We’re trying to come up with a plan to move deer off island,” said Hatfield at the outset of the meeting, while adding that hunters “would shoot more deer if they didn’t have
