I first read this when it was shown on “The Shed Antler” blog and I have to say that is one fine collection of antlers. I have been collecting them for quite a few years but have not had as much luck as the guy. It truly is a lot of fun and exciting to boot.

Steve Zappala takes his shed hunting seriously.

John Berry / The Post-Standard Steve Zappala has found more than 300 deer antlers since he began collecting them in the 1970s. He is holding the skull and antlers of what was an 11-point buck. He found the skeletal remains in Camillus in 2002.

Beginning in early March and continuing through mid-April each year, Zappala scours woods and farmland throughout Central New York looking for shed deer antlers on the ground.

“It’s like an Easter egg hunt for adults,” he said. “It’s a great scouting tool for the next fall’s hunting season. Now’s the time to get them while they’re fresh, before the squirrels and the mice chew them up.”

Zappala, a painting contractor from Liverpool, is an avid outdoorsman who enjoys hunting and fishing. He said he’s been shed hunting for more than 30 years. He said he’s found more than 300 and given many away.

“There’s that down time in March between the end of small-game season in February and the beginning of trout fishing season April 1,” he said. “Why not make good use of it and go out and find some stuff?”

Bucks shed their antlers annually during a period stretching from late December through March, depending on the deer, said David Riehlman, a senior wildlife biologist for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

The antlers fall off the deer’s head in two somewhat symmetrical pieces and don’t always land in the same place. Occasionally, a deer will be spotted during the winter sporting only half of its antler rack, he said.

The shedding of the antlers, along with their rapid replacement, are triggered by hormones, which are triggered by day length, Riehlman said. During the deer’s early years, the antlers usually grow bigger each year until the deer ages beyond its prime.

“It’s amazing how fast they grow back,” he said. “Antlers are among the fastest growing tissues in the animal kingdom.”

Initially, the antlers are composed of soft tissue filled with veins. By August of each year, they begin to calcify, becoming hard bone for the fall. They’re shed after the rut, and the process starts all over again, usually in April.

hat’s where shed hunters like Zappala come in. They’re competing with small animals, which chew on them for the calcium and phosphorus.

“At this time of year, the woods are wide open, all the leaves are on the ground and you can see a mile,” he said. “The best day is a dreary, overcast day. Your eyes won’t get maxed out by the sun and the antlers tend to shine when wet.”

Zappala, who is self-taught, said it’s easy once you understand a few basic principles.

“The first trick is to find out where the deer are feeding,” he said. “Typically, it’s a corn field, a corn lot, soybean field, winter wheat.”

Next, look for the nearest thicket/cover area near the food source where the deer bed.

“They’re going to bed down as close to the food as possible,” Zappala said. “They don’t want to walk two miles to get a corn cob. It’s all about conserving energy.”

Other tips include using binoculars to scan the landscape, and on sunny days getting the sun at your back, rather than in your face. Concentrate on the southern and western slopes of any hill, where the deer get the most sunlight during the day. Look for large concentrations of deer droppings.

“And look for a lone or singular pine tree,” he said. “The bucks like to bed underneath them to keep the snow off their backs. They’ll bed there continually, day after day.”

He said he often brings his two dogs, Ry and Carmen, a pair of chocolate-colored Rhodesian Ridgebacks that love to go in the woods but aren’t too interested in deer antlers. They occasionally lead Zappala to dead deer carcasses, he said, or areas where there’s lots of droppings, which they often gobble up.

“My friends call the droppings smart pills. By God, if they’re eating smart pills, they’d be working for NASA,” he joked.

Zappala said he found his biggest sheds to date only two weeks ago at an Onondaga County location he’d rather not reveal.

“It’s an 11-pointer that’s going to score more than 161 (inches gross, using the Boone and Crockett scoring technique) next year,” he said.

His advice for the beginner?

“Don’t give up,” he said. “It’ll be like that eureka moment. Oh my God, I’ve done this. And after that, you’ll develop an eye for the terrain, the habitat, the tines.”

“Once you get involved, you’re done. You’re going to turn right into a fruitcake. I know guys who really get into it.”

By David Figura

Staff writer - The Post-Standard

Driving to pick my son up from work this morning I found myself driving down a very foggy back road at 6:00 a.m. and I was being cautious not only because it was foggy but, because deer are very visible on this particular road.

As I tend to scan the road ahead and the sides as well like I have conditioned myself to do I came up on a small meadow and sure enough there were four adult doe’s browsing out in the open. Thinking they were safe due to the thickness of the early morning fog. They were so beautiful that I decided to turn around and try to snap a picture of them with the disposable camera I always carry.

By the time I was able to turn around and get back I had just enough time to get a quick peek of them through the lense before their tails went up and they bounded for the tree line. That brought back a lot of memories of past hunting days.

It is the truth when I say that Autumn is my favorite time of year but, my favorite time of day is the pre-dawn. That time when it’s light but the sun is not up yet. That magical time when nature begins to awake and start their day. It is so peaceful and calming to see it that it is almost unexplainable.

Seeing them in that meadow this morning brought back a memory of this past November on opening day when I harvested that magnificent seven point buck first thing in the morning. It too was that magical time during the pre-dawn when it was light but the sun had not awoken yet. I can remember vividly sitting in my tree stand after the shot trying to get my adrenalin levels back to normal and looking out ahead at the deer and seeing this ominous fog just roll in and surround us both. It was eerie in one way but, relaxing in another if that makes any sense.

Then almost as quick as the fog came it went and the first glimpses of the morning sun peeked over the tree tops on the other side of the swamp which was out in front of me. Now, if you could picture all this that I have said and feel in your heart how I felt then you know why I hunt and why I am so passionate about deer and deer hunting.

I live for days like that and I live for the days when I can do it together with my son Tyler. To me there would be nothing better than that. Memories are as good if not better than a snap shot printed on paper although snap shots are nice too.

Remember: Life is too short to waste, live every moment like it is your last.

John Hacker

Artist Larry Glaze and Lucky J Restaurant owner Matt Freeman stand under the chandelier Glaze created for the restaurant. The two men and others hung and wired the chandelier on Tuesday. It has 49 lights, a variety of replica guns and is made of manure-spreader wheels and white-tail deer antlers

CARTHAGE, Mo. —

A work of art by an environmental artist is filling a very practical need in a Missouri restaurant.

Larry Glaze created a 10-foot-high, 900-pound chandelier from manure-spreader wheels and deer antlers that now hangs in the Lucky J restaurant east of Carthage on Fir Road.

“It means a lot to us and it’s something for the people of Carthage, too,” said Matt Freeman, owner of the Lucky J. “He lives here, and he wanted a piece of his artwork hanging for the people of Carthage to see as well.”

Glaze has created similar chandeliers for people far away, including actor Clint Eastwood, but he didn’t have anything like it anywhere in the Carthage area.

In addition to the antlers and the manure-spreader wheels, the chandelier shows off five replica Winchester buffalo rifles and two 1860 replica cap-and-ball revolvers.

The three-tier chandelier has 49 lights and replaces a single bulb that hung in its place before Tuesday, when Freeman, Glaze and a crew of others hung the chandelier.
Freeman said each tier, or wheel, of the piece has its own dimmer switch.

“These wheels are interesting,” Glaze said. “The big ones are 1890 manure-spreader wheels, the bars on them are steel, and the wheels had traction bars on them. All the treads are brazed so they stand out. The smaller top wheel is from a corn planter. It has a split rim and the corn seeds were planted between the rims.”

Glaze said the whitetail deer antlers are sheds from live animals. No deer were killed to create his artwork.

“The guns are 1875 Winchester replica .45 cal hex-barrel buffalo guns with working actions, but they will not fire a bullet,” Glaze said. “They’re collector items. The pistols are 1860 Colt cap and ball pistols and the spurs are Mexican spurs. There are two pistols and five rifles and eight or nine spurs. There are 49 horseshoes on it too.”

Glaze said he made the work as a favor to a friend.

“Matt and I go back 15 years before he was even married into the Lucky J restaurant,” Glaze said. “I worked for Dr. Myers on Jackpine Road and he had a walnut plantation. I was the hired hand and I planted walnut trees and raised his cattle and everything else for five years. Matt’s dad had a farm across the Spring River and his cattle used to get across the river onto Dr. Myers walnut plantation, and Matt came over with his brother on horseback to get them back over to his dad’s place and that’s how we met.”

Glaze has been an environmental artist for more than 18 years and makes tables, chandeliers and a variety of other pieces of art from natural things.

Prior to becoming an artist, he was a maxillofacial technician, helping rebuild the faces of cancer patients. He sold his company, moved back to Carthage and became a full-time artist.

By John Hacker

GateHouse News Service

This article is so true in a lot if different areas and it is a shame that the kids today would rather watch tv or play video games than enjoy the fresh air in the great outdoors as well as enjoy nature and everything around it. I have two son’s, the older one does not really show much interest in hunting or outdoor sports for that matter. That is ok, he is old enough to make his own decision. My younger son will be 6 in July and he absolutely loves being outside and has already gone on a couple of shed hunting hikes where he appeared to have a great time. This year I intend on getting him out Trout fishing and maybe in the fall I will take him out with me deer hunting once or twice (on a nice warm autumn afternoon) of course.

Getting back to the article, down in Florida is no different than some other areas. We as hunters can only introduce our youth to hunting and the outdoors in hopes that they will find it interesting enough to stick with it.

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Frank Pickett came of age when a fishing pole, a bow and arrow, a couple of buddies and the great outdoors provided a young man with all the entertainment he could want.

Nature was the focal point of life, Pickett said. It’s just how he was raised.

“When you use the outdoors, you respect them,” he said.

The values of his upbringing even led him to transform hunting from a hobby to his career as co-owner of Pickett Weaponry, the local hunting supply headquarters in downtown Newberry, he said.

But Pickett fears his type is a dying breed.

“You think kids today want to get up at 4 a.m. to sit around and swat away mosquitoes and wait for something they’re not even guaranteed to catch?” he asked. “Nope, not when there’s a TV right at home.”

He said he can’t even convince his own nieces and nephews to peel themselves away from the computer or TV long enough to join him on a hunting trip.

Their idea of big excitement is playing Xbox,” he said.

Pickett’s situation mirrors a trend witnessed by outdoorsmen across the state.

The tables have turned.

Florida’s newest endangered species are the hunters themselves.

Reasons for the Decline

Society’s evolution has changed the significance of hunting from a means of survival to an entertainment form, and competition for the entertainment dollar has never been fiercer.

Preston Robertson, Florida Wildlife Federation vice president, said the myriad of entertainment options current technology offers overshadows the appeal of the outdoors, especially to youngsters.

Nature seems uneventful compared to the mesmerizing animation and interactive adventures children see on the Internet, TV and video games, Robertson said.

He even referred to the diagnosis of “nature deficit disorder,” a syndrome stemming from lack of time outdoors, as coined by his favorite author, Richard Louv.

“If you don’t start hunting young, you probably never will,” Robertson said.

But children aren’t the only ones staying out of the woods.

When hunters find the time to get out and hunt, they want a quality experience with beautiful scenery and large deer, and Robertson said Florida doesn’t have it.

“We have changed to a completely urban society,” Robertson said. “There’s a Wal-Mart where I used to hunt.”

In addition, the majority of hunters don’t even seek Florida’s deer because most bucks are killed before they reach a desirable size, he added.

“We are probably the last state left without a bag limit,” he said.

A bag limit states the number of a certain animal a hunter is permitted to kill each season.

Unlike Florida, Georgia hunters are permitted to legally kill two bucks per year.

“I have heard of Florida hunters bagging as many as 150 bucks in a year,” he conceded with a sigh. “It would break your heart.”

Florida’s lacking animal management program has caused a large portion of outdoorsmen to flee the state to hunt in the hopes of finding game worth hunting, he said.

Adding traveling costs into the mix only lengthens the list of negatives people must evaluate when they consider hunting, he added.

And to make matter worse, the current state of the economy doesn’t provide room for many people to splurge, he said.

License Statistics

Robertson said the steady decline of hunting license sales over the past few years makes it hard to deny the loss of interest in the sport.

“The numbers have crashed,” he said. “I don’t see how you can look at it any other way.”

A resident gold sportsman license costs $100 per year and grants outdoorsmen permission to hunt and fish an assortment of species.

Sales of resident gold sportsman licenses plummeted from 20,075 in 2006 to 1,546 in 2007, according to data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, or FWC.

“Less than .05 percent of the Florida population even buys a hunting license anymore,” Robertson said.

Douglas Shinkle, policy associate for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said hunting and fishing license sales are essential to conservation efforts in Florida because they comprise nearly all of the FWC’s funding.

The FWC allocates its funds to researching and preserving Florida’s water, land and endangered species, which is crucial to Florida’s weakening environment, Shinkle said.

Remedial Programs

A plethora of state agencies and lawmakers are searching for remedies to treat the financial plague caused by the decline of hunting, Shinkle said.

Because hunters and fishermen have generally comprised the majority of the FWC’s funding, they held most of the power as to how the money was spent, Shinkle said.

So Florida lawmakers created the “Nongame Wildlife Trust Fund,” an account financed by revenue extracted from someone other than sportsmen’s pockets, he said.

This fund allows environmentalists urging the FWC to spend money on other conservation efforts than just those related to hunting and fishing – such as preserving the Florida panther – to have a larger impact, he said.

“States are obviously concerned about the drop in hunting license revenue and looking for ways to diversify,” Shinkle said.

Several strategies have been formed through Florida statutes to help the Nongame Wildlife Trust Fund grow, he said.

One statute enforces a charge on tickets given for speeding by more than 5 mph that is deposited into the Nongame Wildlife Trust Fund.

The statute states that the charge increases proportionally with the amount by which the speed limit is broken.

Another statute enforces a $4 charge on the price of Florida car registrations for any car previously registered in a different state.

Additionally, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, known as NSSF, awarded the FWC $64,400 to increase hunting activity in Florida and fund research to identify and convince hunters who are leaving the state to stay in Florida, instead.

The grant to Florida was part of $724,980 the NSSF awarded to fund hunter recruitment and retention to wildlife agencies across 12 states.

The Significance of Hunting

“Hunters are truly a group on the front line of witnessing the impacts of global warming,” said Mary Burnette, National Wildlife Federation spokeswoman. “It is destroying the environments of the animals they hunt.”

Hunters’ passions toward preserving the environment makes them an integral part of conservation efforts, Burnette said.

“Their numbers may be falling, but they are becoming increasingly vocal about the dangers of global warming,” Burnette said. “Right now, we need anyone and everyone to speak up.”

Robertson agreed.

“You have to preserve the land to be able to hunt it,” he said. “The reason I’m such a diehard environmentalist is because I’m a hunter.”

Animal-rights enthusiasts and environmentalists often mislabel hunters as enemies when they are in fact an essential part of a healthy environment, he said.

“I support ethical hunting,” he said. “People who use the outdoors become advocates for conservation.”

The deer population doubles every season, he said. A deer surplus has significantly more negative impacts on the ecosystem than killing deer.

“Hunters are the only way to keep that population in check,” he said.

He said nature needs as much help as it can get right now, which is why the recruitment of a group as involved in preserving nature as hunters is essential.

“Hunters are becoming an ever-diminishing pool,” Robertson said. “And it’s a shame.”

By Elizabeth Leva for The Herald

This bit of news could make quite a few hunters not very happy.

Change in Hunting Rules sought:

CHARLES CITY — The county Board of Supervisors voted 2-1 last night to prohibit deer hunting with high-powered rifles, drawing anger and raised voices from some in the audience.

“We’re going to get you out next term,” said Bill Johnson, addressing the board members.

Also last night, the three-member board unanimously adopted a $22.4 million county budget for fiscal 2009, which begins July 1. That is a nearly 4 percent decrease from the spending plan for the current fiscal year.

The county’s real estate tax rate is being raised by 7 cents to 82 cents per $100 of assessed value.

More than 100 people packed the auditorium at the Government and School Board Administration Building during last night’s public hearing on the rifle issue.

About 15 people spoke, with some in favor of hunting deer with high-powered rifles and others expressing safety concerns.

Several of those in favor suggested it was their right to hunt deer with rifles, or that the current practice of shooting from tree stands was relatively safe. A National Rifle Association representative said deer hunting was essential to controlling the deer population.

Vince Brackett said hunting with rifles is a tradition and it claims far fewer lives than boating in Virginia. “Boating’s far more dangerous,” he said.

Opponents of rifle hunting expressed concerns about stray bullets. One suggested that some hunters would be unable to resist shooting a deer even if they were on the ground and not in a tree stand.

Elbert Parker held a piece of inch-thick wood above his head to demonstrate the ease with which a bullet could go through someone’s wall.

“Your children can be shot dead looking at TV in your house,” he said, prompting an argument among him and members of the crowd until board chairman Gilbert A. Smith tapped on a table to quiet them.

Supervisors had three possible voting options.

The first two would have allowed people to continue hunting deer with high-powered rifles during general firearms season as long as they fired from at least 10 feet off the ground. Both added additional restrictions.

Supervisors Sherri M. Bowman and Timothy W. Cotman voted for the third option, the amendment that prohibits all deer hunting with high-powered rifles. Smith voted against it.

Last night’s vote reversed a decision made less than three years ago to allow deer hunting with rifles.

For that vote in 2005, Smith and then-supervisor Michael L. Holmes voted in favor, and Cotman against.

But Bowman unseated Holmes in this past November’s election, running on a platform that, in part, sought to rescind the use of rifles for deer hunting.

Bowman said after the board meeting that most of the residents who had talked to her about the issue had expressed safety concerns.

“It’s been trying,” she said. “You try to do what’s best and what’s fair.”

By REED WILLIAMS

TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Here is another good tip from Jackie Bushman of Buckmasters and one that will come in handy for all.

Sighting In

It is absolutely necessary to sight in your deer rifle before you go hunting. You owe it to the deer to make certain your rifle shoots where you point it. Even if you just bought a rifle and the store bore-sighted the gun with a collimator, you still need to shoot it and fine-tune the point of impact. Bore-sighting can be precise and can make a rifle shoot close enough to hit a paper target at 25 yards, but it’s not meant to be a substitute for sighting in the rifle on a range.

Twenty-five yards is where you should start shooting when you take a new rifle to the range. You can get a friend to sight in your rifle for you, but I do not recommend doing so. You need to know how to make adjustments to your sights, no matter if you shoot a scope or open sights.

If your sights get knocked off while you’re hunting, you’ll have to resight the rifle yourself, and you need to know how it works. Besides, the more you shoot your rifle at targets, the more likely you are to make an accurate shot on a deer.

Take your rifle to a range where you have a solid bench to shoot from. Use sand bags to create a solid rifle rest.

Most popular deer rifles that shoot slightly low at 25 yards will be about 2 inches high at 100 yards. Hunters who take shots out to 200 or 300 yards usually sight in a little high at 100 yards. If you never take a shot beyond 100 yards, sight in to be dead on at that distance.

Any time you put a rifle on an airplane, you should shoot it at a target before you hunt. For that matter, you should fire at a target every now and then throughout the hunting season.

Once sighted in, most hunting rifles are very reliable, but even the most accurate rifle can be “off” if it’s knocked around enough.

–Jackie Bushman

This is a good story and one that you don’t hear very often.

MADISON — A 60- to 70-yard shot last fall not only brought down a big doe for Dennis Carothers Sr. of Edgerton but also the Department of Natural Resources Ethical Hunter Award.

Carothers was hunting in southeast Dane County the day after Thanksgiving when he saw three whitetail deer on a neighbor’s land. Fifteen minutes later, he heard a shot. Awhile later, he saw three deer appear back on the land he was hunting. Carothers noticed one of the deer was limping and a brought it down with a round from his 12 gauge.

“I waited a while for someone coming up the blood trail, because we have an agreement that we can track deer we shoot onto the neighbor’s land and they can do it on the land we hunt,” Carothers said.

Several minutes later, Carothers tagged the doe and was about to field dress it when Mike Wolff of Janesville and his son, Haydn, came along. Wolff asked Carothers where the deer had been shot, and Carothers said he turned over the animal to see it had been hit with a “killing shot, but it just was able to keep going.”

Carothers learned that Haydn was on his first hunt and had fired first at the doe.

“I just said the deer was his. It was a great experience seeing that father and son out on their first hunt,” Carothers said.

Mike Wolff said Carothers then cut his tag off the deer, which made Haydn “ecstatic.”

“… From a sportsman’s point of view, it was a very honorable thing that Dennis did and a good lesson for Haydn,” Wolff said.

The incident rekindled fond memories for Carothers who was 13 when he began hunting with his father. He now regularly hunts with his son, Dennis Jr., 30.

“Some people may think hunting is just about the shooting but it isn’t for me. It’s the relationships and time you get to spend doing something with people who you like having around,” said Carothers, a unit manager at Kuhn Manufacturing in Brodhead.

After giving Haydn the doe, Carothers didn’t get another deer last gun season, but he didn’t mind as Dennis Jr. took one by bow and another by gun last year.

Carothers’ unselfish act represents what the DNR wants to spotlight with the Ethical Hunter Award now in its 11th year, said Conservation Warden Steven Dewald of La Crosse.

“The theme of the award is hunters engaging in activities that reflect positively on the tradition of hunting,” Dewald said. “Rather than pursuing personal gain, Dennis set a positive example of helping out another hunter rather than thinking of himself.”

Dewald will present Carothers with a plaque at today’s DNR board meeting.

Asked what he’ll say when presented with the award, Carothers wants to thank the DNR and landowners he knows for the many hunting opportunities they have provided.

“Hunting is a privilege not a right but it’s only worthwhile if you have the place to hunt, and I appreciate everyone who allows me and my family the places to enjoy it in,” he said.

By KEVIN MURPHY/SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE

NEWS RELEASE

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Haas Outdoors Inc. PO Box 757, 200 East Main Street, West Point, MS 39773 662/494-8859 Fax 662/494-8742

As they say on America’s Most Wanted show “Here is his 15 seconds of shame” or something like that but, you get the point. I just hope this man get’s what’s coming to him. I certainly do not condone what he has done and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Besides what he has done he has also made the rest of the hunting outdoors men and women who follow the laws and regulations look bad and in the end can only hurt our sport, tradition and heritage.

PRINEVILLE, Ore. — State wildlife troopers arrested a man they called a “serial” wildlife killer for shooting and leaving several deer to rot.

Investigators said 60-year-old Ronald Livermore illegally shot around a dozen deer over the past year and left the carcasses in the Prineville area wilderness.

In August of last year, an OSP plane spotted someone spotlighting deer where some of the animals had been found. They confronted Livermore and said he also had an illegal sawed-off .22 with a home built silencer.

After an investigation, police said they think Livermore would drive around at night and look for the deer, shoot one and move on looking for more. Livermore told troopers he was mainly a vegetarian.

It was not until Friday he was arrested for hunting out of season, weapons charges, evidence tampering, aggravated animal abuse, and hunting with a suspended license.

This seems to have quite a few people concerned and with good reason. Yes there appears to be a problem and yes there should be something done but, I think all options should be explored before a decision has been made. What do you think?

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It’s not just animal rights groups concerned about the issue of killing problem deer that pose a serious danger on the runways of New Bedford Municipal Airport. Hunters were just as upset after Monday’s Standard-Times ran an article saying the airport was getting permits to kill the deer, but “because this is the season in which many does are pregnant, officials will wait until later in the spring or summer to begin the process.”

Mike Ferreira of Freetown, an avid sportsman, was concerned because does (females) give birth to their fawns in the spring, sometimes as late as June. Killing does in the spring and summer would leave their fawns orphaned, and without their mother’s milk, they would starve to death.

“I don’t have a problem with shooting some of the deer at the airport, but if it’s going to be done on a large scale, do it in the fall, when the fawns are old enough and strong enough to fend for themselves,” Ferreira said. “Knowing that there could be a bunch of newborn fawns roaming around hungry in the spring doesn’t set well with me.”

Airport Manager Ed DeWitt said that it was just one of several options being reviewed, and that those sentiments are being taken into consideration.

Most agree fencing in all the runways would solve the deer problem permanently, but DeWitt said that could take as long as 2-3 years to install. Wetlands are among the areas that need to be fenced — that means a year just to get the proper permits, and a fence engineered to keep deer out, but allow turtles and other wetland creatures to crawl under it.

The $500,000-$1 million cost shouldn’t be an issue, with possible grant money available through the Department of Homeland Security. The animal rights extremist groups, which have hundreds of millions of dollars at their disposal, also should kick in, seeing as they are being vocal about not wanting any deer shot.

So until the fence is up, there are still those deer to deal with. DeWitt said there about a dozen deer on the airfield at any given time, plus 3-4 times that number living in the immediate area. A non-lethal option mentioned in Monday’s article included setting up feeding stations to attract the deer away from the runways.

It may sound good at first, but providing more desirable food than the lush green grass the deer are eating now will probably just attract more deer and compound the problem.

Hunters are also concerned that the deer shot out of season will be wasted, as nuisance deer permits often require that the animals be destroyed, but DeWitt said that he wants the deer to be utilized by an institution. Sources say the Veterans Transition House in New Bedford is being considered as a possible venison donation recipient.

Another concern is that as deer are removed, more will just take their places, siphoning them from huntable herds and attracting them away from nearby hunting areas.

Without the fence, the problem will never go away. Let’s hope the airport gets it up as soon as possible, and opens the area to a limited number of hunters during the regular fall season to keep the population in check.

If danger is immediate and a few need to be shot off the runways — even in the spring — I’d rather see a dead deer and fawn than a plane crash.

By MARC FOLCO - South Coast Today.com