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Copyright 2003 The Baltimore Sun Company
All Rights Reserved
The Baltimore Sun
January 21, 2003 Tuesday HOWARD Edition
SECTION: LOCAL, Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 703 words
HEADLINE: County seeks to curtail deer in future park;
Bowhunters will try to reduce Blandair herds;
Crop loss, road hazard noted;
Homes near farm fields dictate arrows over guns;
Columbia
BYLINE: Larry Carson
SOURCE: SUN STAFF
BODY:
The 140 deer that live on Blandair wander freely on the 300-acre future park in the center of suburban Columbia, even crossing busy Route 175 in bunches, according to hunters who have seen their tracks.
But without natural predators, they have been eating up to 20 percent of the feed corn that farmer Mark Mullinix grows on rented fields on the Blandair property along Oakland Mills Road. So Howard County has applied for a state permit to send in experienced bowhunters to thin the pesky herd.
Robert Yohe, 79, said he has seen deer jump the chain-link fence around his pre-Columbia Oakland Mills Road home next to the farm fields, and use a hoof to tip a bird feeder in his back yard to eat the seed. He, and others who live in the area, do not object to the hunt. "They're not going to shoot close to anyone's house. It's not dangerous," he said.
A growing suburban danger is hitting a deer with a vehicle. The number of deer killed on state and county roads in Howard County totaled 1,005 last year, according to county and state officials.
The growing deer population - with attendant cases of tick-caused Lyme disease - prompted the county to arrange controlled deer hunts in undeveloped areas of David Force Park in West Friendship and the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area in River Hill.
Maryland hunters using modern firearms killed 41,469 deer statewide during the two-week hunt after Thanksgiving. In Howard, hunters killed 544 deer, a 28 percent increase, state officials said.
"They're eating us alive," Mullinix said about the deer on the 60 acres he rents from the county south of Route 175. The deer "do 90 percent of their work at night," he said, so he rarely sees any - just what they have wrought.
"Everybody recognizes that there's a huge issue. It's sad. They're everywhere," said Sylvia Ramsay, a resident nearby and a member of the citizens group planning for the conversion of Blandair Farm into a park.
Phil Norman, Howard County deer project manager, said the county is awaiting a crop damage permit from the state to allow the hunt, which will be managed by Marty Hayes, founder of Suburban White Tail Management of Maryland - a group of experienced, highly skilled hunters who hunt on farmland all over Maryland. After the permit is issued, the hunt will be scheduled.
Hunting will take place only when school is in session, and all the hunters are to be shooting from elevated stands and their arrows directed downward.
Norman said the county will allow only bows and arrows because the fields are nearly surrounded by homes.
"Bowhunting is a much less efficient way of harvesting deer based on the amount of effort on the part of the hunters, but safety is extremely high, and it's quiet." Norman said.
Hayes, 53, said he will be one of eight bowhunters working from ladder stands.
He and hunters in his group will shoot from no farther than 30 yards, after studying a target for several minutes. His members can consistently hit a 3-inch diameter circle at that distance, Hayes said. For practice, he shoots at golf balls suspended on strings, he said.
No hunter will be closer to a home than 150 yards, he said. And cold, snowy weather is especially good for hunting, he added, because snow muffles sound and helps disguise hunters visually, while the cold helps disguise human scent.
The county sent 754 surveys to residents near the fields and informed the citizens committee working on plans for Blandair. Of the 397 surveys returned, Norman said, 65 percent supported hunting.
Area village boards will be notified once a date is set and the area will be heavily posted, Norman and Hayes said. The hunts will take place before 11 a.m. on schooldays, though Hayes said he is considering some evening hunting, too.
Jillian Borchard, 29, who lives on Shadowfall Terrace across from the fields, said, "I don't have a problem with deer hunting by bow and arrow," though she would like to know exactly when the hunting will occur because she sometimes walks her dog in the field.
Hayes said she has nothing to fear. In western Howard on other farms where he has hunted, he said, "I have horse riders pass by me all the time. They never even know I'm there."
All Rights Reserved
The Baltimore Sun
January 21, 2003 Tuesday HOWARD Edition
SECTION: LOCAL, Pg. 1B
LENGTH: 703 words
HEADLINE: County seeks to curtail deer in future park;
Bowhunters will try to reduce Blandair herds;
Crop loss, road hazard noted;
Homes near farm fields dictate arrows over guns;
Columbia
BYLINE: Larry Carson
SOURCE: SUN STAFF
BODY:
The 140 deer that live on Blandair wander freely on the 300-acre future park in the center of suburban Columbia, even crossing busy Route 175 in bunches, according to hunters who have seen their tracks.
But without natural predators, they have been eating up to 20 percent of the feed corn that farmer Mark Mullinix grows on rented fields on the Blandair property along Oakland Mills Road. So Howard County has applied for a state permit to send in experienced bowhunters to thin the pesky herd.
Robert Yohe, 79, said he has seen deer jump the chain-link fence around his pre-Columbia Oakland Mills Road home next to the farm fields, and use a hoof to tip a bird feeder in his back yard to eat the seed. He, and others who live in the area, do not object to the hunt. "They're not going to shoot close to anyone's house. It's not dangerous," he said.
A growing suburban danger is hitting a deer with a vehicle. The number of deer killed on state and county roads in Howard County totaled 1,005 last year, according to county and state officials.
The growing deer population - with attendant cases of tick-caused Lyme disease - prompted the county to arrange controlled deer hunts in undeveloped areas of David Force Park in West Friendship and the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area in River Hill.
Maryland hunters using modern firearms killed 41,469 deer statewide during the two-week hunt after Thanksgiving. In Howard, hunters killed 544 deer, a 28 percent increase, state officials said.
"They're eating us alive," Mullinix said about the deer on the 60 acres he rents from the county south of Route 175. The deer "do 90 percent of their work at night," he said, so he rarely sees any - just what they have wrought.
"Everybody recognizes that there's a huge issue. It's sad. They're everywhere," said Sylvia Ramsay, a resident nearby and a member of the citizens group planning for the conversion of Blandair Farm into a park.
Phil Norman, Howard County deer project manager, said the county is awaiting a crop damage permit from the state to allow the hunt, which will be managed by Marty Hayes, founder of Suburban White Tail Management of Maryland - a group of experienced, highly skilled hunters who hunt on farmland all over Maryland. After the permit is issued, the hunt will be scheduled.
Hunting will take place only when school is in session, and all the hunters are to be shooting from elevated stands and their arrows directed downward.
Norman said the county will allow only bows and arrows because the fields are nearly surrounded by homes.
"Bowhunting is a much less efficient way of harvesting deer based on the amount of effort on the part of the hunters, but safety is extremely high, and it's quiet." Norman said.
Hayes, 53, said he will be one of eight bowhunters working from ladder stands.
He and hunters in his group will shoot from no farther than 30 yards, after studying a target for several minutes. His members can consistently hit a 3-inch diameter circle at that distance, Hayes said. For practice, he shoots at golf balls suspended on strings, he said.
No hunter will be closer to a home than 150 yards, he said. And cold, snowy weather is especially good for hunting, he added, because snow muffles sound and helps disguise hunters visually, while the cold helps disguise human scent.
The county sent 754 surveys to residents near the fields and informed the citizens committee working on plans for Blandair. Of the 397 surveys returned, Norman said, 65 percent supported hunting.
Area village boards will be notified once a date is set and the area will be heavily posted, Norman and Hayes said. The hunts will take place before 11 a.m. on schooldays, though Hayes said he is considering some evening hunting, too.
Jillian Borchard, 29, who lives on Shadowfall Terrace across from the fields, said, "I don't have a problem with deer hunting by bow and arrow," though she would like to know exactly when the hunting will occur because she sometimes walks her dog in the field.
Hayes said she has nothing to fear. In western Howard on other farms where he has hunted, he said, "I have horse riders pass by me all the time. They never even know I'm there."
, Art