Vineyard Residents Pour Out Stories of Tick Illnesses Before Wildlife Agency

By IAN FEIN

After listening to a crowd of Vineyard residents describe the high prevalence of tick-borne diseases on the Island as a public health crisis, the chairman of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife board promised this week that the state agency will take action to address the Dukes County deer population.

"This board, I can guarantee, is going to do something and respond to this problem. You will hear from us in a very timely fashion," wildlife board chairman George Darey of Lenox told Island residents at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven on Wednesday. "We've heard you loud and clear, and will act accordingly."

The remarks came during a rare visit to the Vineyard by the wildlife board, which held its official monthly meeting on the Island this week for what may have been the first time.

The board held the meeting, in part, to accept public comment about possibly extending the deer hunting season on the Island, where debilitating tick-borne diseases, such as Lyme disease, have reached epidemic proportions. Deer ticks are the primary - and possibly only - known transmitter of Lyme disease in the United States.

A large turnout of Vineyard residents told personal stories of suffering from the disease, and put a human face on some of the startling numbers that have emerged in recent months.

A comprehensive health study made public last winter found that one in five Vineyard residents reported having some form of a documented tick-borne disease, and earlier this month officials from the Martha's Vineyard Hospital said they saw a sharp increase in Lyme disease cases this summer, possibly in record numbers.

A significant number of residents at the meeting on Wednesday came from Chilmark - where the health report found 37 per cent of the year-round population said they had a documented tick-borne disease.

Chilmark resident Elizabeth Zane described a near-fatal bout she had with babesiosis last summer, which resulted in the loss of her spleen.

"And now if I were to be reinfected by a tick with babesiosis, I could possibly die," Mrs. Zane told the wildlife board. "People ask me why I still live on Martha's Vineyard, and that's a very good question. But I love it here and am going to try to stick it out. I encourage you to act as quickly as possible, and am considering becoming a hunter myself."

Chilmark resident Gertrude (Trudy) Taylor, 82, recounted her first of two bouts with Lyme disease several years ago, and the difficulty she faced in finding appropriate treatment.

"It is a really devastating illness, and I want you to do something about it. One person getting this sick is not worth looking at a beautiful deer," Mrs. Taylor said. "I used to interrupt my mother's telephone conversations years ago to say ‘look at this beautiful deer.' Now I don't do that anymore," she told the board. "Today I could drown it."

Chilmark resident Samuel Feldman - a member of the informal tick task force - called it a public health crisis and asked the board to help. Mr. Feldman and others at the meeting also suggested that the high rates of Lyme disease could pose a threat to the Island tourist economy.

"The suffering of these people is amazing, and very sad. But it's obviously something that could be helped if the deer population is reduced," Mr. Feldman said. "So we would like your help - we need your help - to reduce the deer population to a manageable density. We implore you to extend the deer hunting season."

Prior to the public comments, state deer biologist William Woytek gave a presentation about deer management on Martha's Vineyard and across the commonwealth. Mr. Woytek noted that while the division is meeting most of its goals and doing better than many other states in the region, Dukes County is one of four areas in the commonwealth where the deer population is greater than the desired density.

The division estimates the Vineyard population at about 40-to-50 deer per square mile, but would like to get that number down closer to 15.

Tufts University parasitologist Sam Telford, who has been studying deer and tick populations on the Vineyard and Nantucket for more than a decade, has said that such a reduction would reduce the prevalence of tick-borne diseases by as much as 85 per cent. A single deer can feed dozens of ticks, Mr. Telford said, and each female tick can lay between 2000 and 3000 eggs.

Mr. Woytek said that the current population density is healthy for the native deer from a biological and ecological standpoint, but their interaction with the human population - through tick-borne disease, automobile accidents and property damage - causes the problems.

Hunting is the primary tool for deer management in the state, which for at least the last 15 years has engaged in an ongoing effort to increase its annual harvest - a term used to describe the number of animals killed during a season. Mr. Woytek said the Vineyard population leveled off in recent years as a result of an increased doe harvest, but the division goal is still to see the density decline.

One of the fastest ways to see that goal realized, he suggested, is to extend the shotgun season here from one week to two. Dukes County and Cape Cod are currently the only two regions in the commonwealth with a one-week season.

Vineyard residents several years ago had the option of changing their shotgun season to two weeks, but requested instead to remain at one week while the division extended the season elsewhere in the state.

The Island now appears to have changed its mind.

"If you could make a 52-week deer hunting season on this Island I would support it," said Frank Ferro of West Tisbury. "And I'm not a member of the NRA [National Rifle Association]. I haven't fired a weapon since I was discharged from the Army 50 years ago."

Not one Vineyard resident at the meeting on Wednesday opposed increased hunting opportunities. The only concerns came from a representative of the national Humane Society, who asked the board to provide more accurate deer population numbers before increasing the hunting season and to involve the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in addressing the Lyme disease situation.

The fisheries and wildlife board is required to hold a public hearing before making any changes to deer hunting regulations. Board members indicated this week that they would schedule a public hearing soon.

"I've got to tell you, the comments we received today are far different than what we received when we were here before," division director Wayne F. MacCallum said. "We listened to the community then, and I suspect the board is going to listen to you again."

While much of the discussion on Wednesday focused on extending the shotgun season to a second week, some Vineyard residents offered other suggestions that they said would be more effective - in particular, extending the archery season into Thanksgiving week, shifting the muzzleloader season to before the shotgun, or possibly creating a deer hunting derby.

One option not discussed was the institution of a special shotgun season later in the winter.

Nantucket, which faces a similar tick-borne disease problem with a similar deer population density, tried such a measure last February. A large number of off-Island hunters flooded the island, and Nantucket residents complained to their selectmen about disruptions and general mayhem.

As part of its monthly business on Wednesday the wildlife board set a public hearing on Nantucket for Nov. 21 to rescind the special February shotgun season on the island.

Mr. Woytek also noted that while the length of the season obviously affects the deer harvest, another factor often overlooked is access. About half of the Vineyard is forested deer habitat, he said, but much of that is inaccessible to hunters.

Aquinnah resident Spencer Booker, who is also a conservation ranger for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), asked other Island residents at the meeting on Wednesday to take the access issue to heart.

"As you travel up-Island, you see a lot of ‘No Hunting' signs. This creates oases for deer to thrive," Mr. Booker said. "If you have any sway to tell these property owners to open up their land for hunting, even for a year or two, I think you would be doing all of us a lot of good."