Local areas where he has noticed a drastic decline include Spencer, Sturbridge, Warren, and the Brookfields. On the other hand, Doherty has seen a surprising increase in many suburban areas where deer find refuge in areas that are not legally huntable because current tree stand restrictions require setups to be 500 feet from a dwelling. Currently, bow hunters are under the same distance restriction as shot gun shooters. This rule doesn’t make sense in light of the inherent safety and shooting limitations of arrows. A 250-foot restriction would be far more helpful to bow hunters’ efforts to manage our herd numbers. If we can reduce the distance restrictions, we can safely increase access — and that’s really the key to better controlling deer populations. Doherty and his loggers daily see good numbers of deer in suburban towns like Dover, Sherborn, Medfield, Rehoboth, Dartmouth and Millis.

Source: Mark Blazis: Fewer deer spotted this season – Sports – telegram.com – Worcester, MA