Assessing Hunter Values, Expectations, and Satisfaction Regarding Controlled White-tailed Deer Hunts in Suburban Eastern Massachusetts
Creators: name: McCarthy, Susan
Publisher: name: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Year: 2025

The Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife), the state agency responsible for managing white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), is tasked with maintaining deer populations at both biologically and culturally beneficial levels and supports deer management in the form of regulated hunting as a fiscally responsible, ecologically sound, and socially beneficial strategy for meeting that objective. White-tailed deer are ubiquitous throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, particularly in eastern portions of the state where 
 suburban neighborhoods, scattered woodlots, and ample travel corridors create a landscape mosaic comprised of high-quality deer habitat and protection from hunting. Given that native predators of deer, gray wolves (Canis lupus) and mountain lions (Puma concolor), have been locally extirpated, deer mortality rates due to predation are lower than historic levels. Regulated hunting by licensed individuals serves as one of the only remaining mortality factors for adult deer. Suburban environments, however, often serve as refugia from hunters as firearm discharge setbacks and numerous local bylaws highly restrict hunter access to suburban deer habitat. Lack of predation by both extirpated carnivores and hunters coupled with the abundance of high-quality habitat have resulted in increased survival and reproductive rates of suburban deer. Subsequently, deer populations in suburban eastern Massachusetts have continued to grow and become denser over the long-term. High deer densities in these heavily human-populated landscapes have resulted in severe ecological damage to remaining undeveloped parcels of land 
 as well as an abundance of human-deer conflicts in the form of property damage, deer-vehicle collisions, and increased instances of tick-borne illnesses. Among many logistical challenges associated with suburban hunting is the concern regarding long-term availability of devoted hunters. If deer density goals are to be met, managers must depend on individuals with an interest in suburban hunting who are motivated to reduce deer populations to desired levels, or at a minimum, slow their continued growth. If regulated hunting is to be used as the primary management tool for addressing overabundant deer populations in eastern Massachusetts, it is of significant importance that there is a dependable suburban hunting constituency. Without hunters willing to participate in suburban deer management programs annually, it is unlikely that deer densities will ever be reduced to numbers that minimize ecological degradation and human-deer conflicts. 
 In 2015 a controlled deer management program designed to address the ecological impacts caused by deer was designed for the Blue Hills Reservation near Boston, Massachusetts. This development provided an opportunity to investigate the motivations, expectations, and values of suburban deer hunters through a questionnaire. This research effort consisted of a comprehensive web-based questionnaire designed to investigate suburban deer hunters‚Äô values, motivations, perceptions, and expectations for their hunting experiences. Results of this study 
 will facilitate the first steps toward developing effective and lasting deer management programs in suburban eastern Massachusetts towns by using the adaptive impact management approach. MassWildlife biologists and managers will be better able to understand what motivates hunters to participate in controlled deer hunts so that they may guide communities in developing more successful, lasting deer management programs. Without devoted hunters who are willing to contribute high levels of effort to reduce deer densities, suburban deer management programs 
 using regulated hunting will not likely prove successful. If community members, town representatives, and state wildlife authorities communicate clearly to make realistic, science-based decisions, effective suburban deer management programs using regulated hunting may be attainable in eastern Massachusetts.