01/09/10 - It is anyone’s guess exactly how many deer live on Block Island, but the newly established Deer Task Force is moving forward with a plan to get them counted as accurately as possible.

At a meeting held Tuesday, task force member George Mellor presented information on the yearly deer harvest going back to 1986, as well as numbers from three helicopter counts taken between 1998 and 2001.

Mellor described the equation used for determining the number of deer on the island by looking at reproduction rates and the number of deer culled each year. He estimated that based on a state Department of Environmental Management figure of 60 percent annual herd growth and the culling of 230 deer through hunting and road kills during the period of 1997 to 2001, the deer population then was roughly 610.

If the 610 figure is accepted as the likely count in 2001, Mellor extrapolated that there were 1,440 deer on the island at the outset of the 2008-hunting season. Local hunter and task force member Chris Blane strongly disagreed with this estimate.

“There is no way there are over 1,000 deer on this island,” Blane said. “I’ve been out hunting for the last two months and it is not getting easier, it is getting harder.”

The three helicopter counts conducted roughly a decade ago indicated a much lower deer population, with the latest count in 2001 showing only 106 deer. Blane, who participated in the previous counts, said that because they were done after snowfalls from a low flying helicopter it was very easy to spot the deer.

Task force member Chris Blansfield suggested that some deer were likely missed in the previous counts because they had found shelter from the snowstorms. Since the current snow covering has packed down some of the brush and has remained for some time, Blansfield suggested that conditions were very favorable at the moment for a helicopter count.

One task force member didn’t think a count was necessary.

“We don’t need to know how many deer there are at all,” objected Bill Wilson. “We know that there are too many.”

However, since the current conditions appear to be ideal and the task force has $2,100 allocated for a count from the Block Island Residents Association, the group decided to move forward with a helicopter count with Blansfield organizing the project.

Only Mellor voted in opposition. His opinion was that helicopter counting was not accurate enough and he preferred looking into other counting methods, including infrared detection.

Deer disposal

The task group also updated its plan to arrange for free disposal for hunters’ deer waste at the transfer station. Hunters can bring the offal and carcasses to the transfer station any morning during the week from 9 a.m to Noon. BIRA has agreed to pay a flat fee of $200 per month directly to the transfer station to cover the costs of the deer removal.

The task force hopes that the free disposal will improve relations with landowners by reducing waste left in the fields, which would allow for more hunting on the island.

Lyme disease

One of the main concerns for the task group is Lyme disease and its prevalence on the island. The task force is still trying to get figures for how many cases are reported to the island’s Medical Center each year. Task force Chair Mary Sue Record said that First Warden Kim Gaffett was working on getting those numbers.

Second Warden Ray Torrey, who was an audience member at the meeting, suggested that since Lyme disease is reportable to the state, there might be health department records available.

The entire group agreed that collecting as much data as possible, in order to gauge the effectiveness of the new programs the task force is introducing, would be a major priority for the coming year.