Wanted: More Hunters

"How?" I asked.

"In a democracy, the majority rules. Less than 10 percent of the public are hunters. We're getting less popular every year, and our average age is 49. On the large landscape I think society will do exactly what it's doing in urban-suburban areas--hire sharpshooters. They'll get refrigerator trucks and sell venison on the international market, pay for the whole damned thing."

Last August my friend Jenny got married at the Crane Estate on a day so fine I could see clouds of terns wheeling over striped bass and count every sail between the Merrimack River, 10 miles north, and Halibut Point, 10 miles east. In 1927 plumbing magnate Richard Crane built a 59-room mansion here; you can rent it for special occasions. Under a bright moon I slipped away from the reception and walked through the part of the estate the trustees have "left to nature" by enlisting the help of hunters. There wasn't a shred of evidence that it had ever been an ecological slum.

Lyme disease had convinced the neighbors that deer hunting wasn't cruel after all. So in 1985 the trustees were able to host their first public hunt. It has taken a few years, but now, with hunters assuming the role of wolves and cougars, the estate is a wildlife refuge in fact as well as name. Lyme disease is way down. The understory is lush and diverse. Dunes are secure. All manner of wildlife abounds. Deer, now healthy and strong, have been converted from pest to resource.

TED WILLIAMS's environmental advocacy was inspired by hunting and fishing. 

WHAT YOU CAN DO

If your community has a deer problem, distribute this article. Then find out from your state wildlife agency how it controls deer damage in your forests. For information on managing deer in a way that promotes healthy ecosystems, log on to Pennsylvania Audubon's web site at http://pa.audubon.org.