Hanover seeks to manage deer by bringing together landowners and hunters

While walking through the Mink Brook Nature Preserve in Hanover, N.H., during the CHaD Half Marathon, Robert Spotswood, of Norwich, right, encountered hunter Spencer LeMay, of Hartford, on his way home after a morning in his tree stand on Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (Valley News - James M. Patterson)

While walking through the Mink Brook Nature Preserve in Hanover, N.H., during the CHaD Half Marathon, Robert Spotswood, of Norwich, right, encountered hunter Spencer LeMay, of Hartford, on his way home after a morning in his tree stand on Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) James M. Patterson

By EMMA ROTH-WELLS

Valley News Staff Writer

Published: 10-02-2024 6:31 PM

HANOVER — For several years, Hanover residents have generally agreed that the town has more deer than its habitat can support.

On Tuesday night, about 55 hunters and landowners packed the Mayer Room at Howe Library to talk with officials from the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department about Hanover’s ongoing plan to reduce its deer population. 

“It’s time for hunters and landowners to get re-acquainted,” said Barbara McIlroy, who serves on the Hanover Conservation Commission’s biodiversity committee.

Since 2018, Hanover has participated in New Hampshire’s Deer Management Assistance Program, or DMAP, that aims to help towns deal with deer overpopulation on the local level beyond the state’s annual deer hunting seasons.

In New Hampshire, deer overpopulation is especially prominent in suburban and urban areas where hunting access is usually limited, Becky Fuda, a state wildlife biologist, told the gathering.

DMAP allows hunters to kill more deer than typically allowed with a hunting license. Hunters can enter into a lottery for a permit for two antlerless tags. Hanover issues 150 free DMAP permits annually. This year, 159 hunters applied. Hunters do not have to be Hanover residents to get a DMAP permit.

Hanover is the only town in New Hampshire currently participating in DMAP, Fuda said. Other states have similar programs to help manage deer herds.

In order for a town to partake in the program, it needs to submit proof of deer overpopulation, which is done through deer-vehicle collision data, surveys of native vegetation and documentation of damage to gardens.

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Fuda said she could see DMAP implemented in other towns, but none have applied so far.

David Newlove, a Lebanon resident who has been hunting for 40 years is interested in bringing the program to Lebanon. “It’s a problem,” he said. “I have pictures of 17 to 18 deer walking through my backyard. It’s crazy.”

Property owners can sign up for their land to be part of the DMAP hunting area so hunters know they are explicitly allowed to hunt on their land. “The landowners want the hunters there,” said Kristin Replogle, who moved to Hanover earlier this year and owns a 12-acre parcel near the Connecticut River. “We need to educate landowners on DMAP.”

Participants can hunt with the DMAP tags during the regular deer hunting season — which is Sept. 15 to Dec. 15 — only in areas where DMAP hunting is allowed.

The DMAP area also includes the Trescott Reservoir Lands, Oak Hill and Velvet Rocks recreation areas.

Last year, 60 antlerless deer were taken in Hanover — amounting to about 20% of the tags issued through DMAP.

“Hunting is very safe and good for the management of deer,” said Heidi Murphy, a state conservation officer who was part of Tuesday’s panel.

Besides destroying gardens and cars, deer overpopulation negatively effects the natural ecosystem as well.

According to Hanover’s Conservation Commission, too many deer eating the vegetation or “overbrowsing” in the woods leads to a lack of biodiversity, increase in ticks and tick-born disease transmission, sickly and starving deer due to competition, and forests that are unable to regenerate. 

“To some degree it is our responsibility to control the population,” said Sarah Riley, of the Lebanon Conservation Commission, who attended the Hanover meeting. 

People have destroyed the population of natural white-tailed deer predators primarily through habitat destruction. Bobcats, coyotes and bears still hunt deer, according to the Pensylvania Game Commission. However, the extinction of the eastern mountain lion along with the disappearance of wolves in New Hampshire means humans and dogs are now the white-tailed deer’s top predators.

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department splits the state into “wildlife management units,” or WMU, in order to keep track of the animal populations by area. Fuda said the deer population in the WMU in which Hanover sits (which covers as far north as part of Orford, south into New London, and west into Dorchester) is moving toward the goal population.

“It’s not always about the kill, it’s about the experience,” said hunter Peter Vanderpot, of White River J unction, “I like hunting for the sport and for getting outside.”

It’s too late to enter the lottery for a DMAP permit, or to submit land for the program this year, but hunters can apply next summer for a 2025 DMAP permit by filling out an application at the town office, at 41 S Main Street, or printing one out from the town’s document center at hanovernh.org/FormCenter and mailing it to P.O. Box 483, Hanover, NH 03755. Landowners can fill out an application in person.

  Emma  Roth-Wells can be reached at erothwells@vn ews.com or 603-727-3242.