The survey was requested by Animal Advocates last summer in a meeting with County Executive Ken Ulman, Arthur said. The group has strenuously opposed killing deer for years.
"I don't think we have an over-population of deer, " Grill said.
Residents should adapt to whatever the deer population is, Grill said, using practices that minimize danger to the public or the deer. She also said she feels the 23-member survey committee - made up of residents and members of civic and conservation groups - was weighted in favor of hunting advocates, while her views were marginalized in the questions asked.
Arthur objected to that characterization.
"We didn't indicate to her that her group could write the questions," he said.
Norris also rejected Grill's criticisms.
"They are fallacies," he said. "They are based on the single point of view of the advocates. It's advocacy versus analysis."
Norris said the committee was balanced and accused Grill of wanting a "push-poll," a survey that gives respondents certain facts designed to produce a predictable opinion.
The annual hunts managed by the county's Recreation and Parks department began in 1998. They were suspended briefly after James C. Robey took office as county executive and resumed in late 1999. The hunts are conducted on various days during fall and winter with hunters who must register and be selected to participate.
Since the start, hunters have killed 1,758 deer in the county, according to Philip C. Norman, deer project manager for the county. Over that time, he said, the hunts have reduced the deer population in the 1,000-acre Middle Patuxent Environmental Area south of Route 108 in Columbia from 100 or more to 23 per square mile, Norman said. The ideal, he said, would be 15 deer per square mile.
Other parks included in hunts over the years are David Force in Ellicott City, High Ridge in North Laurel, Schooley Mill in Highland, Blandair Park in Columbia, and at the Alpha Ridge landfill, where trained sharpshooters operate. Hunters use bow and arrows at Blandair, where homes are nearby.
Norman said the change in the health of vegetation in areas were the hunts have taken place is apparent, compared to areas of nearby Patapsco State Park where no hunting has taken place.
He added that it takes several years after deer are removed for deer ticks that carry Lyme disease to also decline.
larry.carson@baltsun.com
