Hunting Season

Hoping to ambush an unsuspecting deer, Chris McAvinue perched precariously in an oak tree as darkness became dawn.The distant drone of traffic from Interstate 83 penetrated the dense woods of Gunpowder Falls State Park in northern Baltimore County. Pulley-aided compound bow in hand, McAvinue stood almost statue-still, peering slowly about for his quarry.For most Marylanders, autumn is a season of colorful foliage, falling leaves and migrating waterfowl. But for thousands of outdoors enthusiasts, it is also hunting season, a chance to get into the woods, to fight off cold, sleep and boredom and maybe bag a deer.

Neighbors of Patapsco Valley State Park are challenging the state Department of Natural Resources' recent proposal to triple the amount of parkland open to deer hunters with bows and arrows for the 4 1/2 -month hunting season that begins this fall.The department may make a final decision on the proposal -- which is aimed at reducing the park's growing deer population -- within a week, said Walter Brown, the park's manager.After a public meeting on the proposal Aug. 20 in Marriottsville, some park neighbors -- largely in western Howard County -- have collected more than 200 signatures on a petition opposing it.They fear that expansion of deer hunting with bows and arrows would endanger nonhunters and limit their use of the 14,000-acre park, which stretches across Howard, Carroll and Baltimore counties.

Neighbors of Patapsco Valley State Park are challenging the state Department of Natural Resources' recent proposal to triple the amount of parkland open to deer hunters with bows and arrows for the 4 1/2 -month hunting season that begins this fall.The department may make a final decision on the proposal -- which is aimed at reducing the park's growing deer population -- within a week, said Walter Brown, the park's manager.After a public meeting on the proposal Aug. 20 in Marriottsville, some park neighbors -- largely in western Howard County -- have collected more than 200 signatures on a petition opposing it.They fear that expansion of deer hunting with bows and arrows would endanger nonhunters and limit their use of the 14,000-acre park, which stretches across Howard, Carroll and Baltimore counties.

Complaints from Howard County residents about the havoc caused by the rampant deer population have prompted the Department of Natural Resources to call for a much larger bow-hunting area in the Patapsco Valley State Park.For the past four years, bow-and-arrow hunting has been used on more than 800 acres of the state park to help curb the exploding deer population.Now the department wants to add 1,800 acres to the hunting area to reduce the number of deer and ensure that those remaining are healthy.

The mushrooming deer population in Howard County has grown from a backyard curiosity to a substantial economic problem, spurring the County Council to ask a task force to find ways to bring the menace under control.The damaged shrubbery, acres of lost crops and increased traffic accidents that the animals are causing countywide have been costly to homeowners, farmers and drivers.Now the 15 task force members will ponder solutions ranging from extending the hunting season to allowing hunters to kill more than the current limit.

During early October a couple of years ago, while scouting an upper section of Savage River State Forest for the coming deer season, I watched a black bear trundle out of a neighboring cornfield, rest on its haunches for a moment while it vigorously sniffed the breeze, and then amble into the far tree line.It was the only black bear I have seen in the wild in Maryland, and even at more than 100 yards, for a flatlander it was exciting to watch because the black bear is a secretive and mostly nonconfrontational animal.

Two people were shot yesterday on the first day of Maryland's hunting season, including a Glen Burnie man who was accidentally shot by his grandson, spokesmen for the Department of Natural Resources said.James G. Jarvis, 59, of the 1900 block of Norwich Road, was hunting with his family at about 6:30 a.m. yesterday near a gravel pit in Odenton when he stepped in front of a 12-gauge shotgun blast fired by the 14-year-old boy.In the other accident, a stray bullet likely fired by a hunter pierced the walls of a Middletown home and struck a 4-year-old boy in the arm, said Cpl. Robert Taylor of the Maryland Natural Resources Police.

Two people were shot yesterday on the first day of Maryland's hunting season, including a Glen Burnie man who was accidentally shot by his grandson, spokesmen for the Department of Natural Resources said.James G. Jarvis, 59, of the 1900 block of Norwich Road in Glen Burnie was hunting with his family about 6:30 a.m. yesterday near a gravel pit in Odenton when he stepped in front of a 12-gauge shotgun blast fired by the 14-year-old boy.In the other accident, a stray bullet likely fired by a hunter pierced the walls of a Middletown home and struck a 4-year-old boy in the arm, said Cpl. Robert Taylor of the Maryland Natural Resources Police.

LITTLE ORLEANS -- Ed Harmon arrived at Green Ridge State Forest from Pasadena well before noon yesterday, parked his 25-foot camper along the slope of a snow-dusted ridge, and waited.The 40-year-old corrections officer was looking for his buddies from the Baltimore area to show up with their hunting and camping gear -- and even their children -- to help perpetuate a tradition that, for some, goes back generations: hunting at Green Ridge State Forest.The opening of Maryland's firearms hunting season today will attract about 3,000 hunters to the 38,811-acre forest in Allegany County and transform the usually serene woods into bustling villages of tents and campers -- "tent cities," as park rangers call them.

THE RECOVERY of the black bear in Western Maryland's mountain woodlands is a bona fide success story for wildlife management. It's also a horror story for some residents who share their habitat with the bears, which have become increasingly comfortable with human surroundings.That's a potentially dangerous familiarity, when these large, wild creatures appropriate porches and driveways, feast on cornfields and livestock, forage garbage cans and bird feeders.While there's no documented bear attack on a human in Maryland in modern times, the close encounters appear on the rise with the expansion of development in Garrett and Allegany counties and the growth of the state's bear population, estimated at 200 animals.