When Andover Village Improvement Society hosts its annual meeting next Wednesday, March 10, deer will get a lot of the attention.
The active conservation group will discuss whether deer are becoming a bigger problem in Andover.
AVIS often gets calls from residents concerned about deer. "Residents are concerned that too many deer are eating plants in backyards that there are more car-to-deer accidents on roadways and that more cases of Lyme Disease could result from the increasing number of ticks that come with the deer," according to a release from the organization.
Sonja Christensen, deer/moose project leader for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, is the guest speaker at the event. She did not return a telephone call to the Townsman before presstime.
Organizers say the Andover area, and other suburban areas, has an overabundance of deer. Christensen will speak about the safety concerns around traffic and other deer-related topics.
If deer are causing more problems for residents, police are not yet seeing the evidence on local roadways. Andover Lt. Cmdr. James Hashem said deer-related trouble happens every year in town. But he doesn't see this year as different from other years.
"It's not unusual," he said of deer-related car accidents. "We always have reports of cars hitting deer."
He tracks deer deaths as a result of car accidents and the numbers do not appear to be increasing.
Hashem said drivers of cars that hit deer have the right to take the dead animal with them. If a driver is not interested, police turn to the town's list of 24 names of people interested in the animals as food.
The March 10 AVIS meeting is at the North Andover Country Club, 500 Great Pond Road, North Andover. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. and is open to the public. A social hour at 6 p.m. will be followed by dinner at 7. A short business meeting and the speaker's presentation will start at approximately 8:15 p.m. Call Fred Snell, AVIS President 978-686-3647 or John Hess 978-470-0806 for a ticket.
Deer vs. Car
Here are the numbers of deer-hit-by-car cases reported in Andover during each of the last four years, as provided by Andover Police Lt. Cmdr. James Hashem: 2009: 47 deer hit by a car
2008: 66
2007: 49
2006: 60
