Environmental secretary Beaton extols value of hunting
Weekend mornings can be rather busy in the Shrewsbury home of Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton, whose wife recently gave birth to a third child.
But with deer hunting season in full swing in Massachusetts, Beaton said he hopes to get a few chances this fall to steal free for a couple of hours and indulge in one of his favorite pastimes.
Beaton, who said he's been an avid bow hunter since his teenage years, hopes to hunt "as much as my life allows with this job that is quite taxing and a 4-year-old, a 3-year-old and a one-month-old at home."
When the opportunity presents itself, though, Beaton said he likes to hunt in central Mass., western Mass., the North Shore, the South Coast and Nantucket.
"There are great opportunities, that's the beauty of the Commonwealth," Beaton said. "We've done such a great job at fish and game to provide so many opportunities and to keep a healthy deer herd, something a lot of other states are struggling with."
One hunting opportunity Beaton said he will be watching from the sidelines this fall is the chance to participate in a controlled deer hunt at the Blue Hills Reservation in Milton. Nearly 200 hunters, chosen through a lottery, will have the chance to hunt in the Blue Hills to help the state control the deer population there.
"I think it's a great opportunity for the public to see what responsible hunting looks like and the service that it actually provides for our ecology and for the overall balance of nature because it's out of whack over there," Beaton said.
The controlled hunt will take place for a total of four days over about two weeks in December.
Though Beaton extolled the virtues of the controlled hunt, a coalition of environmental and animal rights groups called Friends of the Blue Hills Deer last month protested the hunt on the steps of the State House.
"These deer have lived safely in the Blue Hills for 120 years, it is a special place for that reason," Helen Rayshick, executive director of the Massachusetts Animal Rights Coalition, said. "I also believe that if it happens in the Blue Hills, within 10 miles of Boston, every safe place will be open for hunting in the state within a couple of years."
Rayshick and Friends of the Blue Hills Deer have urged Gov. Charlie Baker to prevent the hunt from getting underway, and suggested that state officials control the deer population by using dart guns to inject contraceptives into the deer, rather than killing some.
According to Beaton, the controlled hunt is intended to help control the spread of Lyme disease, reduce the risk of car accidents caused by deer and prevent deer-caused property damage in the area.
As secretary of energy and environmental affairs, Beaton oversees the state's conservation efforts. Though conservation of natural species and hunting may seem to be antithetical, Beaton said the two are not at odds.
"The best conservationists in the world, I think, are sportsmen because without wanting to conserve the area that you're hunting, you're not going to have the opportunity to do the thing that you love very much," he said. "There is a great respect for the animal, a love of the animal, a love of its environment and understanding of its environment."
And even though he admitted that the responsibilities of his job sometimes require him to check his email from the deer stand, Beaton said hunting provides him some quiet time to enjoy, even if the day ends empty-handed.
"If you ever want to be tuned in with nature and a natural system, go climb up in a tree 20 feet and sit there for two hours and just watch everything. You watch the squirrels, you see coyote, you see mink, you see the variety of species of birds," Beaton said. "You just see nature in its purest form, and that's what it's all about. And having the opportunity to take an animal is a bonus."
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