O’Shea said that landowners must post their property if they don’t want hunters to use it. Regardless of posting, hunters are prohibited by state law from hunting within 500 feet of a ’’dwelling in use’’ or within 150 feet of a paved road.
’’It’s all about balancing,’’ O’Shea said. ’’There are no really natural predators that control deer populations, particularly in suburban areas. There really are two main sources of mortality, and those are vehicle collisions and hunting. We obviously want to reduce vehicle collisions with deer.’’
Germani, who has lived in Needham for 14 years, posted ’’no hunting’’ signs on her property’s boundaries after her daughter’s encounter with the man on Nov. 11.
O’Shea said bow hunting is an increasingly popular technique, representing a larger and larger proportion of the overall deer killed each season.
’’It is an effective tool, and we’ve shown that over time we’ve been able to reduce deer densities in suburban areas,’’ O’Shea said. ’’The safety record for bow hunting is excellent... I think it’s a compatible use in suburbia.’’
Needham prohibits discharging a firearm on town land but not bow-hunting. Fitzpatrick said the town has not granted anyone permission to hunt with a bow on its land, but was unsure if such hunters needed the town’s permission, meaning bow hunters may be in a gray area.
Hunting of any kind is banned on the Ridge Hill Reservation, according to Needham Conservation Commission rules provided to the Globe.
It is legal to use firearms on private property and federal land within Needham’s borders, though hunters using them must abide by the state laws that prohibit hunting too close to homes and define hunting seasons. The shotgun season for deer started Monday.
According to a map provided by town officials, some of the land behind the houses on the east side of Pine Street is federally owned, while houses on the West side, including Germani’s, abut a green-shaded conservation area.
