Drinking was forbidden. As was cussing, card games, and anything else that could get in the way of going to church. Today, they are known as the “blue laws,” the holdover Puritan prohibitions that barred all sorts of activities on Sundays if the fun police saw them as a barrier to getting people into the pews.
Many of those laws are now the stuff of history books. In 1983, the state finally allowed stores to open on Sundays. In 2003, it gave the package stores the go-ahead as well. And now, thanks to legislation announced by Governor Maura Healey, there is real momentum to take another one off the books and allow hunting on Sundays.
“Hunting is one of our oldest traditions, and it’s still thriving,” Healey said Thursday at a press conference at the Frances A. Crane Wildlife Management Area in East Falmouth, where she made the announcement.
“One of the funky things about Massachusetts is we have these ‘blue laws’ that go back to the Puritan times,” Healey said. “We stopped burning women at the stake, and allow people to drink alcohol. But we still have a ban on Sunday hunting. It doesn’t make any sense.”
It’s something generations of hunters have lobbied for — arguing the ban essentially halves the days that working stiffs can get into the woods — but it has remained in place thanks to strong opposition in a state where less than one percent of residents hunt. As the opposition argument goes, having one day a week to go into the woods without hunters present is not too much to ask.
Healey’s move comes at a time when MassWildlife, the state agency charged with the conservation and management of all freshwater fish and wildlife, has been sounding the alarm that they desperately need hunters to help manage an exploding deer population.
It’s been centuries since the intentional eradication of wolves and mountains lions in this region, removing two of their three main predators. Coyotes kill some newborn fawns, but studies show it has little impact on the population. That leaves humans as their sole predator.
Today, scientists say there are far more deer in Massachusetts than when the Wampanoag brought venison to the first Thanksgiving in 1621. And outside of disease, there are only two ways an adult deer is killed in Massachusetts — they’re shot by a hunter or they’re struck by a vehicle, which is the leading cause of deer death in Eastern Massachusetts, according to MassWildlife.
Massachusetts and Maine are the only states with a ban on Sunday hunting. Healey’s legislation would also lift two other state prohibitions that hunters argue would significantly increase their ability to successfully harvest deer.
The first is to allow the use of crossbows, which are banned for hunting unless you have a note from a doctor asserting you are physically unable to draw back a bow.
The second would the modify setback provision for hunters using archery equipment, which currently requires them to be 500 feet from an occupied dwelling, the same as for those using guns. Healey’s proposal would halve that to 250 feet.
The changes were unanimously endorsed Wednesday by the board of MassWildlife, which held five listening sessions on the proposed changes around the state and received more than 11,000 public comments. A significant majority of those responses were in favor, according to a state report, including 70 percent in favor of lifting the Sunday ban.
The endorsement from Healey represents a bold election year move, as hunting has long been a subject that is politically emotionally fraught. After the announcement, where she also highlighted the economic impact of hunters spending money in other states where you can hunt on Sundays, her social media team posted photos of her in a barn coat, shooting a crossbow at a target. The caption read: “Hunters love what Massachusetts has to offer, they just want laws that make sense — and I agree."
Eastern Massachusetts has seen its deer population balloon in recent decades to a level far above wildlife management goals of 12-18 per square mile. Eve Schluter, the acting director of MassWildlife, said an overabundance of any wildlife population has a cascading influence on the ecosystem and biodiversity.
In the case of deer, she said, it has led to a spike in automotive collisions, impacts to agriculture, and concerns about deforestation as the deer overgraze on the forest floor, damaging that habitat for other animals and eliminating many of the seedlings and saplings that would be the next generation of tree canopy.
In 2022, MassWildlife made a major change and essentially allowed hunters to harvest an unlimited number of does in much of Eastern Massachusetts and the islands. That same year, they launched a program allowing hunters to donate the deer they killed, feeding families in need and keeping hunters in the woods long after their freezers are full of venison. To date, the program has provided more than 100,000 meals, Healey said.
Continued concerns about forest damage has brought in unlikely allies in support of increased hunting access, including Mass Audubon, which has come out in support of the governor’s proposals. A representative recently said in a statement that its “position has evolved in recognition of the severe damage to forests.”
On its website, Mass Audubon reports that some of its sanctuaries have up to eight times the number of deer they can sustain, which has hurt plants and shrubs, reducing their diversity and the ground cover they provide for insects and nesting birds. The deer have also gobbled up many of the seedlings and saplings that are needed to replace the mature trees when they are lost to age or storms.
This is the process known as forest regeneration, and it stops when you have more than 18 deer per square mile, according to the state’s deer biologist, Martin Feehan. Estimates for Eastern Massachusetts range from 25 to 50 deer per square mile, and even higher on the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, where the state recently expanded the deer hunting season into mid-February.
The abundance of deer also raises concern about tick-borne illnesses, such as Lyme disease and alpha-gal syndrome. While thinning the herd won’t reduce tick levels on its own, Schluter said, it will make other strategies to combat ticks more effective.
The main opposition to Sunday hunting has always been about safety and sharing the land. Many people, understandably, would prefer to use the woods without weapons present.
“It’s important to recognize those feelings of fear and discomfort that can result in less people going outside,” MassWildlife’s Schluter said. “There’s a perception, but it’s not supported by the data. There’s never been a non-hunter killed by a hunter in Massachusetts. All our hunters are required to take a safety course. Hunting is an extremely safe, regulated activity, and it can coexist with other outdoor recreation activities.”
Billy Baker can be reached at billy.baker@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram @billy_baker.