I know it sounds like something of an oxymoron, but Monticello's Allerton park (the wilder south side, not the side with the statues and stuff) has a few moderate inclines and a nice section of restored prairie. And the south side just reopened after nine--count them, nine--weeks of deerhunting season. That means we haven't been able to run or walk--I mean hike--at the park since October 22. Right around or just after October 22, we drove there with Tifani, Sofia, and their dog Maggie, and the entrance was ribboned off, admitting hunters only. That's when we learned about the hunting.
Now the hunting itself didn't shock me so much. I grew up in Tennessee, after all, with a dog who could fashion his nose, back, and tail into a perfectly straight line when a bird flew overhead, and who disappeared for days at a time with my dad during autumn. I even went to grad school in a place where the first day of deer season was a no-school holiday for the local school district.
So in early November when I wanted to go running at Allerton, figuring park management only allowed hunting on, say, alternate weeks, I called the park office to find that the south side would be closed until Christmas Day. I was so stunned by the news that I didn't really register the park woman's explanation--that October 22-29 was set aside for a shotgun hunt, and then October 30-December 24 the park would be closed for bow and arrow hunting.
I hung up, disappointed about the news that we wouldn't be able to hike or run until Christmas Day. But then wait a minute. Did she say bow and arrow? As in William Tell? Cowboys and Indians? I found this reference to "bow and arrow" hunting somewhat puzzling, but even more puzzling, I thought, is that bow and arrow toters--archers I think is the proper name--would follow the guys in trucks with gunracks. Now I don't know much about archery, but it seems to me that the level of difficulty is already pretty high without letting the crazy shotgun shooters in there first. John and I speculated that the bow and arrow hunt would be followed by those who want to use even more challenging means of bagging themselves a deer--like a lasso fashioned from twine, or, my favorite idea, a tarp. And the poor deer. Dying from an arrow wound must be much slower than a bullet. But how would I know? I didn't even know people still used those things.
According to the Allerton fact page on the deer hunt, "An archery hunt was chosen over alternative methods of deer control for reasons of safety, efficacy, and IDNR approval." The IDNR is apparently the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. I visited the IDNR website to try find out just how effective (and safe) bow and arrow hunting is, and while I couldn't find that information, I did find plenty of information on purchasing "harvest pins" to mark the bagging of a deer or a turkey. I assume hunters sport these pins on their orange hats, like football players who get a helmet sticker for every QB sack. Quarterbacks, turkeys: what's the difference really? For starters, the QB has an offensive line, and as that very funny Fountains of Wayne song puts it, "all kinds of time."
Anyhow, the protracted hunt, the Allerton page says, is for "research" and follows a "successful" similarly-structured hunt in 2004, the year I was gone to Pittsburgh (which accounts for my utter confusion about the park's closure). The 2004 hunt, according to the site, "was generally well-received in the community, resulting in 1,020 applications to participate in the hunt." Now, gauging the community reception from the number of hunting applications seems to me to be stacking the deck somewhat. If these 1,020 applications come from Monticello alone, then I admit that's pretty overwhelming community support. But Monticello only has a notch more than 5,000 residents, indicating to me at least that unless the applicants included a couple of preschoolers, they most likely came from a more widespread area, like, say, the state. Not the community. The site goes on to admit that "There was some concern among animal rights advocates regarding the choice of bow hunting over shotgun or sharp-shooting, but objections were relatively minimal."
Hm, now, maybe my intuition about bow and arrow hunting is right. It seems like a much more slow and painful death, and I still wonder about efficacy. I mean the notion that the archers got eight times the number of days on the land as the shooters seems like they might not be quite so efficacious. I hope the Allerton folks can get it straight, and I also hope to someday see the results of this research they're conducting on white tail deer. Very curious about that research.
