We Need Your Stories of Encounters with Hunters,and We Need YOU Friday at 8:30 am!

3:30pm Wednesday Update: Delegate Schuh has agreed to start the Anne Arundel County Delegation meeting at 8:30 am this Friday to allow for a 30 minute hearing on Sunday hunting. All of our delegates will be notified. Please join us! They serve coffee and donuts, and last week we were out by 9:30.

Anne Arundel County Special Delegation Meeting on Sunday Hunting

Friday, February 7, 8:30 am

House Office Buildling, Room 142

Park in the Gott Parking Garage and walk northeast across Bladen Street to the House Building.

Last Friday DNR argued vehemently in support of Sunday hunting. Its representative said it is safe for hunters and outdoor recreation to share Sundays in the countryside because they have had NO REPORTS OF INJURIES from Sunday hunting.

Many of us recall encounters with hunters on private land during deer season. Whether they resulted in injury, near-injury, threats, or death to farm animals or pets our delegates need to hear our stories today or tomorrow.

The delegation is scheduled again to vote on Sunday hunting this Friday morning at 9am. They may offer a compromise that adds fewer Sundays than originally proposed. Let them know that Safe Sundays work because hunters and the community know it is a longstanding tradition. The confusion and conflict created by quietly slipping in Sundays here and there is bad policy for everyone.

We will compile your stories and present them at the hearing in writing.

For Emails and Calls to County Delegation click on

Anne Arundel County Delegation

To share a story, simply scroll down to the Post a Comment section below and describe your encounter. If you don't see that button click on the title of the article above and scroll again to the bottom. If technology isn't working for you, email your story to Steuart Pittman at dodonfarm@verizon.net. 

Please include your name and any details that you wish to share. Our delegates are being told that deer hunting is compatible with outdoor recreational activities. Your stories can change their minds.

Speaker Busch Slows the Sunday Hunting Assault

Did you ever wonder how a delegate from Anne Arundel County who makes his living working for Parks and Recreation got to be Maryland's Speaker of the House? Those of us who attended the Friday morning county delegation debate over whether to open Sundays in our county to deer hunting now understand. Mike Busch knows how to influence his peers.

The hearing began as badly for our side as the one last week in which the sponsor, Delegate Costa, was allowed as much time as he needed to explain why he supports the bill and answer questions. Delegation chair and candidate for county executive Steve Schuh refused to allow opponents of the bill to speak last week and he stuck to that position this week. He did, however, allow a representative of DNR to speak in support of the bill for quite some time. The cards seemed stacked against us. We were itching to respond to what we viewed as a biased and unrealistic portrayal of life in rural Anne Arundel County. Past county delegation chairs allowed citizen input and other county delegations welcome it.

Delegates Frush, McMillan, and Vitale all had heard our testimony the day before in the Environmental Matters Committee and all asked questions or made points demonstrating that they understood our position. When Speaker Busch spoke up we had no idea what he would say. We knew he had received scores of calls and emails but we had not actually spoken to him.

Mike Busch remembered every point made by the sponsor of the bill the previous week and was particularly disturbed by the fact that the original presentation suggested that the bill simply allowed DNR to  add a couple of Sundays for deer-hunting, when in fact the bill allows DNR to open all Sundays from early October into January. 

Busch is a Democrat and the majority of the county delegation is Republican. Republicans do not generally support bills that allow the O'Malley administration (which includes DNR) broad authority to make decisions. Busch shared that concern with respect to allowing DNR to decide if we should have fifteen Sundays of hunting in our county. He proposed that the sponsor come back with the bill that he first described, which is to allow only two additional Sundays. "No" would have been a difficult response for anybody in the room at that point. Busch's proposal quickly became the will of the delegation. Well played. Who saw that coming?

The Anne Arundel Horse Council will stick to its position that any and all Sunday hunting is a problem. Safe Sundays are simple to remember and they split the weekend between hunters and outdoor recreation. Whether a fight for just two Sundays of hunting is worth the cost is a question that Delegate Costa will have to answer. He has been a very reasonable and fair-minded advocate for his position and we hope that he withdraws the bill for this year to allow landowners and farmers time to follow through on a commitment to developing alternative means to reduce the deer population.

If the bill resurfaces, we will let you know. In the meantime, please put your email address in the box in the right column so that you get these notices! And feel free to comment below. This is an open forum!

Here is the article on our efforts that ran on the front page of the Annapolis Capital Friday afternoon.