By Dakota Antelman – [email protected]
A new ban will soon quiet hunters’ guns in a part of West Concord where residents say they’ve been rattled by early-morning blasts, falling birdshot, and fear of a tragic accident.
Gov. Maura Healey signed the ban into law late last year. It will take effect March 23, marking the end of legal hunting on state land near Warner’s Pond and Route 2.
While residents celebrate, some hunters are frustrated. Though he’s happy about the legislative success, state Rep. Simon Cataldo (D-Concord) also flagged complications in the state bureaucracy that he said delayed a “commonsense” result.
“We should not have [had] to enact a new law to have this fixed,” Cataldo said in a recent interview.
The state Department of Correction owns the property where hunting will be banned.
The land abuts homes on Wright Road and Oak Hill Circle to the south. The Bruce Freeman Rail Trail and Route 2 mark the property’s northern edge. Gerow Recreation Area and Warner’s Pond make up the eastern border.
Mike McDonald, who lives on Wright Road, described instances when gunshots startled residents. Then, he said, they would hear birdshot rattling off their roofs.
“It can be alarming,” McDonald said.
McDonald also remembered a case in which an environmental police officer responded during an incident. While the officer sat in his truck, McDonald said they could both hear birdshot raining onto nearby trees.
‘Jurisdictional mosaic’
In a November letter to the editor of The Concord Bridge, Greg Theriault described his experience eight years earlier of birdshot hitting his roof. Theriault said the shotgun blast shook his home. His young son, startled from sleep, “cried inconsolably.”
While Theriault said he supports hunting and gun safety rights, he said, “this situation crossed a line.”
McDonald and fellow Wright Road resident Court Booth took action in 2018. Their efforts expanded to include several state and local entities in what McDonald described as a “jurisdictional mosaic.”
“We couldn’t find anyone that was really willing to step up and take responsibility for this big safety issue,” McDonald said.
After four years, Booth and McDonald contacted the newly elected Cataldo, who also struggled to get a firm answer to hunting questions.
Cataldo said he hoped for a simple policy change. As his “last resort,” he turned to the legislative process.
Avoiding tragedy
Wright Road residents submitted testimony to back Cataldo’s bill. Concord Police Chief Thomas Mulcahy also supported the measure.
“What we’re trying to do here is avoid a tragedy of somebody’s child or grandchild getting shot in their backyard, inadvertently,” Cataldo said in testimony before the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources in November of 2023.
Booth joined Cataldo on Beacon Hill and said alarming incidents involving hunters were infrequent but still happened a few times a year.
Capt. Brian Goldman said Concord police have responded to hunting complaints in the area “occasionally.”
Hunters’ reaction
Reached in mid-January, Massachusetts resident Chris Borgatti criticized the ban.
Borgatti is the eastern policy and conservation manager for the non-profit Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. He hasn’t hunted on DOC property in Concord. But he grew up in Natick and Wellesley and said existing rules against hunting within 500 feet of a home are “more than adequate.”
Established regulations also prohibit hunting within 150 feet of Route 2 and 500 feet of Gerow trails, according to a map filed with the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.
Acknowledging that “there are always bad apples” who stray too close to homes and roads, Borgatti said he welcomes enforcement from police. By enacting a blanket ban, Borgatti said the state is restricting access to natural resources.
Swelling goose populations?
Fellow hunter Jeff Bradbury leads a program where he teaches people how to hunt geese. Bradbury said he has been hunting near Warner’s Pond for more than a decade and first heard about the ban when The Bridge contacted him.
“It’s very sad,” he said.
Bradbury described positive interactions with passersby on the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, as well as state and federal wildlife agents.
Bradbury said people traveled from places like Brookline and Brighton to participate in his hunts. He said he and other hunters will find another place to hunt, perhaps having to travel far to do so. And “many of [the new hunting spots] are not going to be as good.”
Without hunters, Bradbury warned, the area’s goose population might mushroom.
He said, “People with good intentions sometimes realize their intentions hurt people.”
