Data, uncertainty, and community geography in environmental controversies

Keywords: community geography, uncertainty, wildlife, environmental conflict
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 53

Abstract

In this presentation, we report on a partnership between a suburban municipality in Massachusetts and our interdisciplinary research team to investigate local deer populations, impacts, and politics. Across many suburban and urban areas in the northeastern United States, concerns about high deer populations have generated controversies about if and how to manage the deer populations. The lack of local data on deer populations and the impacts of deer is often strategically mobilized to generate both support and opposition to proposed management programs. In our partner town, a deer hunting program on municipal properties was initiated in 2018. The hunting program generated significant controversy and acrimony and was suspended in 2020. Both opponents and supporters of the hunting program point to the lack of local data as a primary challenge in reaching a more amicable solution. In spring 2021, our team of wildlife ecologists, deer biologists, and human-environment geographers partnered with the town to (a) gather local data about deer populations and impacts and (b) explore if and how this local data collection changes the public conversation around deer management. In this presentation, we provide history on the local controversy and ensuing research partnership. We examine how the partnership merges two pre-existing efforts to build new knowledge useful for both local practice and broader scholarship. We examine how the politics of uncertainty creates space for this partnership and opens opportunities to more deeply understand and theorize the place of data, uncertainty, and community geography in environmental controversies.