Residents Preserve Right to Protect Ecosystems

This April, ecologically minded residents of Beverly Shores, Indiana, won a victory for the health of their woodlands in a lawsuit against resident Thomas Rossi.

The litigation traces back to the fall of 2000, when the town board voted to allow the culling of deer populations due to tremendous depredation of the native plant communities there. In November 2001, Rossi filed a lawsuit to prevent four families from allowing bow hunters on their own property. He contended that hunting in a residential area is unsafe and that excess deer would die naturally over the winter.

In June 2003, the court dismissed Rossi's suit as frivolous. Soon after, some of the families named in Rossi's suit filed a countersuit against him, citing malicious prosecution and abuse of process. "We wanted to send a clear message to the few individuals who tried to intimidate us with ongoing litigation," says Philip Dickerman, one of the defendants in Rossi's suit and president of the Beverly Shores Environmental Restoration Group. "We will not shy away from adversity or controversy in our vigilance to restore the ecosystem." This April, Rossi and his lawyer agreed to pay the families $26,900.

In response to Rossi's claims that the hunting is unsafe, Dickerman says that the bow hunters are only allowed on property of two acres or larger. The hunters receive signed permission statements from the property owners, hunting is done away from the street and property lines, and each arrow is numbered by the Beverly Shores town marshal.

Many of the deer culled last February weighed only 60 pounds — less than half the normal weight — one sign that overpopulation takes a toll on the deer themselves, as well as their habitat.

— Betsy J. Green