MARYLAND'S forests and woodlands should be unusually bustling this morning. Some 75,000 hunters, most armed with rifles and shotguns, are taking part in an annual ritual.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving marks both the opening of deer season for hunters using firearms and the most popular day of the year for the wholesale slaughter of those elegant but timid creatures whose only defense is speed, keen senses and camouflage.

Root for the hunters.

They are using their own time and money to provide the most efficient management possible of a deer population that is increasing out of control, both in Maryland and across the country. Hunters cannot be the total answer to the problem, but their participation should be encouraged.

This is not a position arrived at lightly for anyone raised on Bambi -- or for animal lovers of any kind. If your first charity dollars go to animal shelters and horse rescue leagues, the sight of an old tobacco barn full of dead deer hanging upside-down from the rafters is almost too painful to bear.

But worse is the sight of wreckage from a traffic accident in which a driver is killed because a deer crossed his path. More than 4,200 deer-related accidents were recorded in Maryland last year, according to statistics that state officials acknowledge are incomplete. The actual number is believed to be two or three times higher.

Even the low-ball numbers show deer collisions are increasing rapidly -- up from 3,200 in 1996. The animals also cause crop damage worth millions and spread Lyme disease through deer ticks.

None of this can be blamed on the deer. Whitetail does have two or three fawns a year, but their population of about 250,000 in Maryland has remained relatively stable over the past few years. What's happened is that suburbia has gobbled up much of their rural habitat, forcing the deer to share their space with neighborhoods and highways.

What's more, the deer don't mind. Suburban flower beds and shrubbery, planted alongside the occasional soybean field, make for Bambi heaven.

In most instances, the best response is to attempt peaceful coexistence. Put up fences. Plant stuff the deer don't like. Get a vaccination for Lyme disease. Drive through wooded areas very carefully, especially at dawn and dusk.

There have been some experiments with deer contraception, but it doesn't work unless the animals are penned in.

With few predators threatening the deer, the only effective control on their numbers is coming from hunters, who are expected to thin the herd this year by at least 100,000 -- mostly today and in the two weeks of firearm season that lie ahead.

Much of the hunting is done on private farms and estates. More could be done with controlled one-day hunts in parks and residential communities with large, wooded tracts if neighbors agree.

Another option is to expand hunting season. Gov. Parris N. Glendening missed an opportunity earlier this year when he vetoed a bill that would have extended the season to three weeks from two and included one Sunday -- the Sunday after Thanksgiving -- in seven rural counties.

The governor argued that hikers, trail riders and others who share the woods with hunters have only Sundays to themselves during hunting season. But that argument probably carries more weight in suburban counties not included in the bill, such as Anne Arundel and Baltimore, where recreational woodlands are at a greater premium.

Hunting seems to have come full cycle. A necessity of survival down through the ages. A sport in recent times. But, when it comes to deer, at least, a necessity once again.