BOSTON — It could be time to update the Bay State’s hunting calen-deer.

Gov. Maura Healey is shooting for expanded hunting access in Massachusetts, as she announced on Thursday that she’s filing legislation to allow hunting on Sundays. The bill would also expand hunting with crossbows, and reduce setback distances for bowhunting and falconry.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Public Health also announced steps to monitor for and raise awareness about “alpha-gal syndrome” (AGS) by making cases reportable to DPH by healthcare providers and labs. AGS is a tick bite-associated allergic condition and an emerging public health concern in Massachusetts.

Healey’s legislation comes after a series of public listening sessions that MassWildlife held in January and February — generating significant interest with more than 11,200 comments.

The majority of feedback supported the hunting changes, citing the need to modernize hunting laws to better meet wildlife management goals, improve hunting opportunities for working families, and reduce human-wildlife conflict.

“Hunting is a longstanding tradition that supports local economies, helps manage wildlife populations, and puts food on the table for families,” Healey said in a statement. “It’s time we update our laws to reflect today’s needs.

“We know many Massachusetts residents travel to other states on Sundays to hunt, and we want them to be able to gather with friends and family here,” the governor added. “By modernizing these rules, we can give wildlife experts better tools to manage our ecosystems and public health while expanding opportunities for people across Massachusetts to go outside and take part in this time-honored tradition.”

The state Fisheries and Wildlife Board has endorsed the proposal.

Healey will file the following amendments in her upcoming supplemental budget:

•Allow Sunday hunting: Massachusetts is one of only two states in the country with an outright ban on Sunday hunting.

•Allow crossbows for hunting: Massachusetts has the most restrictive crossbow hunting laws in the Northeast, and only allows their use by hunters with a permanent disability.

•Reduce setback limits for bowhunting: Massachusetts prohibits hunting within 500 feet of a dwelling except with permission. Reducing the setback for bowhunting to 250 feet would bring Massachusetts laws into alignment with neighboring states and could open up thousands of acres of land to hunting, especially in areas where wildlife populations are exceeding management goals. This will also remove the setback for falconry, the regulated practice of using a trained bird of prey to hunt, because it does not pose any public safety risk.

“These hunting law changes reflect today’s need for increased hunting access, popularity of archery, and people’s busy schedules,” said Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Tom O’Shea.

“Working families often only have the weekend to participate in this tradition, connect with the outdoors and each other, and put food on the table,” he added. “We look forward to continued partnership with the Massachusetts Legislature, stakeholders, and the public to expand access and support healthy wildlife populations and habitats.”

Without population management through hunting, overabundant wildlife can lead to forest degradation and biodiversity loss, human-wildlife conflict, agricultural damage, vehicle collisions, and greater risks of spread for wildlife- and human-diseases, such as tick-borne illnesses.

Deer are a common food source for different tick species. Their populations have been linked to increased black-legged tick (also known as deer tick) populations in the state, and may help support high rates of tickborne diseases such as Lyme disease.

AGS, a non-infectious tickborne condition, is associated with the lone star tick whose arrival in Massachusetts is more closely linked with climate change than deer populations.

Because AGS is an emerging condition in the state due to the northward expansion of lone star tick populations, DPH Commissioner Robbie Goldstein is declaring that AGS will be a reportable condition for one year beginning on April 1, with the opportunity for a one-year extension.

“By making alpha-gal syndrome a reportable condition by healthcare providers and laboratories, DPH will have the ability to measure the impact of this disease on public health and raise awareness among healthcare providers to improve diagnosis and management,” Goldstein said. “Using this data-driven approach, we also aim to educate residents so that they know how to take measures to protect themselves from tick bites.”

Unlike familiar infectious diseases spread by black-legged ticks that are already reportable conditions, such as Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, and Powassan virus, AGS is not an infectious disease, but rather an allergic condition also known as the “red meat allergy.”

A bite from a lone star tick can trigger in some people an allergic reaction to the alpha-gal molecule that’s present in mammalian meat and dairy products. AGS can be a serious, even life-threatening allergic condition.

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