The city has received many complaints from citizens regarding the deer population in and around our city. The complaints range from deer feces, destruction of ornamental bushes, trees and flowers and traffic hazards. I share to some extent the frustrations of my neighbors as the deer have eaten most of our flowers, many of our shrubs and leave deer droppings all over the yard. Deer bed down in our front yard most evenings and last week we watched three bucks and four doe graze just outside our back window.
The research information I have reviewed suggests that urban areas with wooded boundaries are excellent deer habitats. So human population growth and urban sprawl will not stem the growth of local deer populations. Relocation and infertility programs have been investigated and used and were found to be ineffective and very costly. What seems to help in thinning urban and problematic farm deer populations is harvesting by special hunting programs. Several West Virginia cities have enacted urban hunting programs and our neighbors to the north in Bridgeport conducted their firs hunt last year.
City council is considering an urban deer bow hunting program and I'd like to know what my blog readers think. If enacted, the Buckhannon program would not take place until 2011 season and would be regulated. Additionally a public education program would make efforts to inform and educate all citizens often and early.
What do you think?
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Scott after working for the Division of Natural Resources for several years and hearing complaints about deer eating everybodies flowers, this is what I suggest. First if you are going to allow bow hunting in the city limits, where are people going to be able to hunt??? Buckhannon is very different from Bridgeport, meaning the land in Bridgeport is very different, part of the city is farmland. Second if you have a deer problem only allow the shooting of antlerless deer, that is the only way to reduce the population. Third, how do you think the people of Buckhannon are going to feel the first time an injured deer ends up in thier yard?? My suggestion first is to prohibit feeding of wild animals, when people feed wild animals thier no longer wild. Animals that regularly get hand outs loose thier fear of humans. I think the city is so limited in areas to hunt it will be difficult to alter the deer/human habits.
ReplyDeleteI must vote no. I can see wounded deer ending up in someone's yard, wounded deer running in front of cars on rt 20. Deer when wounded loose all sense of direction. What happens when a deer drops dead in someone's yard who doesn't support deer hunting? Hunting was meant to be conducted in the wild, not in town. How do you field dress a deer in the city limits? The problem is quit simple to solve, quite feeding them. Even if you allow hunting, there are still the city slickers that think the deer are cute by the edge of the porch and continue to feed them. I believe the problem is limited to the area west of rt 20. I really don't feel it is a city wide problem. I think the deer that are shot are going to create more of a problem than the one's eating granny's poseys. It is difficult to control reproduction. You ever try to slip a condom on a ten pointer. (me neither) I don't feel the gentleman from the DNR gave you folks good advice. The state can't control their own deer, and their methods are not having great success. Drive down I 79. I am an avid outdoors man and hunter as well. Simply put, hunting should be conducted in the wilderness, not the local city park.
ReplyDeleteI must agree with both of the posts. Are there not more important things that council should be doing rather than deciding whether to allow hunting in the city limits? I think so.
ReplyDeleteI am totally against the Urban Deer Hunting. To begin with, we are living in their space, they are not living in our's. Furthermore it is this type of thought process that allowed the white man to seize the land away from the Native American Indians who were here long before us. I have been somewhat tracking & counting the deer here in town & can tell you that this huge herd of deer does not exceed twelve! That's right, I said twelve! As for the people who are complaining about the deer eating their precious landscaping, well that's just too bad! If you don't like it, move to New York City. There you won't have any "in town" deer. Come to think of it, you won't have any lawn their either! I would think that the City of Buckhannon would have much more important things to think about than "City Deer". How about the large number of "nasty" looking young people who are roaming our streets at all hours & have deemed the pavilion at Jaw Bone Park as their headquarters? How about the "bums" that are parking their carcasses, pretty much all day & all night long, on the Main Street? Another concern might be the accusations that most of the City Police vehicles are either broken down, won't pass inspection &/or are unfit to be driven? What about the fact that some properties are being allowed to be in horrible states of disrepair, are properties that are over-grown with natural debris &/or have all kinds of junk & trash on them? What is being done to fix these things? I would suggest that before we start worrying about a few deer just maybe our time would be better spent worrying about much more important things.
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