County seeks to reduce deer population

[cassiesmom]

This just feels problematic to me. Like something is bound to go wrong with it. Why not just relocate them? What's wrong with deer anyway? People like deer except when cars hit them or they munch on gardens.


From the Chicago Tribune online:
Will County is looking for volunteer sharpshooters to cull female deer from five of its forest preserves.

The aim is to reduce the number of deer to between 20 to 30 per square mile. The Will County Forest Preserve District estimates that's anywhere from 332 to 406 deer.

Using their own rifles, applicants will be required to hit a 1.9-inch circular target at 50 yards five times with only five attempts allowed. Applicants also will have to pass, among other things, a criminal background test and a drug-screening test.

While government-led deer eradication efforts are sometimes controversial, officials said they've become crucial to improving the overall health of the herd, protecting threatened trees and plants, and reducing the types of vehicle crashes that have become all too common in Chicago's suburbs, So delicate is the balance of life in the forest preserves, officials say, that the snacking habits of deer can profoundly alter the natural environment for countless species.

In Will County, among the fastest-growing counties in Illinois over the last decade, officials have spent tens of millions of dollars to acquire land for forest preserves and densely wooded public parks. Those 20,000 acres now provide shelter and an increasingly scarce supply of food to thousands of white-tailed deer that have adapted masterfully to their new urban environment.

Though white-tailed deer are native to much of the northern U.S., habitat changes and near-unlimited hunting in the late 19th century pushed the deer to the brink of extinction in Illinois, said Marty Jones, urban deer project manager at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The state banned deer hunting for 50 years, which, combined with other conservation efforts over the last century, brought white-tailed deer back in a big way.

Anyone wanting to apply must pick up an application from police offices at Illinois Highway 52 and Cherry Hill Road beginning 8 a.m. Monday.

The shooting will be done at night when the forest preserves are closed from December through March.

The forest preserves (and estimated number of deer to be killed) are McKinley Woods (113-114), Lockport Prairie (17-22), Messenger Woods/Messenger Marsh (61-83), Sandridge Savanna/Kankakee Sands (32-50) and Goodenow Grove/Plum Valley (109-137).

The forest preserve board approved the kill in September.

"We believe that this is the best method to deal with the number of deer we have now," said Marcy DeMauro, executive director of the Forest Preserve District, during the period of debate.

Opponents had lobbied for the use of contraceptive darts.

"Killing is not humane," said District Commissioner Kathleen Konicki, R-Homer Glen. "Sharpshooting may be more humane than sport hunting, but it can't hold a candle to immuno-contraception (contraceptive darts)."

More information can be found on the Will County Forest Preserve District web site.

[aTailOf2Kitties]

deer tend to overpopulate until they end up invading urban areas or outgrow their food supply. Then, instead of a small number of healthy deer, you got a whole bunch of underfed ones. Sterilized deer still eat ya know.

Kill them humanely (hence the sharpshooters, and not just a bunch of guys with hunting licenses), but at least donate the meat to a worthy cause.

BTW deer will, in fact, attack domestic animals and people if threatened. They're not all gentle and innocent like people want to believe. I saw a video clip of a doe seriously injuring a totally innocent dog once (and in a neighborhood, at that). They can really, really mess you up when they feel threatened.

[Karen]

Because we humans have eliminated the wolves that kept the deer population in check in most states, deer do overpopulate, ruining forests by stripping bark from trees after they have eaten all the lower growth, and they end up starving, more vulnerable to ticks which then spread to companion animals and humans, and eventually can been seen dead and dying at the side of highways, particularly in winter. It is an awful, awful, heart-wrenching sight. Especially in some Eastern States, like Pennsylvania, the deer overpopulation has ruined forest ecosystems for other creatures, too, causing other species to suffer.

A humane, quick death if far preferable to slow, painful death by starvation, don't you think? I will never forget the skeletal starving deer we saw when I was a kid, licking salt from the roads in western New York state, and the carcasses of the ones who had just died and fell, near the edges of the woods. Horrific.

[Twisterdog]

Because we humans have eliminated the wolves that kept the deer population in check in most states, deer do overpopulate, ruining forests by stripping bark from trees after they have eaten all the lower growth, and they end up starving, more vulnerable to ticks which then spread to companion animals and humans, and eventually can been seen dead and dying at the side of highways, particularly in winter. It is an awful, awful, heart-wrenching sight. Especially in some Eastern States, like Pennsylvania, the deer overpopulation has ruined forest ecosystems for other creatures, too, causing other species to suffer.

A humane, quick death if far preferable to slow, painful death by starvation, don't you think? I will never forget the skeletal starving deer we saw when I was a kid, licking salt from the roads in western New York state, and the carcasses of the ones who had just died and fell, near the edges of the woods. Horrific.

Agreed completely. Humans ruined the natural balanced ecosystem, and now there are FAR more deer than there ever were. They are a huge problem in the midwest, too.

[blue]

IL and/or Chicago deer arent tasty? Why havent they been hunted before now to keep their numbers down?

Deer=food. Where is the problem here.

[Bonny]

Not enough hunters around to hunt them anymore. The hunters that are hunting are going after trophy bucks for the racks. This year they can only shoot 10 point bucks & up as far a bucks go. There is bow, muzzle, & shot gun season besides. Our state is second in deer population with all the corn & bean fields for them to feast on. The coyotes kill a lot of the fawns in the spring around here but there are still a lot of deer.