DWR Snipers thin Bountiful Herd
derekp1999
12/15/10 10:19pm
Not sure if I'd be thrilled with a guy running around my neighborhood with a gun (I have three little ones).http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=13664515
Some Bountiful residents opposed to city-backed deer shootings
December 14th, 2010 @ 9:41pm
By Amanda Butterfield
BOUNTIFUL -- Bountiful city leaders say they have a deer problem and are thinning the herd with the help of a sharpshooter. But some residents are not happy about deer being gunned down in their neighborhoods.
Bountiful city has teamed up with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources to get permission from residents to shoot deer in their yards. It's all to control the population, but some think there are better ways to do it.
"With children around, it just doesn't seem safe. What if there is an accident? All this over a deer doesn't seem right." -Christy Reed
"The population is creating a lot of problems," said city councilman Tom Toleman.
Resident Elden Hollingsworth built a tall fence to keep the deer out of his garden and grapes, but the animals still find a way to get into his yard.
"You have to be real careful when you drive, because if there is one, there are usually four or five right behind it," he said. "Then I don't have any juice or jam to make."
Toleman says the deer are attracted to yards for the food many of them provide.
"We have homes and gardens, so Bambi came down and said, ‘wow, look at all this good food,'" he said.
Toleman says that's why the deer don't migrate back to the mountains -- they are reproducing and living in the foothills and aren't in any condition to be relocated to the wilderness.
"They are domesticated," he said.
But a group of Bountiful residents protested the city council's meeting Tuesday night, suggesting non-lethal methods should be used to decrease the deer population. They expressed strong disdain at the idea of a government sharpshooter with a suppressed .22 calibur rifle aiming to kill in their neighborhoods.
"With children around, it just doesn't seem safe," said resident Christy Reed. "What if there is an accident? All this over a deer doesn't seem right."
Officials with Bountiful city and DWR have been culling deer for the past two months or so, according to Toleman. In January they will decide if they need to continue.
Harvested deer will be donated to local food banks and shelters in cooperation with the Bountiful Community Food Pantry and the Utah Chapter of Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Homeless.
9,954
Whens PETA gonna step in?
22? Where do they shoot them? In the temple or the eye?
"They are domesticated," he said."
That is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. They are just too lazy to transplant them is the problem. If they wanted to do the best thing for Utah's deer herds and moving them in the winter is such a problem then do it in Late summer right before Archery hunt. It shouldn't be too hard to capture them if they never leave the foothills.
Imprinting on deer as fawns dictates their feed and water sources, as well as escapement routes. Transplanted deer have been observed as being "lost" when they are relocated and eventually die of malnutrition and predation.
I worked on the urban archery plan for Utah for about 2 years and was surprised myself when they up and decided to shoot these deer with snipers. We'll see how this pans out.
I know that mule deer are the least likely animal to transplant succesfully but isn't that better than killing them when our herds are so rough.
There are risks that you take when you buy/build a home in certain areas, and you know those risks going in. If you have a home halfway up a mountain that is known (and has been known for YEARS) to have deer frequent the area, that's a risk you assume when you sign the papers on the house. I'm sorry your garden is being eaten, there are resources out there to help people plant beautiful gardens with plants deer don't eat or even detract them. You bought the house, knew that "hey, there are a lot of deer around here," and now the animals are being fed to people in homeless shelters. Doesn't add up to me, in a time where were straining our brains to figure out how to get more deer these ones are being killed.
Bill
Bill
Also, we have to remember there is usually multiple reasons why deer numbers are low, so simply releasing new deer into an area good compound the problems the existing deer have to deal with. If all we do is transplant more deer into areas that have limiting factors, what have we accomplished? IMO, this would be little more than a temporary/quick fix, while the causes of limited deer populations go on unfixed. I would prefer we fix the causes for low deer populations before we do anything else. Better habitat, lower road kill, less year round human intrusion, these are things we can have an impact on. Other factors such as weather will take some good fortune, maybe a few prayers. :thumb
Most habitat issues are created by human encroachment with housing as with the Bountiful issue and land fire prevention which is usually dictated by housing so would the cost be justified to remove housing from areas to improve habitat or allow fires to burn and if it takes a house or two oh well? No.
Do we close all roads into any area a deer may be outside of hunting season? Don't think that one will fly.
Do we shut down major roadways when an annual quota of road kill has been reached? Or shut them down altogether? Uh.......NO.
Small things are all we can do and those are things such as redirecting deer traffic away from areas of road that a high percentage of the animals crossing will be killed and limiting future urban expansion into wintering areas and allowing fires to burn in areas of little or no human population or even prescribed burns (Oh Gasp!) and slow human intrusion into winter and fawning areas with SOME road closures.
All of these come at a price , some larger than others but what is the price for a deer? All of these will save a FEW deer for that cost.
So if the cost is high but some success is obtained somewhere then it is better than just shooting them. IMO! Because none of the other SILVER BULLETS are FREE or HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL.
Don't forget that some of the worst MISINFORMATION out there is given by the GOVT. to serve THEIR agenda not YOURS and especially not the Mule Deer's!
Bill
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Now i find that a bunch of BS...
case & point, back in 1945 a rich gentleman bought 100 head of mule deer and shipped them on a train, from Az. to california, then put them on a ship to Santa Rosa island, they thriving today, so much that they're gona kill em off soon!..