Deer – a Peaceful Nuisance?

You may have seen them lurking quietly in the wooded area down the street; maybe they have even wreaked havoc with your garden or worse yet, your vehicle.

Deer — while peaceful in nature as the attached video shows — can be a nuisance in an urban environment.

For instance, 25 known car/deer crashes were reported to the Burnsville Police Department in 2010, according to the recently released 2010 Burnsville Deer Management Program report. The number of collisions could be higher, but new computer software has made it more difficult to track incidents. But seven collisions were reported by the state.

Combine the reported numbers and carcasses picked up off the road, deer/vehicle encounters in 2010 could be 44 — that’s five more than in 2009.

Burnsville’s deer population has been growing. In 2004, an aerial count showed 154. In 2010, the count was 261. The city would like to reduce the deer population from 15-25 per square mile to five per square mile. Last year, that translated to about 84 deer needing to be removed from the city limits. This year’s November population count is expected to be about 287 deer, and according to guidelines, that would mean removal of 165.

Bring on the hunters

Part of the city’s management plan hinges on the success of planned hunts on public land.

The Burnsville City Council authorized on Tuesday a special deer hunting season in Kelleher Park for all-day Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 13-Nov. 12. Two hunts will be held by the Three Rivers Park District in Murphy-Hanrehan Park — an archery hunt Nov. 11-13 and a muzzleloader hunt for Dec. 3-4.

Last year, planned archery hunts eliminated 15 deer from Kelleher Park.  Sharpshooters hit their mark in 2011. According to the report, a “removal effort” took place Feb.1–March 25 in Cliff Fen Park, Black Dog Park and at the city compost site when 25 deer were harvested.

The primary focus this fall will be on the southwest corner of the city where deer population is expected to be 116, with 74 to be eliminated from the targeted area.

As a deterrent, Burnsville implemented a feeding ban ordinance in 2001 to discourage residents from placing corn or other grains to attract deer.

All this comes at a cost. The city annually budgets for program implementation, and this year, the 2011 budget allocates $38,050 for the efforts:

• $2,000 for education programs, including cable programming;
• $10,800 for monitoring and reporting expenses; and
• $25,250 for population control, with the bulk of this for sharpshooting expenses.