FileDeer

Ann Arbor City Council is seeking a solution for the city's whitetail overpopulation.

(File Photo | MLive.com)

The Ann Arbor City Council voted unanimously Monday night to direct the city administrator to evaluate the city's options for controlling the local deer population and to report back to council by the end of July.

Though there has been some talk of a contraceptive method of rendering deer infertile to stop what some fear is an overpopulation problem, it's more likely to involve hunting and killing deer, said Council Member Stephen Kunselman, D-3rd Ward.

"We have to face the fact that we are going to be culling the herd," he said. "And the best way to cull the herd is with bow and arrow, with hunters up in tree stands pointing down so that arrows don't go off far away in the distances and cause any fear."

Kunselman said a lot of hunters in Ann Arbor would volunteer for that effort, and the city doesn't need to spend too much time studying the issue.

"It's basically going to come down to a management plan that we hire hunters during the hunting season and be ready to take action this fall," he said.

Some other council members tended to agree, and they acknowledged it's likely to be a controversial and emotional issue for the community.

"It's going to be heated — it's going to be a difficult debate," said Council Member Chuck Warpehoski, D-5th Ward, who said the management plan ultimately approved is likely to be along the lines of what Kunselman described.

"Reintroducing wolves into Ann Arbor is probably not going to be an approved management plan," joked Council Member Chuck Warpehoski, D-5th Ward.

"For me, the motivating concern is the natural area degradation — that deer at this concentration are not sustainable and they're a threat to our native plants and other native fauna," Warpehoski said.

Council Member Jack Eaton, D-4th Ward, who noted he saw "a large buck with a huge rack" in his backyard, said it's not a difficult decision for him.

"I don't think letting deer breed to the point where they starve or suffer otherwise by disease is preferable to shooting them," he said.

The only data that council members had to share about the city's urban deer population, other than anecdotal perceptions that deer are growing in numbers, was an aerial deer survey of the Marshall Nature Area in northeast Ann Arbor in the winter of 2013 that indicated a deer density of 76 per square mile for that specific area.

That's far too many, said Council Member Jane Lumm, an independent from the 2nd Ward, who brought forward the resolution co-sponsored by Council Members Sabra Briere, Sumi Kailasapathy and Sally Hart Petersen. Lumm said they've heard from dozens of residents about the issue.

"The concerns and frustrations being expressed are primarily related to the damage the deer are causing to our natural environment — flowers, shrubs, trees, native species," Lumm said. "But there are also significant concerns about public safety, deer crashes and public health, ticks and Lyme disease."

Lumm said residents who want to keep their yards attractive are stymied both economically and physically because of damage caused by deer, and that is "compelling justification" for moving toward addressing the problem.

"I will point out several people have written to me suggesting that if there is culling that any resultant meat be dressed and given to those who are hungry," said Council Member Sabra Briere, D-1st Ward.

"This resolution is just the first step," she said. "It does not presuppose any outcome, but instead just recognizes a real growing problem and kicks off a process to address it."

It's expected the city will partner with the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Department, the University of Michigan, the Humane Society of Huron Valley and other interested parties to develop information and strategies needed for deer management, including conducting deer counts, researching damage caused by deer, and obtaining assistance from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Tanya Hilgendorf, executive director of the Humane Society of Huron Valley, noted her agency handles sick and injured wildlife for Washtenaw County.

"As such, I am sensitive to the frustrations and risks that can come from living in an area overrun by any particular species," she said.

But she said money and effort that otherwise might be used for killing would be better directed toward non-lethal methods.

For urban deer, she said, there are many communities across the country now testing humane, non-lethal population control methods, namely chemical sterilization.

"As we have seen with the overpopulation of other species, we as humans create a problem and then tend to jump to extermination as a cheap and easy remedy," she said. "Such a remedy is not only unacceptable to animal lovers and an example of brutality for our children, it is also an exercise in futility."

Creating large holes in a population, Hilgendorf said, only creates a "vacuum effect," allowing the entrance of animals from other areas, spurring more rapid reproduction of the species under attack, and ultimately accomplishing nothing.

"Our experience and the research shows that stopping reproduction, while keeping the animals in their habitat, facilitates a slow but steady population decline," she said. "There is ample evidence showing that the most humane and balanced methods related to human/wildlife conflicts are also the most effective ones."

"I have not seen any deer in the 3rd Ward yet, but I'm delighted to nevertheless support the resolution," said Council Member Christopher Taylor, D-3rd Ward.

Kunselman said it's unlikely that the city is going to be able to use any kind of birth control for deer in Ann Arbor.

"The state of Michigan doesn't allow putting birth control in deer because you don't know if we're going to end up eating those deer, and the drugs that would be used for birth control in deer are not legal for human consumption," he said.

Briere, D-1st Ward, said she has been talking about the issue of deer in the city since she joined council in 2007.

"By the time I joined council, the one rare sighting of a deer in my yard had turned into a routine visit by two does with their accompanying fawns, which has now turned into a deer herd," she said. "This doesn't scare or upset me. I'm one of those tolerant folks who simply changed what I planted in my yard."

But if the city is going to do something to try to reduce the deer population, she said it's her hope that the city will be humane about it.

"I will point out several people have written to me suggesting that if there is culling that any resultant meat be dressed and given to those who are hungry," she said.

Briere said that likely would require having somebody inspect the meat and somebody properly dress the meat in order to ensure it's consumable, and that is a level of governmental bureaucracy the city is not yet ready to create.

According to MichiganTrafficCrashFacts.org, there have been 39 traffic crashes per year on average in Ann Arbor that have involved deer in recent years — 35 in 2005, 28 in 2006, 35 in 2007, 30 in 2008, 44 in 2009, 54 in 2010, 42 in 2011, and 45 in 2012.

The numbers of car-deer crashes that involve personal injuries are much smaller — two in 2005, one in 2006, zero in 2007, one in 2008, three in 2009, four in 2010, two in 2011, and two in 2012. None have been fatal.

Ryan Stanton covers Ann Arbor city hall for The Ann Arbor News. Reach him at ryanstanton@mlive.com or 734-623-2529 or follow him on Twitter.