AR-News: (US-PA) Deer study proposed

[Ronda Roaring]

Deer population study proposed 
TONY CADWALADER , Special to the Local News 04/26/2004KENNETT -- The perception that the southern Chester County township is being overrun has put the deer population squarely in officials’ sites. By this fall, if that perception is proved true, efforts to thin the local deer herds could begin. 

Last week, members of the township board of supervisors said that they would begin deer population studies to determine its size and what, if any, measures should be taken.

'); } //-->   The decision came after a March 25 meeting that included supervisors, state legislators, officials with the state game commission and the Kennett Area Regional Planning Commission, as well as a series of vision forums, where officials compiled residents’ concerns and sought to verbalize the direction they see for the township.

The problem of deer overpopulation is not a new one, already having been identified in the township’s strategic plan.

Supervisor Michael Elling said there are, he believes, some 40,000 deer-related accidents per year on commonwealth roads. "So we have three problems: 1. Cars hitting deer, 2. Deer (denuding residential lots) and 3. Lyme disease," he said.

Two residents involved with the township were leery of approving the plan, perhaps reflecting the township’s ongoing change from a horse and farming community to a suburban bedroom community. Pam McNamara, a member of the township planning commission, said her primary concern is for the residents’ safety.

Kennett Area Park Authority Chairman Dave Erikson’s comment expressed the mindset: "We don’t want to limit hunters, but we don’t want them either."

Additionally, the board expects to be criticized by animal rights activist organizations.

The township would begin with a population count, using helicopters and thermal imaging to determine the herd’s size. A biologist would compile the statistics and determine the quantity of deer that would need to be culled.

After getting concrete identification of the problem, the township will begin to educate people "as to how (deer population control) might be done," Elling said. Finally, it would organize and execute the controlled hunts.

He said Longwood Gardens and Winterthur Museum and gardens are two potential models. Both organizations conduct coordinated deer hunts each season. The supervisors noted that New Castle County, Del., also has controlled hunts by qualified hunters to thin the population.

The onus is on the township to take the first step toward instituting deer population control measures, the board believes. Elling said a controlled hunt is the method recommended by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. "The current way deer are hunted in the township does not control what a controlled hunt can do," Elling said.

At the March 25 meeting between township officials and others, discussions on deer controls covered the basic problems -- traffic accidents, plant and crop damage and Lyme disease -- to determine if action could be taken. 

It was determined that population control methods other than special controlled hunts are not particularly effective.

Attending the meeting, state Rep. Chris Ross, R-158th, of East Marlborough, noted that a highly developed western Pennsylvania township has successfully implemented a controlled deer hunt, as he said in a recent newsletter. He volunteered to find out more.

Controlled hunts are preferred during normal hunting seasons, but under special situations can be held at other times with PGC and landowner permission.

"I stress again that this is a regional problem and regional problems know no boundaries," Elling said. 

©Daily Local News 2004 

		
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