Hunting a Solution to the Bambi Boom

0 Comments | Insight on the News, July 3, 2000 | by Sean Paige

Last August, the Pennsylvania Game Commission established an office within the Bureau of Wildlife Management to deal with the state's horde of 1.5 million white-tailed deer, educate the public about the problem and help build consensus among hunters, farmers, foresters and other stakeholders about possible solutions. "We cannot let the deer population get so high that it destroys its habitat," says Gary Alt, the office's newly appointed director.

In spacious and unforested Kansas, where vehicles collided with more than 10,000 deer last year, setting a state record and marking the 14th consecutive year of increases, the Statehouse recently responded to public concern by approving a measure (later signed into law by Republican Gov. Bill Graves) to issue more deer-shooting permits to out-of-state hunters, establish a telephone hot line so farmers could report crop damage from deer and require the state's Department of Transportation to develop a plan for reducing motor-vehicle accidents involving deer.

Between 1990 and 1998, 16 Kansas motorists were killed in deer collisions, and more than 1,000 seriously injured, according to state figures. The state's main artery, Interstate 70, averages more than 300 deer-vehicle accidents per year.

In woodsy Michigan, where fallout from the Bambi bomb even may eclipse that being experienced in Wisconsin, deer/vehicle collisions jumped 3.5 percent last year, ending two years of decreases, despite a public-awareness campaign by a statewide safety coalition. Six Michiganders died after collisions with deer last year, up from four fatalities in 1998, according to new state figures.

According to the Michigan State Police, the state logged 67,669 deer/vehicle collisions last year, which marked an increase over the last two years but still fell short of the state's 1996 record high of more than 68,000 collisions. And in Oakland County, Mich., north of Detroit, where suburban sprawl, small farms and deer herds elbow each other for breathing room, the deer-collision rate rose 5.5 percent in 1999.

All of which was disappointing news for Jerry Basch, chairman of the Michigan Deer Crash Coalition, a group comprised of insurance companies, law-enforcement agencies, safety advocates and farming and hunting interests, which hoped that its driver-education campaigns somehow would reverse the disturbing trend. Alas, the deer failed to pay attention to them.

Beginning this September, however, Michigan teen-agers may become part of the solution thanks to a hunting season of their very own. Recently approved by the state's Natural Resources Commission, the miniseason has the twin virtues of helping to cull the state's 1.9 million deer herd (some of which last year were found to be infected with a form of tuberculosis potentially harmful to cows) while attracting younger generations into the sport.

Though the teen-hunt concept seems popular enough among the state's many outdoor enthusiasts, it has its critics -- as do virtually all other state-sponsored solutions involving hunting.