Ann Arbor Considering How To Deal With Troublesome Deer — Public Meeting Tonight
ANN ARBOR (WWJ) - A deer cull or some non-lethal methods — that's what Ann Arbor residents will be talking about at a public meeting Thursday evening on how to manage the city's deer population.
Sumedh Bahel, Community Services Area Administrator for the city of Ann Arbor, said residents are split on how to deal with the deer, which have caused a lot of car crashes.
Residents have also complained about deer eating their vegetation on their property.
What's being considered?
"Culling is one, hunting is the other one....and there are other ones which are not being used — in some ways they are experimental — and they are immunocontraception (the use of an animal's immune system to prevent it from fertilizing offspring) and sterilization."
Other nonlethal measures the city is considering, Bahel said, are the planting of deer-resistant vegetation and adding deer crossing road signs.
"There may be multiple options," said Bahel. "So after this public meeting...over the next 30 to 45 days we are going to work on a plan which may have more than one option."
Bahel said a survey of Ann Arbor residents showed half want a lethal option and half don't.
A previous public meeting, held in November, collected information about residents' perception of the deer population in Ann Arbor and the effects deer have on the community
The public meeting will be held at 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 6, at Slauson Middle School, located at 1019 West Washington Street, Ann Arbor.
It will include a review of the survey highlights, a Q&A with a staff member from the City of Rochester Hills regarding their experience implementing a nonlethal deer management plan, and the Washtenaw Citizens for Ecological Balance will present a deer management plan that includes lethal methods.
[Get more information at this link].
