While Some Towns Struggle With Deer Overpopulation, Others Ban Hunting

By Tom Remington

From one community to another across the urban landscape of America, residents are struggling to find ways to control deer populations. At some point during a community’s growth cycle, residents began closing their lands down to hunting. In many cases the entire township closed all land within the city limits to hunting.

In most of these closed communities, officials now are struggling to find ways to control deer populations. With little predation and ample feed, deer are flourishing. The upside to this is that some people really enjoy seeing the deer in their back yards, until the deer level their shrubbery and landscaping. Others simply want to protect the deer from hunters.

The downside to this is increased deer/auto accidents and disease. As residents realize they have serious problems facing them, they struggle with how to handle it. In some cases, communities have invested thousands of dollars trying unproven and unsuccessful birth control. They’ve even hired trained sharpshooters, an expense that is staggering and unless carried out systematically, can have very little effect on reducing deer numbers.

One with a bit on the ball should realize that shutting down lands to hunting isn’t a good way to handle public safety issues. Granted we have safety concerns when human population densities reach a point making it difficult to hunt safely. An approach to better control hunting would be more effective.

Tonight, Clinton Township, Michigan is going to be voting on an ordinance revision that would ban all hunting within the township limits. This all out ban, including archery hunting, will come back to haunt the town. They are going to exchange one health and safety issue with another.

To get this ordinance into effect, the town has to request the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to complete an investigation as to whether a hunting ban should be instituted. If MDNR makes a recommendation to eliminate hunting, then it will take effect.

Officials within DNR point out that not all of Clinton Township should be closed to hunting.

It’s not unusual for communities as they grow to request DNR investigations and eliminate hunting, said Sherry Chandler, a lieutenant with the DNR. But there are still some pockets in relatively populous areas that support hunting, she said.

“There are some areas where people may have 20 (or) 40 acres within populated areas that they can still hunt safely,” Chandler said.

It would be in the best interest of Clinton to work with the DNR to create safer hunting areas. In these areas where hunting can still safely be done, it should continue. The town should find areas where archery hunting could safely be done. A blanket ban on hunting, as we have seen time and again from other communities that have gone before them, presents a host of problems down the road. Clinton and other towns need to address the problem sanely, using the best available science. This is in the best interest of all citizens.

Tom Remington