Posted on 09/25/2015 6:35:52 AM PDT by SJackson
Ashland has a big, bad deer problem.
Boisterous bucks and disorderly does are reportedly picking fights with residents in this southern Oregon city of nearly 21,000, stalking the mayor, chasing a family down the sidewalk and – in the rarest of instances – stampeding a senior citizen in her carport.
"I think it's a problem," Ashland Mayor John Stromberg said Monday, "and that's why I'm doing this."
"This" is Deer Summit 2015, a televised town hall scheduled for Wednesday. Residents and politicians will gather to discuss the city's No. 1 nuisance: "aggressive deer and what can be done about them."
Conflicts between wildlife and urbanites are nothing new. A black bear holed up next to a Tualatin elementary school several years ago. A Salem owl made national news earlier this year when it harassed park-goers. And complaints about deer – typically the docile sort, scorned for nibbling at garden plants – have been a near constant for decades in several southern Oregon cities.
But now the deer aren't just picking apart neighbors' backyards. They've become downright mean, in part because of Ashland's hospitable residents.
deer2.jpg
Deer frequent Lithia Park, a 93-acre downtown landmark adjacent to Ashland City Hall and Oregon Shakespeare Festival stages. Ashland's mayor will host a Deer Summit on Sept. 23, 2015, to discuss options for dealing with "aggressive deer."
Janet Eastman
Normally, deer are scared of people. But nearly 300 miles south of Portland, at the base of the Siskiyou Mountains, generations of deer have roamed Ashland neighborhoods. Not isolated trails, mind you; they're regularly spotted on major roads leading to downtown.
People, in turn, have fed the animals, or allowed them to hang out care-free in backyards.
"Over the decades, people have not put the fear into the deer," said Mark Vargas, a wildlife biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "When deer don't fear people, they come closer and don't look at them as a threat."
That's all pictures and postcards – right up until emboldened deer start getting spooked.
Does are known for defending their fawns, especially if they feel threatened by a nearby pedestrian or family pet. Bucks can be ornery during breeding season.
Instead of flight, some deer decide to fight.
That's the story Ashland resident Sandra Pastorius recalled for the City Council at a July meeting.
Last fall, Pastorius happened upon a buck in her carport.
"It leapt and knocked me over," she said. "I had one hoof on my foot and one on my thigh. If it would've been my heart, or my guts, as I say, I wouldn't be sitting here now."
At the same meeting, Claudia Law flashed a picture of her little dog and told the City Council about an incident three years ago. Her voice quavered as she recalled the encounter – which involved no physical harm.
"She and I were followed for about a half a mile by a doe and two older fawns, about within 10 feet, and we were both so traumatized that it's remained with me," Law said.
"Over the decades, people have not put the fear into the deer," Mark Vargas, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Law, who lives a few minutes from downtown, recalled another doe approaching a neighbor the night before she testified.
"We're all afraid down on B Street," she said. "There are does down there that are so aggressive."
Resident Ann Barton questioned if city or state officials would approve birth control for deer, or, more dramatically, an organized kill. Either way, she wanted action.
"There's a lot of passing the buck back and forth, excuse my pun," she complained.
Vargas, the lead wildlife biologist in southern Oregon for the past 15 years, recalls numerous deer complaints. But solutions aren't simple. Birth control would be "absolutely impossible in a community like Ashland," he said.
And a cull would require killing 40 to 60 deer a year, he said, something that's unlikely to gain political support from Ashland leaders or bureaucratic approval from the state.
"Are you serious?" said Stromberg, the mayor, when asked about an organized kill. "Have you ever been to Ashland?"
Hoping to avoid dramatic reactions, city officials began allowing residents to install 8-foot-high deer fences. A few years back, the City Council approved fines for anyone who feeds deer – with penalties now reaching $475.
A city spokeswoman couldn't remember any violations, just warnings.
Stromberg hopes his Deer Summit will yield solutions that other efforts haven't.
"I believe it can lead to a different outcome," said the mayor, himself the one-time victim of a doe who "stalked" him 100 feet into his backyard.
And if nothing else changes, the state biologist hopes Ashland residents toughen up around deer.
"Don't befriend it," he said. "Don't let it know you're a nice guy."
Well, sometimes they’ll “repeat”, but that doesn’t hurt too bad, usually.
The foolproof anti-deer device:
A Great Pyrenees
Oops! Thought you were talking about Ashland, WI! Luckily, the population up there understands about deer.
We keep the majority of the Bleeding Hearts contained in Dane & Milwaukee Counties in this state; where the gang members just shoot one another and a few of us ‘civilians’ are caught in the cross fire from time to time.
*SPIT*
The root cause of this problem is insufficient bullets.
Maybe it’s time for a much more aggressive deer-hunting season. In many parts of the USA, the deer population is just too big and needs to be culled down.
There are more deer here in suburban coastal New Jersey than there were in 1776. Back then if one wandered into your yard you took the musket down from over the fireplace and put venison on the menu. Now the automobile is the only large predator.
These are liberals. Don’t say deer kill. Sell it as post partum abortion.
That was my "Holy Crap" moment in the whole article. "Traumatized"? Jesu.
In my recent move - much closer to NYC than where I was before and much more suburban - we have deer and red foxes galore. While the deer are not nasty, they are amazingly arrogant. Staring at me for minutes at a time while chewing on my windfall apples. I’ve never seen anything like it.
DeerBo First Blood?
Haul them all down here to Carolina, they will be made into sausage and burgers. Yum, Yum!
Rambi!
I think its called hunting. :-)
Good idea. Next, move all the deer to the Mexican border.
Commie Ashland. The deer are not the vermin who inhabit the place. Its the commies.
Commie Ashland. The deer are not the vermin who inhabit the place. Its the commies.
“At the same meeting, Claudia Law flashed a picture of her little dog and told the City Council about an incident three years ago. Her voice quavered as she recalled the encounter – which involved no physical harm.
“She and I were followed for about a half a mile by a doe and two older fawns, about within 10 feet, and we were both so traumatized that it’s remained with me,” Law said.”
Stay indoors, with your helmet on. Wuss,, the women that crossed the Oregon trail are disgusted by you.
“Ashland is a liberal enclave. They deserve this Bambi beatdown.”
Imagine a town, where deer have taken over. A deer is the highest aggressor in the area. Lol
Bookmark
“D’oh! A Deer!”
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