Kane Co. might use hunters to control deer population

Following comments from Kane County residents still upset by the recent killing of deer to test for Chronic Wasting Disease, forest preserve district officials announced Friday they may soon start killing deer for a different reason.

Bill Graser, the district’s wildlife biologist, presented a study showing evidence of overpopulation by deer in some parts of the county. Graser said the deer lack natural native predators in numbers significant enough to reduce the deer population to healthy levels in many parts of the county. That’s resulted in unacceptable numbers of vehicle accidents involving collisions with deer and an inability of many native plants to seed and grow to maturity.

Graser said many wild areas managed by government try to keep the deer population at about 20 per square mile. Kane County sees up to 48 deer per square mile in some areas, Graser said. Those large numbers have resulted in an average of 510 vehicle collisions with deer every year from 1994 to 2008.

The county has also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in plantings in recent years to bolster the native plant population in the preserves. That includes the planting of about 22,000 oak trees the past two years. Graser’s study shows deer are feeding on the young oaks. Few of them are reaching maturity to replace older oaks as they die off.

“Unless we want peoples’ cars, trucks and SUVs to be the primary means for controlling deer populations we need to consider the following things,” Graser said.

Those things include using forest preserve district staff for a sharpshooting program to shrink the deer population, or creating a program that allows hunters to shoot deer in the preserves for the first time.

Either of those options could prove a tough sell to local residents. Just before the results of the Graser’s study were made public, residents representing the North Rutland Deer Alliance told forest preserve commissioners they are still angry about the state’s recent killing of at least 75 deer. None of the deer killed by the state tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease. Four deer were found with the disease but those samples were all found by hunters or local residents.

“I strongly suggest and beg you, stay out of North Rutland Township,” said Bill Siers. “We don’t have many deer in there. This handful of deer we have there, let them repopulate.”

That may be true for Siers’ local area, but forest preserve officials said now is the time to act on deer overpopulation in other parts of the county.

“The nice thing for Kane County is that we really don’t have an issue where it’s critical in nature,” Executive Director Monica Myers said. “If we wait until it gets to the point of being an epidemic, then we’re playing catch-up.”

Commissioners pledged to have a full presentation on creating a new deer population control system where the public can provide input.

Forest Preserve President John Hoscheit said the effort will be a tricky balancing act between the deer and the need to maintain the flora and fauna in the forest preserves. The state will also conduct another round of deer killing to test for Chronic Wasting Disease in 2012. If the state’s test sites match up with where the deer are overpopulated, that would be ideal, Hoscheit said. But district officials can’t count on that being the case, he added.

Hoscheit suggested he’d like to hear more about a program to create tags hunters could purchase during certain times of the year to kill deer specifically in the problem areas. That way, instead of creating new costs to reduce the deer, the district may actually make some money while having a needed service performed.

“If we create something like that, I believe we’ll have plenty of people interested in helping us,” Hoscheit said.