Tuesday, June 15, 1999

Too many deer parked here

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Hamilton County hunts for damage control solutions

BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A deer runs across a Miami Whitewater fairway. The deer have brought overgrazing and more traffic accidents. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

        Moving with quiet grace through Hamilton County's parks, nearly 1,400 deer — more than park officials had expected — are nibbling away at the shrubs and flowers that make up a healthy ecosystem.

        They are digesting the habitat of songbirds and swallowing the prettiest flowers. They are wandering into people's yards and onto busy roads.

        So Hamilton County Park District officials are trying to figure out what to do with them.

        District managers are surprised by some results of the county's first state-of-the-art infrared deer population survey, which recently landed on their desks. On March 12-19, experts with Davis Aviation, based in Kent, Ohio, counted 1,397 deer on 13,000 acres of parks and a buffer zone around them.

        The density of deer in county parks far exceeds the 10-20 deer per square mile recommended by the Ohio Division of Wildlife. The numbers go beyond the 30 deer-per-square-mile level at which a forest's ecosystem is severely damaged. In some places, it surpasses the 65 deer-per-square-mile level that generally indicates an unhealthy herd.

        “A lot of times the public doesn't realize that, yeah, the deer are really pretty to look at ... but when the numbers start to get really high, (the deer) start to do damage,” said Tammy York, a public information specialist with the Wildlife Division.

        In the 2.1-square-mile Mitchell Memorial Forest, the survey found 389 deer — 185 per square mile and the dis trict's highest density. Even in the least densely populated preserve, 4.1-acre Winton Woods, there were 26 deer per acre.

        “It looks like we have high numbers in several of our parks, much higher than we would expect to see,” said district land manager John Klein.

        In some areas, deer have eaten everything they can reach. The barren strips, which reach to about 4 feet off the ground and would include the natural habitat of many songbirds, can be found in parts of Shawnee Lookout, Miami Whitewater Forest and Withrow Nature Preserve, Mr. Kline said.

INFOGRAPHIC

Deer population boom

        In addition to the $9,000 infrared survey, the district hired University of Cincinnati botanist Denis Conover to study 10 “exclusion zones” — areas of park land fenced off from the deer. He is comparing vegetation inside and outside the zones to gauge the impact of deer grazing, and may begin seeing results later this year.

        As herd information is gathered, park officials will begin planning how to deal with the overpopulation. The most effective and commonly practiced solution, hunting, is not likely to score points among the public.

        But without any natural predators and no one to kill off the animals, a deer herd can grow by as much as 60 percent in a single year. Eventually, the animals will begin to starve.

        “Deer are prolific animals — not quite as bad as rabbits, but analogous to rabbits,” Mr. Conover said. “That's because in nature, they have all kinds of predators. But in a park ... there is really nothing to limit their population. And that's when you start getting into problems.”

        Although Hamilton County officials have not yet considered that route, some see it as almost inevitable.

        “Obviously, they are recognizing there may be a problem and they are taking the right steps” by studying it, said Wildlife Division research biologist Mike Tonkovich, who tracks the state's deer population but leaves most management decisions up to individual, local jurisdictions. “I think (a hunt) is probably what they're working toward because, right now, that's about the only option for controlling deer herds.”

        Hamilton County land manager Mr. Kline said this year could be a turning point in the decision-making process. The results of the March infrared survey will likely be compared with another that could be conducted this winter, yielding a good snapshot of the local deer population.

        A single survey is incomplete because deer travel between park land and natural, undeveloped habitat. There may have been more or fewer deer than usual in an area on the day it was monitored.

        And officials say they are concerned with the level of development around park land. As buffer areas of forest are converted to industrial and housing areas, more deer are pushed into increasingly isolated parks.

        The result is an increase in Hamilton County car-deer accidents, which rose from 44 in 1980 to 647 in 1997. And more people complain about the animals invading their neighborhoods and eating their gardens and landscaping.

        “That's one thing we can't say, (that) it's all deer (numbers increasing) or it's all development. It's probably a little of both,” said Jim Rahtz, park district communications director.

        “At this point, we're still in an information-gathering stage. ... How that information comes in will really affect our timetable and which direction we go.”

       

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