Deer kill to resume in Solebury

But before that, the Humane Society will send a representative to spread the word about non-lethal methods of culling the deer population.

By: Linda Seida
   SOLEBURY — A Wildlife Services team, including at least one sharpshooter with night-vision and thermal-imaging equipment, will return to the township within the next month to resume culling the deer population.
   Before they do, the Humane Society of the United States is sending a representative to the area to spread the word about nonlethal methods of reducing human-deer conflicts.
   The meeting is tentatively scheduled for July 26 at New Hope-Solebury High School. As of press time, the time had not been set.
   "It’s very difficult sometimes to get this across because they’ve been doing it for a number of years," said Donald Elroy, the Humane Society’s director of wildlife advocacy in Washington, D.C. "It’s never really a population problem. It’s a conflict problem."
   Earlier this year, Solebury entered into a two-year, $250,000 contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services because of too many deer-vehicle accidents and the amount of destruction suffered by local farmers and nurserymen.
   The contract attracted criticism from residents who are opposed to the lethal method employed. Even worse, they said, was the shoot’s inclusion of fawns.
   Mr. Elroy sent a letter to the township and to Wildlife Services opposing the shoot and especially the "inhumane" killing of fawns. Mr. Elroy said the society has not received a response.
   According to the Human Society, the shoot may ultimately be counterproductive.
   Mr. Elroy said, "Lethal methodologies require constant employment of those methods since deer populations many times increase when lethal attempts are made to reduce population numbers. The increase is directly related to the lethal methods because the reduced numbers create less challenging situations and more habitat for the remaining deer. When this occurs, the deer rebound by having more sets of twins, thereby increasing population numbers."
   Wildlife Services has said other methods would be employed to control the population after the herd had been thinned. It was imperative first to get the numbers down because of the amount of damage being inflicted. Other methods include educating property owners and encouraging them to allow hunters on their land during hunting season.
   The collision rate for accidents that involve deer is two every three days, according to Wildlife Services spokeswoman Carol Bannerman.
   Crops are estimated to be down 25 percent because of the deer, she said.
   Mr. Elroy told Wildlife Services in his letter, "Alienation of anti-lethal interests within the community serves only to prolong conflicts. This strategy of ‘kill first and educate later’ will only create opposition to any information these residents receive from your organization."
   Wildlife Services sent a four-person team to Solebury in June, Ms. Bannerman said. Working mostly in the after-midnight hours, over the course of four nights, the team killed 116 deer, she said.
   The count included 12 fawns and 104 adults. The adult count broke down to 72 does and 44 bucks. The agency considers a fawn to be newborn to 6 months old.
   The four-person team includes one person with a rifle and others who work as spotters. They are there to assist the shooter with fieldwork and the pickup and loading of the carcasses, Ms. Bannerman said. At least two people, including the shooter, are equipped with night-vision goggles, she said.
   The team left Solebury because other communities in Pennsylvania needed help dealing with Canada geese as well as a coyote-lamb conflict, Ms. Bannerman said.
   The Humane Society has questioned the official estimate of the deer population in Solebury as well as the amount of damage inflicted on local properties by deer.
   Wildlife Services estimates Solebury’s deer population at 142 per square mile. A recommended number for a forested area is 24 per square mile. In suburban areas, it drops to seven per square mile.
   Kathy Mays Acker, a longtime Solebury resident who now lives in Plumsteadville, is against the shooting.
   She said, "They think somebody who is against what they’re doing is just a romantic and not looking at the reality of it all. I want to know where they got those numbers."
   Ms. Bannerman said the population count is not exact. Instead, a formula is used based on how many are sighted at particular times. She said Wildlife Services worked for several months to devise the population estimate.
   Residents can call (215) 794-7972 for more information about next week’s meeting.