Deer kill resumes in Solebury

Meantime, the Humane Society discussed non-lethal ways to cull the herd.

By: Linda Seida
   SOLEBURY — A federal crew, including a sharpshooter, returned to the township last week and killed 68 deer even as 50 residents gathered to learn about other, non-lethal methods of deer control.
   The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services conducted the shoot over three nights, according to Harris Glass, the state director of the agency in Harrisburg.
   The deer cull last week was the second conducted this year at the start of a two-year, $250,000 contract paid for by the township to reduce the number of deer.
   The crew will resume the shoot sometime within the next month, Mr. Glass said, although he did not say exactly when.
   Thirty-five property owners, whose land represents about 11 percent of Solebury’s 27 square miles, have agreed to allow the crew to shoot on their land, according to Mr. Glass.
   "By no means are we working the rest of the 27 square miles," he said.
   Wildlife Services said Solebury’s problem is too severe to wait for nonlethal methods to thin the population.
   Some property owners, including farmers, "were at their wit’s end," Mr. Glass said.
   He added, "This is the way they wanted to go. They utilized everything under the sun, and nothing seems to be working."
   Solebury has a vehicle-deer collision rate of two accidents every three days. According to Mr. Glass, the township lost two police cars to such deer accidents last year.
   After the shoot last week, the total number of deer killed by Wildlife Services this year in Solebury rose to 184. During a four-night shoot in June, a crew shot 116 deer, including 12 fawns.
   The evening after the shoot concluded, residents and even a nurseryman gathered at the New Hope Inn to learn more about alternatives that would allow them to live in peaceful coexistence with deer. Many were unaware the shoot had resumed, and they were looking for alternatives.
   Nonlethal alternatives were presented by Donald Elroy, director of wildlife advocacy for the Humane Society of the United States. The discussion included fencing to protect landscaping and farms and special patented lights and reflectors to curb vehicle-deer collisions.
   Nurseryman Malcolm Crooks, whose father started the family’s Christmas tree farm on Route 263 in 1929, said he did not find the discussion helpful.
   "They didn’t say anything about the disadvantages of the advantages," he said.
   For example, netting designed to keep deer from eating plants "just gave us a real headache," Mr. Crooks said, because plants and trees grow into the material.
   Mr. Crooks also has tried fencing his property. A 10,000-volt electrified fence surrounds one of the plots, but he said he has spied two or three deer at a time within the enclosure.
   "It’s a lot of time and money for questionable value," Mr. Crooks said.
   An organizer of the Humane Society presentation said one of the reasons for the meeting’s low turnout was the fact the location had been changed, and word hadn’t gotten out.
   The meeting originally was planned for the New Hope-Solebury High School.
   "People were very excited to find out this information," said organizer Kathy Mays Acker, a former Solebury resident who now lives in Plumsteadville. "We didn’t get into all we wanted to, but we did make people realize there is some hope, and we can do better next time."
   Proponents of nonlethal methods say they will continue to voice their opposition to the shoot in Solebury.
   "We’re on the move now," Ms. Acker said. "We’re far from giving up. We’re more determined than ever."
   By mid-October, Wildlife Services will place a biologist in the township to provide free technical assistance to those who request it.
   "What he brings to the table will be top notch," Mr. Glass said. "Technical assistance A to Z, everything in the toolbox, nonlethal and lethal. We understand everybody’s comfort level is going to vary from landowner to landowner."
   Mr. Glass declined to name the biologist before he is stationed in Solebury, but he did share his qualifications. The biologist has a bachelor’s degree in wildlife management, and he worked specifically with deer while earning a master’s degree and a doctorate in Georgia.
   "He has worked with some of the top biologists in the country," Mr. Glass said.
   The biologist will implement an "integrated approach" to deer management that includes hunters during hunting season as well as some of the nonlethal methods like fencing.