Let Bowhunters Solve “Deer Problem”

By Bill Schneider, 2-14-08

In January, I posted a column about the most expensive deer in the world, which happen to be running around my house in Helena, Montana. I concluded, conservatively, that killing these deer might cost $2,000 or more per animal. Out of the comment section came the question: What would be a more cost-effective option?

Since then, I've been checking around on what's happening in other cities, and I have the answer.

To recap, Helena plans to dispatch police officers to bait deer into clover traps, kill them with bolt guns (what they use to kill cattle in slaughterhouses), killing 50 adult does and bucks and releasing the Bambis. The police also arrange for field dressing and skinning the animals before transporting them to a local meat processor to prepare for Helena Food Share, which will subsequently distribute the venison to the needy.

	Let's turn urban deer herds into a new hunting opportunity

To update the finances, in addition to about $65,000 already spent on surveys, plans and staff time--partially license dollars from the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) and the rest from city general funds--the city has appropriated another $30,000 to cover police staff time (or overtime), equipment, field dressing and skinning, and other administrative expenses.

Before you read on, for the record, I'm not a bowhunter, never owned a bow, always wanted to bow hunt, but spent too much time fishing to get around to it.

If you read the last column, you already know I'm choking on the extraordinarily high expense for this operation, especially since some of it comes from hunting license dollars, which smacks of an illegal diversion of earmarked money, but now, I'm also choking on the whole concept of police officers baiting and executing those magnificent bucks I see while riding by bike to office and basically wasting a public wildlife resource that bowhunters could utilize at no cost to license buyers or city taxpayers.

And it scares me that both the city and FWP consider this Helena plan a "pilot program" that could set a precedent for future operations in Helena and in other cities, not just in Montana. If this bad idea spreads, we'll be wasting thousands of deer throughout the New West instead of making them a new hunting opportunity.

I know I'm not alone with this opinion. I have to believe hunters everywhere must also be choking on idea of their wildlife agency condoning such a plan when bowhunters could safely and inexpensively solve the "deer problem" and not waste this public resource.

	Two Helena bucks, not the biggest by far. Photo courtesy of Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Indeed, Gary Carvajal, president of the Montana Bowhunters Association, has been following the issue and told NewWest.Net that his organization is "interested in helping Helena and the FWP commission solve this problem."

Carvajal plans to discuss the issue with the FWP commissioners at the next week's meeting and with his board of directors at their next meeting.

Having a local bowhunters group involved is key because in many cities these volunteer organizations have signed on to manage the urban deer hunt on behalf of the state wildlife agency and city government. Two great examples are the Metro Bowhunters Resource Base in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Arrowhead Bowhunters Alliance in Duluth, Minnesota. Read about them in yesterday's companion article, Bowhunting Helena.

These two cities effectively, inexpensively and safely employ bowhunters to reduce urban deer herds. Hunters take care of the meat, not police officers who should be out busting criminals instead of skinning deer.

Both the City of Helena and FWP are saying, in essence, we have to do something even if it's wrong. I say, this is Montana, a state rich in hunting heritage. As hunters, let's make sure the Helena plan is a step in the right direction in line with our hunting traditions, not a step in the wrong direction by setting a bad precedent for wasting game animals.

The timing works. Originally, Helena hoped to cull its herd this winter, but fortuitously, the slowness of our government pushed that timeframe forward to May and June, which is unacceptable because of the likelihood of killing fawns and pregnant does, so the new target time is September and October. However, there seems to be concern about doing the "reduction" during the regular archery season, so this date might be pushed ahead again to at least December, which for a Helena bow hunt, might be the ideal time.

In Helena, the deer tend to move up on the slopes on the outskirts of town in January and February, to their "winter range," and this is also a time when fewer residents are out walking the dogs, jogging through parks, and playing golf. Holding the hunt in January and February would not only mean easier, safer pickings for bowhunters, but would cause much less disruption and inconvenience to the Helena community. It would also extend the archery season for a few hunters.

And hello, why only 50 deer? Helena has around 700 deer living in town, and that population grows by more than 50 deer per year, so if we go ahead with the current plan, even after wasting all this money and this public wildlife resource, we'll be even farther behind the curve in 2009. I say kill several hundred deer and get the population down to a reasonable level established by FWP biologists. Then set quotas for each subsequent year, just like we do any other hunting districts, to keep the herd at a proper level.

Incidentally, you may be asking, isn't there a state law prohibiting hunting with city limits. Yes, but North Dakota and other states have the same law. Bismarck gets around this selling "trespass permits," which serve the purpose of "city deer tags." If this approach won't work in Montana, I doubt the legislature would resist making an exception--as long as it didn't tap hunting license money and was "revenue neutral." Going for new legislation might delay Helena's hunt, but more delay still trumps allowing an embarrassing precedent.

The only way it can be "revenue neutral," incidentally, is to allow bowhunters to volunteer to do the job.

In any regard, we have time to do this right. The FWP has approved the 50-deer execution by Helena police officers and is currently preparing an Environmental Assessment (EA) on the plan, which the FWP Commission will review later this year. I hope commissioners recognize how far off track this plan has gotten and act quickly and aggressively to get back to representing hunters instead of city officials by requiring Helena to take a closer look and using bowhunting to manage its urban deer herd. I also hope the Montana Bowhunters Association comes in and offers to manage the hunt, or if the city leaders insist on using the police department, at least advice the city in setting up a Bismarck-like operation.

So, hunters, we can still stop this fiasco before it's too late. We only need three members of the five-member FWP Commission to stand up for hunting. The City of Helena is locked into the current plan and there's no chance of city leaders changing their mindset--unless they have to.

Fortunately, though, Helena can't go ahead without the blessings of the FWP Commission, so, hunters, encourage your commissioners to act forcefully to continue our hunting tradition. Instead of paving over the problem with money, let hunters take care of it for nothing. They're used to solving wildlife problems, under-populations and over-populations, and have been doing it for about a hundred years.

Footnote: I'll make it easy for you. Here's an email address where you can reach all five members of the FWP Commission, fwpcomm@mt.gov. In addition, (sorry Vic and Pat), here are email addresses and phone numbers for Victor Workman, FWP commission chairman (406-862-6825, vic@montanalandoffice.com) and Pat Flowers, the FWP manager who will sign the EA, (406-994-4050, pflowers@mt.gov). Feel free to put your emails in the comment section of this column so we can all see them. [End of article]