The city of Ashland has a deer problem. At least that’s what some residents are saying after being intimidated, chased and occasionally attacked by the city’s resident deer.
After hearing complaints for years, the city held a “Deer Summit” Wednesday night to get feedback from the community. The standing-room-only crowd in the city’s courtroom told local leaders that something needed to be done to reduce conflict between humans and the deer.
“They wait three feet outside of my car door. And the horn doesn’t drive them away. The car doesn’t drive them away. I have sat in my car 20 minutes, feeling intimidated and not wanting to get out of the car,” said Ashland resident Leslie Gore.
Many people stressed that the deer have gotten too comfortable with humans – that they’ve lost their natural sense of fear. And it’s no wonder. For deer in Southern Oregon, Ashland is Shangri-La – surrounded by forests, full of retirees who have time to garden/grow them lunch, low speed limits and a civic outlook that generally appreciates nature.
But the novelty of nearness to nature is wearing thin for Shari Shadduck.
“Something must to be done because I have never been anywhere where I’ve seen deer use the crosswalks,” she said. “I don’t have any dogs, but right now I’m thinking about getting a cougar or wolf for my backyard.”
Based on the testimony, older women with dogs have had the most negative interactions with the deer, although some in this demographic who spoke said they had never had problems.
Dogs do seem to be a particular trigger point. Does apparently regard the canines as threats to their fawns.
“If we had healthy predator populations in the woods and in the mountains, we may not have so many deer problems. Because they’d be eating the deer as they should,” said Dee Perez, who strongly advocated against calls to cull the heard.
Most of the people who spoke at the summit felt the deer population in the town had exploded in the previous decades, but volunteers didn’t begin doing deer censuses until about five years ago. Since then, the population has remained relatively stable – estimated to be in the 300-deer range. This in a town with a footprint of about 6.5 square miles and a human population just over 20,000.
Whether advocating for killing, sterilizing or relocating the deer – or educating people how to better live with them – the crowd at the Ashland Deer Summit was broadly mixed. Those calling for a lethal solution were a vocal minority. But most voiced a desire to find other ways to minimize conflict between humans and deer.
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Jes Burns OPB/EarthFix
/Deer munches on a lawn in Ashland, Oregon.
