12-12-2004, 08:40 AM
Kensington, Indian Springs deer hunts
[url "http://www.spinalcolumnonline.com/1editorialtablebody.lasso?-token.searchtype=authorroutine&-token.lpsearchstring=Kevin%20Elliott&-nothing"]Kevin Elliott[/url]![[Image: z.gif]](http://www.spinalcolumnonline.com/images/z.gif)
November 24, 2004 - While hunting is not typically permitted to the general public at parks managed by the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority (HCMA), sportsmen and officials will soon be taking aim at deer in two lakes area metroparks as the authority begins its Deer Herd Management Program for the sixth year.
According to HCMA officials, growing deer populations in the metroparks have resulted in the loss of nearly 70 species of plants, thus damaging the natural food chains and ecosystems within the metroparks.
According to Dave Moilanen, chief of interpretive programs for the HCMA, this year's deer management efforts, done through controlled deer hunting, will begin sometime in December at Indian Springs Metropark in White Lake and Springfield Townships, and sharpshooting operations at Kensington Metropark in Milford Township are likely to take place in January.
"For the controlled hunt, it will be done in early December at Indian Springs," Moilanen said. "It has to be within the statewide hunting season, and whatever method is going on statewide is the method we have to use. For example, if we would have gone in October, we would have had to do archery (hunting to thin the deer herd). If we were to do it now, it would have to be by shotgun.
"We don't use controlled hunting at Kensington, we use a sharpshooting operation — that's with our rangers trained (as sharpshooters)."
According to Moilanen, sharp shooting at Kensington will take place in January or February, after the close of the regular hunting season under special permit from the state.
The deer management program was implemented in 1999 after naturalists discovered unchecked deer populations were leading to the loss of vegetation and problems in the natural food cycle in the parks. While HCMA officials claim the hunts have been positive for the parks and the natural habitat, the program continues to draw opposition from some groups since its inception.
According to Judy Brock, president of the Metroparks Deer Preservation Council (MDPC), the hunts are inappropriate and ineffective means for controlling deer populations.
"We continue to be opposed to the hunts in the metroparks," Brock said. "Our reasoning in the past, and it still is, is that we continue to feel that the metroparks are not appropriate places for weapons of any kind. We are very disappointed that it is going into the sixth year and it makes it pretty obvious to us that controlled hunts are not controlling the populations."
According to Moilanen, there are currently about 260 deer in Kensington and approximately 126 at Indian Springs. This year, the HCMA would like to remove about 160 deer from Kensington and 55 from Indian Springs. He said most of this year's hunts are done as maintenance to keep populations in check, and that the hunts have been successful in re-establishing park habitat, despite an increase in deer at Kensington since last year.
"Our interpreters have noted that there is an improvement in vegetation," Moilanen said. "Indicator species of plants, like trillium and wild geranium — they've noticed increased numbers in those plants. They've also noticed hearing a couple of birds they haven't head in a while, such as the oven bird, which is a small warbler that lives in the forest, and grouse."
Brock said she is not surprised that deer populations at Kensington are on the rise again. "As they reduce the number in the herd, it will come back and the does will have triplets to bring that number back up," Brock said. "Removing deer is not going to stop them from having babies, and with more feed, the deer have more twins and triplets. We knew that before they went into this."
In addition, Brock said that deer are mating at a younger age. "They think that is a healthy thing in a herd, but it's not meeting their bottom line of reducing the herd."
According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Kensington's 4,300 acres of land can accommodate between 120 and 125 deer, based on a density of approximately 20 to 25 deer per square mile. Aerial surveys conducted in 1999 estimated more than 100 deer per square mile.
According to Rod Clute, big game specialist for the DNR, deer populations in the southern portions of the state have increased throughout the years due mostly to changes in human behavior.
"Deer are very adaptable," he said. "They have learned that they can make a great living around humans."
"Humans in southern Michigan have changed a great deal in the last 50 years. The small farms of the 1940s, '50s and '60s don't exist anymore. The guys that lived in the country lived on a farm and hunted, and the (deer) population was kept in check. Today, the guy that lives in the country owns 20 acres, mows a half-acre (of lawn) and drives to the city for his job — he has created outstanding deer habitat. You've got urbanization of the rural area, plus the deer have learned to survive very nicely in those situations. You throw in the fact that we still have a lot of corn, soybean and alfalfa growing out there — the deer make a great living."
According to the HCMA, 246 deer were removed from Kensington during the 1999-2000 management season. A total of 93 deer were taken from Kensington in the 2000-01 season, 110 in the 2001-02 season, 33 in the 2002-03 season and 51 in the 2003-04 season. The park has a current density of about 53 deer per square mile.
The estimated deer density at Indian Springs metropark is 36 deer per square mile. A total of 89 deer were taken from the park during the 2001-02 season; 37 deer in the 2002-03 season and 32 deer in the 2003-04 season. No deer were removed from Indian Springs between 1999 and 2001.
According to Clute, the fluctuation in deer populations at Kensington is likely due to a combination of better nutrition and geographic location. He said as competition for food decreases, the survival rates of fawns increase. "That tends to be a standard in deer biology — the reproductive rate remains constant, but survival of fawns is what fluctuates," Clute said.
While Clute said an abnormal number of offspring has not been documented in deer, deer in the southern portion of the state are mating earlier than those in the north. If the weather is mild enough, young animals may breed in December or January at a younger age.
"In northern Michigan it rarely happens, in the (Upper Peninsula) it almost never happens," Clute said. "In southern Michigan, we put it at anywhere from 30 to 60 percent (of young deer are mating early)."
The HCMA coordinates with local conservation and hunting groups to recruit volunteers to participate in the hunts. In order to be accepted, volunteers must demonstrate proficient shooting skills through a series of tests.
According to Moilanen, archers must hit a 9-inch target, five out of five times from 15 yards to qualify for the hunts. Hunters using muzzleloaders must hit the same target five out of five times from 50 yards. Hunters in the field shoot from tree blinds and must follow standard statewide hunting rules.
Hunts conducted at Kensington are performed by a total of eight park rangers trained in sharpshooting.
"The deer at Kensington were already acclimated to the people, so we didn't think that going out and shooting them in a hunt-type situation would be appropriate," Moilanen said.
According to Howard Chanter, chief of police for HCMA, sharpshooters take 40 hours of training with the Michigan Department of Agriculture, which teaches them how to pick out the dominant deer in a herd.
"The only way we can take a deer (at Kensington) is by shooting them in the head. It sounds kind of gruesome, but we don't just put hair into the scope and let a bullet fly," Chanter said. "If we can't 100 percent euthanize the deer with absolutely no pain or agony, we don't take the shot. We'll come back or just leave the deer alone."
Rangers are separated into two groups of four that shoot from towers built in pick-up truck beds that stand 10 to 12 feet off the ground. Two rangers remain on the ground to record data and drive the truck. To ensure that bullets are not shot in the air or level with the terrain, shots are only fired from the towers, according to Chanter.
"We are always shooting down in the interest of safety," Chanter said. "There are two people in the tower, there's one with a spotlight, who is spotting the deer because we do this at night, and the other one is the shooter."
While one ranger shines the deer, the shooter delivers a fatal shot using a Remington 700 .243-caliber rifle equipped with a sound suppressor. Rangers rotate positions throughout the night and only two shooters are firing at any one time. The program is governed by the DNR, which monitors the program and issues permits for the hunts.
All the meat taken during the HCMA hunts is donated to food banks to help feed persons in need. According to the HCMA, a total of 47,971 pounds of venison provided nearly 192,000 meals during the first four years of the program.
"Safety is our first and foremost concern," Chanter said. "We stress to all of these guys through their training that they need to be safe, and they need to be humane. If they can't be those things, they don't take the shot. That's what they need to ask themselves every time they see a deer. 'Is it going to be a safe shot, is it going to be a humane shot?' They live by that. They probably let as many deer go as they take."
While Chanter said there have been calls from residents living near the metropark concerned that shooting may be too close to homes, he said there have been no accidents or incidents reported.
"Before we do any of our operations at Kensington, we send letters to the neighbors indicating the dates and times we are going to be doing the culling in the parks," Chanter said. "They are aware. We don't just arbitrarily do it. We want to be good neighbors to them too."
Although safety is a top priority for HCMA officials, groups opposing the hunts continue to push for non-lethal methods of culling deer herds, claiming that hunts pose a risk to the increasing residential development around the parks.
"Safety is not only still an issue at each park where they are doing these hunts, but I think it continues to be increasingly important because more and more homes are being put up all around the perimeter of these parks, which means more children, more pets, more people at risk," Brock said. "That has always been our biggest concern. It only takes one accident. It only takes one person getting injured, and that's one too many for us."
The MDPC made an unsuccessful attempt to block the metroparks' lethal deer management in 1998 and 1999, first in federal court, and then in circuit court. Brock said MDPC pleas were turned down.
"We feel that non-lethal (methods) could have definitely been tried these past six years, and we definitely would have had, hopefully, better results, if not at least the same," Brock said. "They didn't give non-lethal a chance and we don't think we are in any better position today than we were six years ago at the metroparks, or they wouldn't continue these hunts."
According to Brock, the HCMA granted the MDPC permission to conduct non-lethal control experiments at the Lake Erie Metropark, where no hunts take place. However, she said the group has asked for a different park because Lake Erie does not have a deer overpopulation problem.
"We don't want to do this as an experiment, we want to do this to address safety in the parks where they are doing the hunts," Brock said. "They told us, 'no.'"
Brock said immuno-contraception methods used by the Humane Society of the United States and officials at the Milwaukee Zoo have shown some success, and those agencies have expressed interest in assisting with sterilization. A Canadian company called NuTech, inventors of a one-shot immuno-contraceptive product, have also expressed interest. The method is applied through a dart, and a vaccine that has to be updated periodically.
According to Clute, non-lethal control methods can be effective in herds that are able to be monitored well. He noted that immuno-contraceptive methods have worked in captive situations where deer are able to be tagged and identified with relative ease.
"The only one that I'm aware of that has shown to be effective requires two dosages, 30 days apart," Clute said. "If you can do it exactly 30 days apart by identifying the animal, it works great. But, in the real world, it doesn't stand a chance.
"You would have to get your hands on 75-plus-percent of the females for it to have any kind of an impact, and that's virtually impossible. Doing one or two animals makes you feel good, but it accomplishes nothing," Clute said. "If you're targeting the males, one male can service 25 to 30 females in a couple weeks, so you better get them all or you accomplished nothing."
Clute said another idea that has been mulled by animal control experts has been live trapping, which involves moving the deer to a more appropriate location. The same method has been used to control Canadian geese throughout the state. However, Clute said the process also holds two major challenges.
"First of all, there's no more appropriate locations. There's not another place in Michigan that needs more deer," Clute said. "The other thing is getting your hands on them — they're not stupid, live trapping deer is very difficult."
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[url "http://www.spinalcolumnonline.com/1editorialtablebody.lasso?-token.searchtype=authorroutine&-token.lpsearchstring=Kevin%20Elliott&-nothing"]Kevin Elliott[/url]
November 24, 2004 - While hunting is not typically permitted to the general public at parks managed by the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority (HCMA), sportsmen and officials will soon be taking aim at deer in two lakes area metroparks as the authority begins its Deer Herd Management Program for the sixth year.According to HCMA officials, growing deer populations in the metroparks have resulted in the loss of nearly 70 species of plants, thus damaging the natural food chains and ecosystems within the metroparks.
According to Dave Moilanen, chief of interpretive programs for the HCMA, this year's deer management efforts, done through controlled deer hunting, will begin sometime in December at Indian Springs Metropark in White Lake and Springfield Townships, and sharpshooting operations at Kensington Metropark in Milford Township are likely to take place in January.
"For the controlled hunt, it will be done in early December at Indian Springs," Moilanen said. "It has to be within the statewide hunting season, and whatever method is going on statewide is the method we have to use. For example, if we would have gone in October, we would have had to do archery (hunting to thin the deer herd). If we were to do it now, it would have to be by shotgun.
"We don't use controlled hunting at Kensington, we use a sharpshooting operation — that's with our rangers trained (as sharpshooters)."
According to Moilanen, sharp shooting at Kensington will take place in January or February, after the close of the regular hunting season under special permit from the state.
The deer management program was implemented in 1999 after naturalists discovered unchecked deer populations were leading to the loss of vegetation and problems in the natural food cycle in the parks. While HCMA officials claim the hunts have been positive for the parks and the natural habitat, the program continues to draw opposition from some groups since its inception.
According to Judy Brock, president of the Metroparks Deer Preservation Council (MDPC), the hunts are inappropriate and ineffective means for controlling deer populations.
"We continue to be opposed to the hunts in the metroparks," Brock said. "Our reasoning in the past, and it still is, is that we continue to feel that the metroparks are not appropriate places for weapons of any kind. We are very disappointed that it is going into the sixth year and it makes it pretty obvious to us that controlled hunts are not controlling the populations."
According to Moilanen, there are currently about 260 deer in Kensington and approximately 126 at Indian Springs. This year, the HCMA would like to remove about 160 deer from Kensington and 55 from Indian Springs. He said most of this year's hunts are done as maintenance to keep populations in check, and that the hunts have been successful in re-establishing park habitat, despite an increase in deer at Kensington since last year.
"Our interpreters have noted that there is an improvement in vegetation," Moilanen said. "Indicator species of plants, like trillium and wild geranium — they've noticed increased numbers in those plants. They've also noticed hearing a couple of birds they haven't head in a while, such as the oven bird, which is a small warbler that lives in the forest, and grouse."
Brock said she is not surprised that deer populations at Kensington are on the rise again. "As they reduce the number in the herd, it will come back and the does will have triplets to bring that number back up," Brock said. "Removing deer is not going to stop them from having babies, and with more feed, the deer have more twins and triplets. We knew that before they went into this."
In addition, Brock said that deer are mating at a younger age. "They think that is a healthy thing in a herd, but it's not meeting their bottom line of reducing the herd."
According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Kensington's 4,300 acres of land can accommodate between 120 and 125 deer, based on a density of approximately 20 to 25 deer per square mile. Aerial surveys conducted in 1999 estimated more than 100 deer per square mile.
According to Rod Clute, big game specialist for the DNR, deer populations in the southern portions of the state have increased throughout the years due mostly to changes in human behavior.
"Deer are very adaptable," he said. "They have learned that they can make a great living around humans."
"Humans in southern Michigan have changed a great deal in the last 50 years. The small farms of the 1940s, '50s and '60s don't exist anymore. The guys that lived in the country lived on a farm and hunted, and the (deer) population was kept in check. Today, the guy that lives in the country owns 20 acres, mows a half-acre (of lawn) and drives to the city for his job — he has created outstanding deer habitat. You've got urbanization of the rural area, plus the deer have learned to survive very nicely in those situations. You throw in the fact that we still have a lot of corn, soybean and alfalfa growing out there — the deer make a great living."
According to the HCMA, 246 deer were removed from Kensington during the 1999-2000 management season. A total of 93 deer were taken from Kensington in the 2000-01 season, 110 in the 2001-02 season, 33 in the 2002-03 season and 51 in the 2003-04 season. The park has a current density of about 53 deer per square mile.
The estimated deer density at Indian Springs metropark is 36 deer per square mile. A total of 89 deer were taken from the park during the 2001-02 season; 37 deer in the 2002-03 season and 32 deer in the 2003-04 season. No deer were removed from Indian Springs between 1999 and 2001.
According to Clute, the fluctuation in deer populations at Kensington is likely due to a combination of better nutrition and geographic location. He said as competition for food decreases, the survival rates of fawns increase. "That tends to be a standard in deer biology — the reproductive rate remains constant, but survival of fawns is what fluctuates," Clute said.
While Clute said an abnormal number of offspring has not been documented in deer, deer in the southern portion of the state are mating earlier than those in the north. If the weather is mild enough, young animals may breed in December or January at a younger age.
"In northern Michigan it rarely happens, in the (Upper Peninsula) it almost never happens," Clute said. "In southern Michigan, we put it at anywhere from 30 to 60 percent (of young deer are mating early)."
The HCMA coordinates with local conservation and hunting groups to recruit volunteers to participate in the hunts. In order to be accepted, volunteers must demonstrate proficient shooting skills through a series of tests.
According to Moilanen, archers must hit a 9-inch target, five out of five times from 15 yards to qualify for the hunts. Hunters using muzzleloaders must hit the same target five out of five times from 50 yards. Hunters in the field shoot from tree blinds and must follow standard statewide hunting rules.
Hunts conducted at Kensington are performed by a total of eight park rangers trained in sharpshooting.
"The deer at Kensington were already acclimated to the people, so we didn't think that going out and shooting them in a hunt-type situation would be appropriate," Moilanen said.
According to Howard Chanter, chief of police for HCMA, sharpshooters take 40 hours of training with the Michigan Department of Agriculture, which teaches them how to pick out the dominant deer in a herd.
"The only way we can take a deer (at Kensington) is by shooting them in the head. It sounds kind of gruesome, but we don't just put hair into the scope and let a bullet fly," Chanter said. "If we can't 100 percent euthanize the deer with absolutely no pain or agony, we don't take the shot. We'll come back or just leave the deer alone."
Rangers are separated into two groups of four that shoot from towers built in pick-up truck beds that stand 10 to 12 feet off the ground. Two rangers remain on the ground to record data and drive the truck. To ensure that bullets are not shot in the air or level with the terrain, shots are only fired from the towers, according to Chanter.
"We are always shooting down in the interest of safety," Chanter said. "There are two people in the tower, there's one with a spotlight, who is spotting the deer because we do this at night, and the other one is the shooter."
While one ranger shines the deer, the shooter delivers a fatal shot using a Remington 700 .243-caliber rifle equipped with a sound suppressor. Rangers rotate positions throughout the night and only two shooters are firing at any one time. The program is governed by the DNR, which monitors the program and issues permits for the hunts.
All the meat taken during the HCMA hunts is donated to food banks to help feed persons in need. According to the HCMA, a total of 47,971 pounds of venison provided nearly 192,000 meals during the first four years of the program.
"Safety is our first and foremost concern," Chanter said. "We stress to all of these guys through their training that they need to be safe, and they need to be humane. If they can't be those things, they don't take the shot. That's what they need to ask themselves every time they see a deer. 'Is it going to be a safe shot, is it going to be a humane shot?' They live by that. They probably let as many deer go as they take."
While Chanter said there have been calls from residents living near the metropark concerned that shooting may be too close to homes, he said there have been no accidents or incidents reported.
"Before we do any of our operations at Kensington, we send letters to the neighbors indicating the dates and times we are going to be doing the culling in the parks," Chanter said. "They are aware. We don't just arbitrarily do it. We want to be good neighbors to them too."
Although safety is a top priority for HCMA officials, groups opposing the hunts continue to push for non-lethal methods of culling deer herds, claiming that hunts pose a risk to the increasing residential development around the parks.
"Safety is not only still an issue at each park where they are doing these hunts, but I think it continues to be increasingly important because more and more homes are being put up all around the perimeter of these parks, which means more children, more pets, more people at risk," Brock said. "That has always been our biggest concern. It only takes one accident. It only takes one person getting injured, and that's one too many for us."
The MDPC made an unsuccessful attempt to block the metroparks' lethal deer management in 1998 and 1999, first in federal court, and then in circuit court. Brock said MDPC pleas were turned down.
"We feel that non-lethal (methods) could have definitely been tried these past six years, and we definitely would have had, hopefully, better results, if not at least the same," Brock said. "They didn't give non-lethal a chance and we don't think we are in any better position today than we were six years ago at the metroparks, or they wouldn't continue these hunts."
According to Brock, the HCMA granted the MDPC permission to conduct non-lethal control experiments at the Lake Erie Metropark, where no hunts take place. However, she said the group has asked for a different park because Lake Erie does not have a deer overpopulation problem.
"We don't want to do this as an experiment, we want to do this to address safety in the parks where they are doing the hunts," Brock said. "They told us, 'no.'"
Brock said immuno-contraception methods used by the Humane Society of the United States and officials at the Milwaukee Zoo have shown some success, and those agencies have expressed interest in assisting with sterilization. A Canadian company called NuTech, inventors of a one-shot immuno-contraceptive product, have also expressed interest. The method is applied through a dart, and a vaccine that has to be updated periodically.
According to Clute, non-lethal control methods can be effective in herds that are able to be monitored well. He noted that immuno-contraceptive methods have worked in captive situations where deer are able to be tagged and identified with relative ease.
"The only one that I'm aware of that has shown to be effective requires two dosages, 30 days apart," Clute said. "If you can do it exactly 30 days apart by identifying the animal, it works great. But, in the real world, it doesn't stand a chance.
"You would have to get your hands on 75-plus-percent of the females for it to have any kind of an impact, and that's virtually impossible. Doing one or two animals makes you feel good, but it accomplishes nothing," Clute said. "If you're targeting the males, one male can service 25 to 30 females in a couple weeks, so you better get them all or you accomplished nothing."
Clute said another idea that has been mulled by animal control experts has been live trapping, which involves moving the deer to a more appropriate location. The same method has been used to control Canadian geese throughout the state. However, Clute said the process also holds two major challenges.
"First of all, there's no more appropriate locations. There's not another place in Michigan that needs more deer," Clute said. "The other thing is getting your hands on them — they're not stupid, live trapping deer is very difficult."
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