GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Michigan's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has seen a growing deer population in southern Michigan over the past several years, with more deer adapting to urban and suburban environments.
They have also seen more municipalities interested in controlling their deer populations through managed hunting programs.
"Deer have adapted to living around people, and in the absence of any natural predators in the areas, regulated managed hunting is the main tool for managing these deer populations," said Chad Fedewa, Acting Deer Specialist for the DNR.
City officials in Muskegon approved a deer cull back in winter 2020. Leaders in Grand Rapids are currently evaluating a suggestion for a deer hunt pilot this winter in city parks.
At the city's Public Safety Committee meeting on Tuesday evening, leaders are expected to give an update on their evaluation, along with presenting recommendations for a potential program within Grand Rapids according to the Agenda Action Request.
Fedewa said archery hunting is typically the safest method for managing deer populations near urban areas.
He also said that an ever-growing deer population in municipalities can prompt several concerns.
'When you have a lot of deer in an area, they eat a lot of vegetation, particularly in these parks and green spaces, you're seeing reduced forest regeneration," said Fedewa. "When we have high deer densities an increase in human safety concerns from car-deer accidents. We also see a lot of increases in complaints from residents when deer are eating their landscaping and their gardens as well."
The DNR said that legal, regulated hunting is the preferred deer management tool and that the DNR works with local municipalities to manage wildlife concerns.
Fedewa said that non-lethal options for deer management, such as translocating deer to other areas can spread disease, increase competition for resources and can have low survivability for deer due to traumatic side effects.
He said research has also shown contraception or sterilization to be ineffective.
"We have seasons set up. We have licenses that hunters need, they need to take hunter safety courses to be a licensed hunter, so we already have this mechanism set up that allows hunters on private and public property to utilize these hunting seasons, that are already established to help manage deer populations," said Fedewa.
