Officials in East Lansing are looking to gather more information before opening fire on the city’s deer population, citing concerns over whether the population is in fact growing.
The Department of Public Works did a survey in 2011 after a series of deer-related car accidents caused some residents to complain.
At Tuesday’s East Lansing City Council meeting, the results painted a different picture.
Environmental Services Administrator Cathy DeShambo and Director of Public Works Todd Sneathen spoke at the meeting and cautioned that more information is needed before any action on population control should be taken.
“The deer-related car accident data is a little different than what we have had in the past,” DeShambo said during the meeting. “This is an attempt to backfill some space in the process. In order to put together a plan that is unique to East Lansing’s needs, we need more information.”
“Our understanding now is what we had done (in 2011) was premature,” Sneathen said. “We don’t know what the population is, so we wouldn’t classify it as an overpopulation problem.
“We are taking a couple of steps back from where we were, and tonight is to propose that we better define what the problem is,” he said.
Meridian Township has implemented a deer hunt to help control its population, which DeShambo said was successful in the early stages.
The council had previously discussed a plan similar in nature to Meridian Township’s, but took no definitive action on it.
The city had previously run a 2011 survey soliciting resident feedback on deer in the city.
Meridian Township’s plan could serve as an effective model for whatever East Lansing decides to do in the future, DeShambo said.
“I think they got 90 deers on the first day,” she said. “A lot of things from their plan can inform us; so can other (plans) around Michigan.”
DeShambo did say that the two towns are different in land mass that the city must manage: Meridian Township has more than 1,900 acres to cover, while East Lansing has 272.
DeShambo proposed options that did involve hunting deer, saying that a feeding ban, an increase in the height of fences and an increase in information about hazard areas for motor vehicles could be effective tools.
Council member Kathleen Boyle, a resident of the Red Cedar Neighborhood, said that she has noticed an influx of deer in her area of East Lansing.
“There has really been a marked explosion of the deer population in my neighborhood,” she said.
Boyle said that a call on deer is a debated issue in her neighborhood, which runs in close proximity to lots of deer.
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