Milwaukee County
 

Deer


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D eer Management in Whitnall Park is a program to bring the park's herd size into balance with its habitat. Because there are no natural predators of the deer in this area, their population grows, while at the same time, their habitat in natural areas shrinks due to commercial and residential development. This displaces the deer, causing them to feed along the parkway and in the park–including Whitnall's Boerner Botanical Gardens. Having invested hundreds of thousands of dollars and decades of work in the Boerner Gardens, we now need to control the deer that threaten it. The goal of the deer management plan is to keep deer an integral, not dominant, segment of the park's natural communities.


The Problem

The Objective of Deer Management
T he objective of the program is to bring the park's herd into balance with its habitat. Deer will remain an integral, not overwhelming, part of the park.

Potential Solutions
T here are no appealing choices in dealing with this sensitive issue. Traditional and some newer options considered by the Parks Department are outlined here.

Chosen Deer Management Plan

Why an overpopulation of deer is a problem
A headline in U.S.News & World Report states, "Deer, deer, everywhere." Citing Wisconsin as the lead example, the article documents the extensive damage caused by the exploding population of 20 million white-tailed deer in the United States. Major problems include damage to crops, motor vehicles and their drivers, and urban and rural landscapes, as well as the transmission of deer-tick borne Lyme's Disease to humans, and damage to the deer themselves through eventual starvation due to overpopulation.

This is not just a rural or north woods problem. These problems are compounded in a major urban area like Milwaukee. The list of other local governments now grappling with the deer problem is growing and includes Chenequa, Fox Point, River Hills, Bayside, and Mequon. Regionally, the Madison, Chicago, and Twin Cities areas have established deer management programs.

The 15,000 acres of Milwaukee County Park and Parkway lands are not free from deer problems. In fact, with increasing commercial and residential development of natural open spaces, deer are displaced to nearby parks and parkways. Whitnall Park's unique beauty and diversity is particularly susceptible to harm from the deer herd. In response, the Parks Department implemented a deer management program in fall of 1995. A total of 167 deer have been removed over the past six seasons. The seventh year of the program will begin in December of 2001 (conditions permitting) and continue into March of 2002.

The deer in Whitnall Park
Milwaukee County residents have invested hundreds of thousands of tax dollars and decades of work to create the nationally known Boerner Botanical Gardens, with its All-America Rose Collection and superb Trial Gardens. Nearby, the Wehr Nature Center, with its large prairie restoration project and rare woodland plant species, has become a major ecological training center for area students and visitors. In just a few years, a growing white-tailed deer population has significantly impacted both facilities.

When their normal food sources cannot sustain them, deer search for other options. Ravenous deer will eat almost any vegetation. The appetites of the deer turn to non-traditional foods, such as roses, tulips, phlox and impatiens found in the Boerner Gardens. Even traditional deer foods such as woodland flowers and shrubs suffer as large herds continually browse them. This affects the other wildlife at the Wehr Nature Center as well.

In Whitnall Park, the Wisconsin DNR estimated the 1995 deer population at 194, based on an actual aerial count. This compares to 156 counted using the same method in December of 1999. This number still greatly exceeds the DNR-recommended level of 15 deer per square mile of deer habitat. In order to maintain a balance of all natural species in this area, the total deer population should be about 80.

While the deer management program has reduced the deer herd, with no natural predators and relatively mild winters, the herd will continue to grow and to inflict significant damage on vegetation in the park.

Do nothing approach
When this policy is used, ultimately, the herd suffers from malnutrition or starvation because their numbers are too large to be supported. Natural flora communities are stripped bare, displacing additional wildlife. Traffic accidents and dangerous poaching activities continue to increase.

Fence the deer out
The cost to fence the entire park is estimated at $500,000. The existing Whitnall herd would still need to be thinned, and this massive fencing would restrict park patron use.

However, the use of limited fencing has been immediately successful. In 1995, the Parks Department placed an 8-foot fence around the John Voight Trial Garden. This protected the All-America Selection Trials and All-America Rose Selections Test Plots. These research plots are important to the plant industry in the introduction of new plant materials. Prior to fencing, the Boerner Gardens' status as a Trial Judging Ground was threatened, as deer were causing so much destruction the plants could not be fairly evaluated.

Deterrents
Though deterrents do nothing to address herd size problems, they can be helpful in diverting deer to other areas. Staff at Boerner Gardens continue to use a variety of methods to repel deer. Each method used is marginally successful.

Netting protects spring tulip buds as they develop. This is a labor-intensive task as the netting must be lifted as the tulips grow. If the buds begin to grow through the netting, deer quickly eat them. Although Boerner Gardens wants to continue its popular tulip display, it is substituting daffodils in some areas as they are poisonous, and the deer stay away from them. Netting has also helped reduce grazing on lilies and phlox as they begin to emerge.

"Scare tactics," when changed frequently, help repel deer. The motion and noise of balloons or white plastic bags attached to stakes and blowing in the breeze keep deer away for several days. This method is not entirely effective as the deer become used to the noise and are no longer afraid. Moving the bags to different locations seems to help somewhat.

Natural compounds applied around plants have not provided relief. Ten test plots were planted along the west boundary of Potter's Forest to determine a product's effectiveness. Each time it was applied, deer returned within three days. The company testing the product was so displeased with the results that it has rescinded any claims that the product can be used to repel deer.

DNR/Urban Deer Task Force Recommendations
In 1994, the DNR appointed the 26-member Southeastern Wisconsin Urban Deer Task Force to examine the deer problem. The Task Force's August 1994 report completed an exhaustive review of deer management efforts in the United States. The report outlined five options for managing a deer population boom. They are listed in order of increasing preference by the Task Force.

Contraception and sterilization have not proven effective at reducing deer populations. Scientists agree these methods need to be used after herd numbers are reduced. Contraceptive drugs are still undergoing testing. Surgical sterilization is traumatic to animals, requiring trapping, drugging, and the surgery itself.

Trapping and relocating has been used with some success in local communities, such as River Hills. Animals go through trapping and transportation trauma. In addition, trapped animals can only be released into game farms according to state law. There, they are ultimately hunted for sport within fenced "preserves."

Special hunts conducted by permitted hunters within designated boundaries are often helpful. Bow and arrow hunting is used in selected areas of Mequon.

Trapping and euthanizing involves individually catching deer and using a captive bolt gun to kill them. Just as in the trap and relocate program, deer go through trapping trauma.

Sharpshooting, according to the American Veterinary Association, is the most humane method of reducing a herd. A shooter on an elevated stand near an isolated feeding station can fell a deer with a single shot, killing it instantly.

More about sharpshooting
The Milwaukee County Parks Department has adopted sharpshooting, the Task Force's top recommendation. The Parks conduct a sharpshooting program in the Boerner Gardens area of Whitnall Park during the winter.

Sharpshooting is a very specific and tested solution, given the past experience of many other park agencies. It is a method which has worked successfully in a variety of urban park settings, including Whitnall Park.

Several clearly marked locations are selected in Whitnall Park away from homes and trails. These sites are baited with corn for a period of time to attract the deer. Experienced sharpshooters, with a minimum of eight years experience working in similar settings, are hired to be posted in stands very near the feeding sites. As mentioned above, it takes an expert marksman only one bullet to kill a deer instantly. Shooters work from 1-1/2 hours before dusk to 1-1/2 hours after dusk, Monday through Thursday. Because the shooters direct their fire downward from a position isolated from public access, human safety is ensured. The Whitnall sharpshooting program has maintained a perfect safety record during its years of operation.

The objective of the Whitnall Park deer management program is to bring the park's herd into balance with its habitat. Deer will remain an integral, not overwhelming, part of the park.



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