Photo by Ron Sinfelt

Adding high numbers of deer to the urban growth around our cities can result in a mess, according to Al Van Hoey, a Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) biologist. Deer populations have skyrocketed in areas where hunting is prohibited; car-deer crashes have increased, and something began eating off Aunt Molly's daisies in the dark of night.

"The more you have people in close competition with deer, the more problems you'll have," Hoey said.

Mixing growing populations of white-tailed deer with new subdivisions, highways and farmlands lying within no-hunting areas has resulted in stacks of complaints made to the DFW from landowners and farmers. Throw in an increasing number of hunters who want to see more and larger deer and the DFW has its hands full.

"We have a tough time balancing what the sportsman wants to see and what the farmers and insurance companies will tolerate in crop damage and insurance losses," Hoey said.

"We're trying to keep the herd at a steady level where complaints balance with the desires of hunters. The herd still fluctuates, but we try. The high point in deer numbers was in 1985 or 1986. I'd go out and see unbelievable crop damage along with orchards that deer had sheared off.

"Even though more deer are being harvested, the reproduction rates seem to be keeping up even when more hunters are getting involved. The main goal is to keep a balance between what the hunters want and crop damage. We did bring the deer herd numbers down from the 1980s and the damage isn't anything like it was. We've had more deer being harvested and recently had the second largest deer harvest ever," Hoey said.

As the number of deer in urban areas has grown, car-deer crashes have become commonplace. An insurance industry release claimed that on average, a deer-car crash results in about a $2,000 claim for auto repair and injuries. Higher speeds can be correlated to an increase in road-killed deer while higher numbers of deer enter into the equation in a minor way.

As urban areas turn into giant deer refuges due to laws restricting hunting, a lot of people believe that deer are moving into the cities, but this isn't true. Cities continue incorporating ideal deer habitat with little thought of controlling the herd that's already there. Before long the only real controls on whitetail numbers are cars and trucks, literally.

The DFW responds by adding liberal bag units under special hunting conditions. The state's urban deer zones are located in metropolitan areas and allow only bowhunting because of the proximity of roadways, homes and businesses.

To hunt these zones, archery hunters need an archery license and an extra archery license, in addition to their regular hunting license. An extra archery license is needed for each deer taken.

The bag limit for the urban deer zones allows hunters to harvest three antlerless and one deer of either sex. This is in addition to all other bag limits, which provides plenty of extra opportunities for additional deer.

Antlered deer are defined as deer having at least one antler 3 or more inches in length. The DFW recognizes the difficulty of trying to determine the sex of a deer in field hunting conditions, so it has made taking antlerless deer legal.