Still Waiting

"Of all the creatures, man is the most detestable. Of the entire brood, he is the only one that possesses malice. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot."

-- Mark Twain

• Still waiting for the comprehensive part of the "Comprehensive Deer Management Plan".
• Still waiting for an explanation why Solon Taxpayers are picking up the entire tab on the State's "deer problem".
• Still waiting to hear why non-lethal methods were included in the City's deer management plan and then dismissed as ineffective at subsequent meetings.

Smoke and mirrors? Or just a failure of imagination.

"I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the "lower animals" (so called) and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me."

-- Mark Twain

Heinz Knall commenting on Interactive Map of Deer Culling Sites: Are They Shooting Near You? article  10:29 am on Saturday, February 18, 2012

True Nature of Solon's Deer Plan

To: Solon Times <editor@chagrinvalleytimes.com>
Subject: Letter to the editor

The true nature of Solon’s “Comprehensive Deer Management Plan”  has finally come to light.  At the close of the Council Meeting on October 3^rd, Councilman Russo once again questioned Mr. Stanek on the deer management program, asking what non-lethal options existed and who would be responsible for carrying them out.  Mr. Stanek replied and Councilman Russo confirmed that the burden of the non-lethal management methods was going to be placed on the shoulders of the private property owner.  Council and the administration have ignored obvious opportunities to support, or even engage in a discussion of non-lethal methods, leaving it to private citizens to provide a Work Shop on coping with deer.  Despite the fact that the Deer Workshop was free and open to all, conspicuous by their absence were any members of the city council or administration.  It would seem, that the City is going to stay the course with the same old lethal program.  A great deal of time and effort has been put into constructing and justifying the lethal programs, while non-lethal methods have been given nothing more than lip service, excuses as to why they won’t work, and then thrown to the private homeowner to facilitate.  I’m not saying that the homeowner is not a legitimate stakeholder in this issue, but the City has simply done a “Pontius Pilot” here and said to everyone, “you’re on your own.”

The whole idea of “deer management” is a bit absurd.  You can’t manage wildlife.  You can manage livestock, but only because you control every aspect of it’s life.  You control where it lives, where and what it eats, when and if it reproduces and how long it lives.  The same can’t be said for wildlife.  Oh sure, you can send hunters into the woods to take pot shots at the animals, but that’s not management, that’s recreation.  You can throw hundreds of thousands of dollars at the problem trying to kill as many as you can, but they keep coming back.  An interesting concept was brought up by a Mr. Naegle of Urban Deer Solutions when he was here to give his presentation on Deer Parks.  He used the term “manipulate” in his discussions about deer.  You don’t manage deer, you manipulate them in a manner to reduce the impact they have in a given area.  By encouraging the deer to congregate in an area where they are not going to be a problem, you minimize the social and environmental impact on areas where they are not welcome.  While deer parks are not practical in Solon due to a lack of natural predators, the manipulation concept is the very heart of non-lethal management.  If you don’t want the deer on your property, take steps to discourage them from visiting.

 

Heinz Knall

Here is an excellent letter to council, not only stating their non-lethal position, why lethal options don't work, but also offering concrete action items. Unfortunately several weeks later no one responded.

Letter to Solon City Council2

A handful of people's anxiety over wildlife is not Solon's problem

The Buck stops here, as does the Doe and the Fawn. Since 2004, White Buffalo has killed over 1,300 deer in Solon, regardless of age, gender or state of health.

For that service, the city paid out over $800,000 to White Buffalo and Trumbull Locker, as well as Police and Service Department overtime. The net results of the money spent was a brief reduction in deer/car accidents and a return of the deer population to its original numbers.

While allowing hunting with cross-bows in Solon was discussed for a time, Solon is not an appropriate venue for hunting. We are too densely populated, and there is serious doubt as to whether or not hunting, in a suburban setting, would contribute significantly to lowering the deer population. Dr. DeNicola of White Buffalo has even stated in an e-mail to the city that hunting, to reduce deer numbers, would be ineffective and provide nothing more than a recreational opportunity for hunters.

What is going on in Solon has nothing to do with hunting and everything to do with salving the fears of a handful of people who cannot come to terms with the wildlife around them. A more practical and humane solution would be to learn to live with the deer, plant appropriate landscaping, drive slower, pay attention to what’s going on around you and hang up the phone!

Don’t allow a handful of people’s anxiety over wildlife to become Solon’s problem! Don’t allow ODNR’s management of our natural resources and subjective viewpoint to become Solon’s problem! We do not know as yet what the comprehensive deer management plan will entail, but we hope that it will take a more enlightened and humane approach, and not repeat past mistakes.

For more on the deer management issues here in Solon please visit solondeer.com.

Heinz Knall
Solon

Chagrin Solon Sun
http://www.cleveland.com/chagrinsolonsun/index.ssf/2011/04/a_handful_of_peoples_anxiety_o.html

When hunting doesn't work

then try more hunting...

That's what one Mentor resident seemed to say in response to a poaching rampage in Mentor.

Patch News article. SolonDeer post.

Larry Cardo
7:20pm on Friday, April 1, 2011 

It is about time that someone did something to reduce the number of deer. Our Government who is responsible for maintaining control is nonexistent! The large numbers of deer in Mentor are a joke. It is next to impossible to plant a tree in Mentor. The deer cause hundred of thousands of dollars in vehicle damage and are a deadly threat to motorcyclists. 

Nationwide deer injure thousands and kill about 150 each year. Why? Because the "Ohio division of Wildlife" wants to maintain large herds so hunters can shoot fish in a barrel.
All it takes to reduce the deer population is some guts and an extension of the hunting season. 

Larry Cardo
Mentor, OH

So this hunter is condoning poaching ("about time") and admits the ODOW attempts to keep the herd overpopulated to provide more deer for hunting ("recreational opportunity" according to Scott Peters of the ODOW at Solon Safety Committee Meeting).  He further states that the ODOW is the cause of DVAs.  If killing isn't working, more killing won't either!

Attention, residents: Solon will start deer culling again.

Solon will once again be rolling out the red carpet for their wildlife deer assassin, Anthony DeNicola, president of White Buffalo.

Here it is, year number 5, in the two-year deer management plan and Solon officials have deemed this ethical travesty a success.

I find it abhorrent that Solon officials define success as a high body count. I find it equally abhorrent that Solon has added annual deer slaughter to its list of the mundane winter schedule -i.e., snow plowing, salting streets, slaughtering deer, putting up Christmas lights, etc. with such thoughtlessness and ruthlessness. Who is representing the moral majority?

Since the decision makers rubber stamp the continued slaughter, without putting any additional measures in place, we are on the predicted treadmill of slaughter.

Why would Solon, in these economical times, be so willing to throw good money after bad? I think it's fair for residents to assume that this will be a perpetual expenditure that can't even be justified as paying for itself.

I'll remember this when I go to the voting polls next fall.

Carol Starcher
2008

20-Year Integrated “Deer Management” Plan

Dear Editor: 

Regarding my “preliminary deer management plan” mentioned in your article titled [Foes cry, but city will seek culling bids] (Sept. 21, 2006),

I’m writing give a more complete picture of it. Culling deer as a means to reduce deer-vehicle accidents is turning neighbor against neighbor and Solon against itself. It is traumatizing children when they witness deer being killed before their eyes in the backyard next door. It is short term at best and makes little sense in the long run. 

As the contract shooter himself said, “Culling deer is like mowing lawn,” meaning that, due to the compensatory rebound effect of deer population, the killing has to be repeated year after year, at about $250,000 a year. Over 10 years, this would cost Solon $2.5 million, and over 20 years, $5 million, not counting inflation. And after all this expenditure, Solon would still be back at Square One, with nothing to show for it. 

All this lowers the deer-vehicle accident (DVA) rate by a mere 25%. On the other hand, if fencing is used, at about $6,000 per mile of fencing, a $250,000 upfront investment would endow Solon with 40 miles of deer-proof fencing, lowering the DVAs to near zero. The life expectancy of a woven wire and/or high tensile wire fence is about 25 years. It is a one-time expense that can solve the DVA problem for over 20 years in one go, with minimal maintenance. 

Other than along high-DVA roadways, the fencing could also skirt the rear of the deer-affected properties, thus keeping deer out of gardens. In addition, there is a full range of other deer repellents (chemical, acoustic, visual and biological). 

In addition to fencing, Strieter Lights have been proven effective in numerous other places (e.g. 40,000 installed since 1980 in British Columbia). The deer will find their own population equilibrium behind the fence by birth-rate adjustment and emigration. 

Most people in Solon or elsewhere do not want deer killed unnecessarily, especially by inhumane means. It is physically impossible for any shooter to make good the one-bullet-in-the-brain-per-deer promise. Many deer have been observed to be body-shot, and shot multiple times. 

Finally, the safety factor. With shooting occurring in over 70 kill-sites within city limits, often within yards of a neighbor’s house, accidents can happen. With all the available alternatives that are safer and less expensive, is Solon City Council willing to accept the responsibility for someone accidentally shot or, God forbid, killed? 

As they are well aware from DVAs, accidents do happen. 

Anthony Marr, founder Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE) 

4118 West 11th Ave., 

Vancouver, BC, Canada V6R 2L6 

www.HOPE-CARE.org

Counting Deer

To the Editor:

On Sept. 20, the city of Grand Haven held a special City Council work session, explaining the results of the spring's white-tailed deer spotlight survey. The survey was conducted by volunteers from Grand Valley State University's' Biology Department. This survey used the same route through and around the city on four different nights, over a 26-day time period. Spotlighting was conducted on April 21, 27; and May 4 and 16. A total of 76 deer were seen on these four nights.

We were told that the deer density for the area survey is 21.7 deer per square mile. The biology department believes that 50 percent of these deer were does. That each would produce at least one fawn each year,  increasing the population by 50 percent in just one year.

If, we are to believe this 50 percent population increase, then does that mean that in five years there will be 564 in our city per mile square? If this is true and if nature doesn't or hasn't in the past
taken care of deer population increases, then why aren't there 9,000 or 10,000 deer in the city now? (Because, of the continuous 50 percent increase in population over the last 10 or 12 years to date.)

The part that gets me, if you drive the same route at about the same  time on four different nights over 26 days, as the surveyors did, isn't  it possible that the same deer was counted two, three and even four
 times? Think about it, if you counted school children during recess  playing in a school play area four different days, wouldn't you be  counting some more than once?

 I believe GVSU's rowing team could have conducted a more accurate deer  count survey. I'm sure they would have limited their survey to one  night. Having a dozen two-man teams assigned to certain areas each,  spotlighting at the same time. This would eliminate counting the same deer, giving a more accurate count.

The next scheduled survey will be conducted this October and November.  It is understood that the spotlighting will repeatedly occur along the same route as before, on multiple nights, with emphasis on the back yards of certain residences who are calling to complain the most. I understand that one homeowner has called some 25 times since city deer have become a target. If they spotlight these yards five or six different nights won't they be counting some of the same deer? I wish we
would number the deer like in the cartoon by Kevin Collier on Sept. 23, then people would understand what I'm trying to say. I believe we all have more important problems to take up our time. Like fixing this great country of ours: by voting for freedom in November, not socialism.

 — Bob DeHare, Grand Haven