Oct 26, 2015 By Harry Funk 3 min read

With an archery hunt in progress and sharpshooting possibly starting in February, one Mt. Lebanon commissioner continues to pursue nonlethal approaches to deer management.

At the Oct. 26 discussion session preceding their regular meeting, Kelly Fraasch presented her colleagues with a thick package of information calling attention to measures that can be taken to help mitigate problems often attributed to an overabundance of the animals in the municipality.

Fraasch, who has voted consistently against lethal population-reduction methods since she took office in 2012, emphasized the importance of community education. For example, many Mt. Lebanon residents might not be aware that the municipality has an ordinance against feeding deer, which encourage their tolerance of people, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Its publication “Please Don’t Feed the Deer” has been adapted for local relevance and is available on Mt. Lebanon’s website.

“There are communities that are doing campaigns for their residents on a regular basis to not feed,” Fraasch said, noting that anonymous tips can be effective in promoting enforcement of local ordinances.

She was provided with a list of educational topics by Sandy Baker, who in April presented a program in Mt. Lebanon based on her guidebook “How to Deer-Proof Your Garden in Five Easy Steps.” Along with gardening, issues include how feeding birds can attract deer; implications of deer in connection with Lyme disease; safety problems created by brush along roadways; and precautions involving other forms of wildlife.

“These are things that I feel we can be including in an overall outreach to the public,” Fraasch said.

She also suggests taking a survey of Mt. Lebanon residents as to their attitudes toward deer.

“This information would be valuable to us, not only now but in the future,” she said. “We should have had a survey before we went with any of the lethal means.”

Commissioner Coleen Vuono, though, questioned the purpose of a survey, as the commission already has the stated goal of reducing deer-vehicle collisions by 50 percent within five years. She objected to the municipality using any resources to poll residents.

“To me, this seems like it’s backtracking,” Vuono, who has voted in favor of archery and sharpshooting, said.

One nonlethal deer-management possibility for Mt. Lebanon might be sterilization, as the Humane Society of the United States approached the municipality about a research project, with funding by the Montgomery County-based Dietrich W. Botsiber Foundation.

Interim municipal manager Keith McGill, though, said the society and foundation would not support the project “as part of a concurrent program with lethal methods.”

He had no indication as to whether the funding would be available after the sharpshooting program, which is subject to a January commission vote for implementation, concludes as scheduled at the end of March. The earliest that “a realistic program for sterilization” were to occur would be the fall of 2016, he said.

To conduct such a program, the municipality would have to apply to the Game Commission, which to date never has issued a permit for deer sterilization.