Mt. Lebanon commissioners hone deer strategy
Protesters Jamie Sunderland, of Crafton, and Leila Sleiman, of Pittsburgh’s North Side, demonstrated as commissioners and Mt. Lebanon residents poured into the high school fine arts theater for a special deer control discussion meeting.
Jody Maddock, director of campus services at Bryn Athyn College, organizes managed archery hunts, and pitched a volunteer program that could save the municipality money.
Mt. Lebanon commissioners closed in on what they said were most viable deer control methods at a June 22 meeting after hosting a panel of experts in a special discussion-only session. Commissioners indicated archery and sterilization were options worth municipal staff exploration, yet will still have to iron out if they want to combine the methods into a hybrid plan, and if volunteers should be used to help cut any program’s costs.
Municipal planner Keith McGill kicked off the four-person panel by saying the metric for success would be a 50 percent reduction in deer-related traffic accidents over five years. He cited police crash data showing an increase of 23 accidents in 2011 to 58 in 2014, accounting for 9 percent of all crashes last year.
McGill was joined by the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Jeannine Fleegle; managed hunt expert Jody Maddock, who organizes archery hunts in Bryn Athyn, Pa.; and Dr. Anthony DeNicola, a sterilization researcher and technician with White Buffalo, Inc. DeNicola and Fleegle spoke on a similar panel before the board in 2014.
“I would need a year to coordinate … knock on doors, and find archers,” said Maddock, who pitched a selective volunteer program to use bows to take down deer on both public and private land. He explained he and others would have to knock on most doors in the municipality to get clearances from homeowners regarding 50-yard safety setbacks for archers.
DeNicola explained a sterilization program could also utilize volunteers to some extent, but that at least 80 percent of females would need captured and surgically neutered to have an impact on population within five years. It could cost up to $1,000 per doe if using all professional veterinary help, but using volunteers could halve the cost, he said.
“You’re looking at $300,000 if you do this all in year one,” DeNicola said.
The plan to use archers suggested by Maddock could cost as little as $40,000 if a small volunteer team was used.
McGill said approximately $69,825 is left in the allocated deer budget for 2015.
No public comment period was on the agenda during the special meeting, but board president John Bendel advised residents to comment at the commissioners’ July 14 regular meeting. He also said commissioner Kelly Fraasch’s suggestion of a survey gauging residents’ favorability toward the proposed methods could be circulated. Commissioner Dave Brumfeld said he doesn’t want to push any divisive strategy.
“I can’t vote for a sharpshooter method. Residents in my ward would have a problem with it, I have a problem with it … that’s why I was in favor of the cull method to bait and corral, because I thought it would alleviate some of those issues,” he said.
The controversial cull in February 2015 that baited and trapped deer in corral pens before riflemen shot them netted only six deer. The company responsible for the method never tried in Pennsylvania, Wildlife Specialists, LLC, blamed poor weather and interference from protesters.
A small group of protesters demonstrated outside the Mt. Lebanon High School fine arts theater, where roughly 50 people stayed for the 4 1/2-hour discussion.
“This is the same dog and pony show the commissioners did with the artificial turf,” said Mt. Lebanon resident Barbara Sollenberger, “because they brought in a panel of so-called experts, didn’t listen to residents and went ahead with it anyway.”