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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

City approves proposal to solve deer problem

Residents’ concerns about lethal methods of deer management proposed by the Deer Task Force prompted further discourse from the Bloomington City Council and residents Wednesday.

The council unanimously passed an advisory document regarding the population recommendations for deer in Bloomington.

Since the council conditionally accepted the recommendations Nov. 28, some council members formed new questions about the humaneness and safety of urban hunting and the state of the biological community at Griffy Woods.

Because the document was advisory, no city official nor the council is bound to any action.

The 12-member task force’s report distinguishes two problem areas regarding the deer: Griffy Woods and southeast Bloomington. The task force recommended deer at Griffy be culled by teams of sharpshooters and the Bloomington deer be reduced by urban hunting and trap-and-kill methods.

Council member Marty Spechler asked whether bow hunting in city limits is either humane or safe.

“Safety can be relatively guaranteed,” task force member and expert hunter Susannah Burchell said.

According to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, bow hunting in city limits is currently legal. Burchell said the task force has recommended stricter regulation of urban hunting.

“We’re not going to be in people’s backyards,” she said. “We’re not going to be where people don’t want us.”

Burchell said regulations should also include demanding urban-bow hunters pass proficiency tests, in hopes they make well-placed shots to minimize harm.

Council member Andy Ruff didn’t address recommendations concerning urban deer but asked if the science driving the recommendations for Griffy Woods was valid.

“We have concrete, scientific data,” IU biologist Angie Shelton said.

Shelton has worked closely with task force member and IU biologist Keith Clay.

Shelton said although the study of deer in Griffy Woods hasn’t been formally peer-reviewed and published, other scientists have informally approved the data, and hundreds of similar studies corroborate her findings.

Some members of the public said because the task force’s report relies on Shelton’s studies, it must be published and peer-reviewed before the city can proceed with recommendations.

IU philosophy faculty member Sandra Shapshay said Shelton’s study does not indicate a deer problem at Griffy.

“To single out deer, when rabbits, opossums and raccoons were also very likely excluded is unscientific,” Shapshay said. “Most important, it gives no evidence of a deer problem per se, but rather a small mammal problem in general.”

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