Unanimous vote moves deer issue forward

The future of deer in Griffy Lake has moved from the hands of the City Council to the Park Commissioners.

Tuesday, the Bloomington Board of Park Commissioners unanimously approved a contract with a wildlife management company that will facilitate deer sharpshooting in the Griffy Lake Nature Preserve.

The $31,000 contract will allow the nonprofit organization White Buffalo to kill more than 100 deer in Griffy Lake between Nov. 15 and Feb. 28, 2015.

Park commissioners discussed sharpshooting logistics with White Buffalo after a long awaited approval from the City Council, which amended a city code prohibiting the discharge of firearms within city limits.

The issue of deer overabundance in Bloomington has been steeped in controversy. The Bloomington Deer Task Force, which includes City Council member Dave Rollo, is in favor of sharpshooting deer to curb what they perceive to be an overpopulation problem. Others question the proposed use of violence and whether the deer population is even out of hand.

Sandra Sharpshay, executive committee member of Bloomington Advocates for Nonviolent and Innovative Deer Stewardship, stressed the lack of concrete evidence of deer overpopulation.

A 2014 study at IU Shelton Research Center has collected data of deer pellets, but scientists have admitted this method is not the most accurate, Sharpshay said.
“No one knows if the deer are overabundant at Griffy now,” she said at the meeting.
Not having a definitive deer count will not affect the sharpshooting processes, White Buffalo representative Ryan Rotts said.

“Although we don’t know exactly how many deer are in the preserve, that information is really irrelevant,” he said. “What’s important is that we have the metrics available to show that our management has provided measurable successes in reestablishing some of the species that have been near eliminated in the park.”

Many community members came out in favor of culling the deer at the meeting, voicing complaints about their ruined gardens and scared pets.

Bloomington resident Anne Sterling said she was concerned about the environmental effects of the lead in the bullets they plan to use.

“Even if the sharpshooters have a 99-percent accuracy rate, which seems a bit optimistic, it’s unavoidable that lead will be injected into the Griffy Lake Nature Preserve,” she said.

Board members said they were focusing mainly on whether the contract was appropriate or not, and that they put trust in public officials who said overpopulation was a problem.