A rather spirited discussion about bow hunting during Monday night’s West Bend common council meeting.
Dist. 2 alderman Steve Hutchins brought up the issue two weeks ago after fielding complaints about the increasing number of deer in the city. A suggestion was made to issue permits to bow hunters to help trim the herd in city parks.
Tom Isaac from the DNR and Bob Nack, with the Department of Natural Resources’ Deer Management Assistance Program, spoke about deer control options.
Bullet points from the meeting:
-Nack said the DMAP program is a partnership for healthy deer and healthy habitat. Milwaukee County Parks and Dane County Parks are both involved in the DMAP program.
-Nack said with DMAP they make a site visit to talk about goals and look at vegetation.
-The average park size in West Bend is 14 acres up to 140 acres.
-Options to control deer include sterilization, sharpshooters, and trapping.
-Mayor Kraig Sadownikow said he had 38 direct contacts about bow hunting deer. “Two said no hunting at all, 5 said hunt now and 31 said more info.”
-One of the primary questions according to Sadownikow was, “How do we know if we have a deer problem.”
-DNR said there are a variety of way to determine deer numbers including monitor car vs. deer accidents, count how many plants are eaten, and pellet count or count via aerial survey with a drone video.
-Dist. 8 alderman Roger Kist was adamant that he got “a lot of calls and nobody wanted bow hunting at Ridge Run Park; people did not want bow hunting in the parks.”
-Dist. 2 alderman Steve Hutchins said he went hiking in the rain with Dist. 1 alderman John Butschlick and they saw 35 deer in 4 hours at Ridge Run Park, Centennial Park, and Quaas Creek Park.
-Sadownikow said the ultimate goal is to manage the herd. Another suggested option was to get volunteers to qualify as sharpshooters and maybe close a park for 2-3 days to try and solve the problem.
-The final resolution was Sadownikow naming Jim White, Mike Chevalier, and Craig Hoeppner as part of the Park, Rec and Forestry committee to study the issue, devise a solution and report back in October.  Others volunteered for the committee include Ald. Hutchins, and members of the DNR.
Hallway conversation:
After the meeting some of the neighbors in attendance talked about the huge problem of deer in their yards on Deer Ridge Drive. One suggestion that helped keep deer from destroying plants was Irish Spring soap.