Residents air views as cull continues

Thanks to Facebook and passion, last night’s (Jan. 24) District of Invermere council meeting became the most happening place to be in the valley.

More than 40 people crammed into the old restaurant back shop that is now a council chambers, with most in attendance because of the district’s ongoing deer cull program. People were lined up outside the council chambers – something that hasn’t been seen in Invermere since about 2007.

The district recently received provincial government approval to conduct a cull of 100 (maximum) mule and white-tail deer from district herds, estimated at about 200 animals, following council’s approval of a citizens’ Urban Deer Committee’s recommendations in August 2011.

Council earlier this month agreed to have the district embark on the cull, with councilors stating they wanted to witness a cull in action. Since that time public pressure has begun to mount, with council members and district administrative staff coming under some fire.

With a winter squall wailing outside Tuesday night, district Mayor Gerry Taft opened the meeting with a prepared statement that asked for civil discourse, decorum and respect and that reminded visitors there is a due process the elected officials must undertake – namely an ‘on the books’ council meeting that does not allow for public interruption.

The bulk of the discussion surrounding the deer cull came at the tail end of the evening when members of the public can ask council questions. It opened hot and heavy.

However, before that, council heard from two delegations that spoke about each side of the cull issue: do it and don’t do it.

Long-time Invermere residents Marie Pike and Doug Trask asked council to stop the cull.

Trask, an Invermere resident for 46 years, said the cull isn’t acceptable and more citizens’ input should have been considered before such a decision was made. Relocation of the deer would be acceptable, he added.

Pike, 40 years in Invermere, said more research should be conducted and “culling the town deer puts a bad taste in my mouth.”

She also asked why the Urban Deer Committee report wasn’t made public, receiving applause from several people in the gallery.

Coun. Justin Atterbury pointed out that the decision to conduct the cull was made public in the summer.

District chief administrative officer Chris Prosser then provided a quick time-line of the urban deer issue.

“The provincial government has kind of shirked their responsibility because they (deer) are Crown animals,” he said, explaining that they have become a municipal problem.

The issue of urban deer in Invermere took off in November 2010, when the district created terms of reference for a committee and then made a public call for people to serve on the committee. By January 2011, a committee had begun working on the issue and in August 2011, a report was forwarded to the district with five recommendations.

The first was to consider a cull and second was relocation. A deer feeding bylaw was suggested, finding funds to fence the town was put forward and the possibility of using “sharp shooters” was the fifth recommendation.

In September the district received a permit from the provincial government to cull 100 deer within municipal boundaries.

Prosser said relocation seemed to be the obvious choice but getting the provincial government to issue a permit for such an activity is another matter.

“Relocation is a permit we are currently seeking,” he said, but the province is “reluctant” to issue such permits. As a result, council opted to go with the first recommendation, as well as the third.

Pike argued that it still didn’t seem right that the district should consider such action “as a last option,” she said.

Taft pointed out that 18 months was spent looking into the problem and “a lot of different options were explored. At the end of the day this was the recommendation we agreed with.”

Next up was Invermere resident Josh Page who shared a different view of urban deer.

“I feel there are a lot of very misinformed people,” he said, offering stories of how his dogs and family members have been attacked and threatened by deer, while living in a couple of different locations within Invermere. In one case one of his dogs suffered broken ribs and abdominal trauma when a doe beat it with its front hooves, Page said.

“The silent majority of the town stand behind” council, he added.

Council then moved deeper into its regular meeting when several members of the gallery expressed disappointment in not being able to speak further on the issue. Taft once again settled the audience down, until the end of the meeting.

As soon as public questions opened, one woman who spoke too excitedly for her name to be understood, demanded Coun. Greg Anderson state where he stood on the matter.

“I’m not seeing anything to vary from the decision made last August, at this point,” Anderson said.

The woman pushed again for his answer before turning on Taft and berating him for storing garbage outside his business. He tried to explain that he provides an outdoor public trash can outside Gerry’s Gelati and empties it every evening, but some deer got to it one day and knocked it over.

Unsatisfied and still agitated the woman shouted, “Do not vilify the deer!” and continued to shout at Taft for storing garbage improperly.

Long-time Invermere physician Dr. Ian White spoke next, in favour of the cull.

“When I first moved here there were very few deer,” he said, but times have changed.

Now the deer have taken over, said the Tunnacliffe Heights resident. “If I try to chase them away, they turn on me. We’ve tried everything” to scare them off but to no avail, he added.

“I cannot see any alternative to culling at this time,” White said. “I’ve been chased from one side of a road to another by a buck.”

Trask interjected that he’s never had a problem with deer in all his time in Invermere.

Invermere resident Alita Bentley said she supports the cull.

“As a mother, I feel the deer are in an unnatural place now. My children are terrified. This is an issue beyond our gardens and our plants,” she said, adding she is worried about her young children’s safety.

The next speaker asked council if they had witnessed a kill yet, as was their intent.

“Our intention is to do so,” replied Coun. Paul Denchuk.

Dwayne Cameron credited council for “making a very tough decision” and noted he’s seen more deer coming along in the town in the past “eight or nine years.”

Carol Gordon opened by pointing out that she does not “personally have issues with aggressive human beings but we don’t kill them.”

She concluded by suggesting a referendum might be a wise path to follow “to ensure the majority is in favour.”

Charles from Canmore spoke about how the Bow Valley city had successfully dealt with problem elk, by controlling garbage, using dogs and providing corridors through town for them “and people learned to live with them.”

Taft said Invermere resident John Zehnder, who “hazes” elk in Banff townsite, has hazed deer in Waterton National Park townsite, “with some success” but also noted that he said habituated deer will return once the dogs are gone.

Ray Ferguson, outlining his experience hunting and living in small town B.C., said mule deer are migratory and he doesn’t remember seeing many mule deer in town before the last few years.

After suggesting hiring cowboys to “round ‘em up and drive ‘em up into the hills” he told council it has to perform a cull and needs to fence the town, but that would end up killing deer of starvation.

“They don’t know how to feed themselves anymore and they don’t know how to migrate,” he said.

Doug Morcom wanted to know more from council on relocating deer.

“They tell us it is something to consider,” Taft said of the provincial government but when pressed on it they give no direction on how to conduct a relocation, which would also require veterinarians and tranquillizers “and numerous steps and processes along the whole procedure.

“If the province is not interested in relocation they should come out and say it,” Taft stated. “We haven’t given up on relocation but there is a lot more to consider.”

Former conservation officer, district councillor and regular council meeting attendee Buzz Harmsworth said Invermere has a problem of “mini environments” such as Tunnacliffe Heights where deer habitually congregate. The town has third and fourth generation deer that know nothing else than to live within the town limits.

“They’ve got to be removed from these locations” or they will stay for good, warned the resident of 50 years.

This led to the opening speaker who declared that council wasn’t siding with democracy based on the numbers of those for and against the cull as per a district survey.

Taft replied that the survey wasn’t as cut and dried as that and the woman then equated the cull to David Milgard (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/milgaard/).

She then calmed down and suggested that council should only turn to a cull as “the last resort,” while noting she moved to Invermere because of the deer.

Coun. Atterbury said the district doesn’t have a definitive “answer” but believes a cull is similar to nature’s way, as if a doe had two young in the wild, it is likely one would die. If two fawns are born within the district boundaries, away from natural threats, it is likely both young will survive. He also said he worries about predators starting to come into town more often.

“If you have a truck and want to throw them in the back and take them up into the hills” – have at it, Atterbury joked to the audience.

Coun. Paul Denchuk said he’s extremely serious and well considered in his support for the cull.

“If any of them get stomped (local children) – it’s on us and I can’t have that,” he declared.

Coun. Greg Anderson said he hopes the district only has to conduct a single cull and warned that a solution won’t be arriving quickly. “It took years to start the problem” and it will take years to solve, he said.

Nearing the end of the public question period, Alita Bentley turned to the audience and said, “We are all a community here. This might not be the best answer but are you willing to have the death of my child on your conscience?” she asked emotionally. “What’s happening is not natural. We can’t fight. Something has to be done,” she pleaded.

David McGrath, the final speaker, said, “I would way rather be here with you taking a proactive step” than be at the council meeting asking “why haven’t you done something?”

He said he was “adamantly opposed” to the idea of a cull at first “but through a process of discovery” he realized that “this is a problem that needs to be taken care of.

“They are not meant to be humanized,” he said of deer, noting people still feed them, name them and consider them pets. “We’ve taken away the wilderness” and while culling “is a nasty decision,” public safety is the most important consideration.

In closing Taft said he was glad to be able to hear more views on the topic.

“We’ve received a lot of comments and input. There were some really good points made,” he said.

Taft also earlier pointed out that deer carcasses are available for anyone who wants one. There is a list at the district office that people can add their names to, he said. “They will receive those carcasses and it will be at their own risk” as to how they deal with them.

Food banks are also being offered meat.

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

 

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