MICHIGAN NEWS: Grand Haven Deer Problem Bigger than Grand Haven

The burgeoning deer population in northwestern Ottawa County is no longer just a Grand Haven problem.

Increasingly, residents and naturalists concerned with the problem are confronting area governmental officials with damage being caused by foraging deer. Most governmental units in this part of the county have discussed the deer situation.

Action plans being considered range from studying the issue further to actively pursuing deer culling this fall.

Grand Haven is planning another deer culling this fall after it hired sharpshooters a year ago to kill 19 deer on Harbor Island and in Lake Forest Cemetery.

And late last month, the Ferrysburg City Council agreed to form a task force to look into the problem of deer damaging the city's fragile dune ecosystem. Area townships, where the problem does not appear to be as bad, are monitoring the deer population issue.

Ferrysburg City Council member Tim Scarpino, who will serve on that city's deer task force along with council members Regina Sjoberg and Dan Ruiter, said he believes area governmental units eventually will have to take a regional approach to the problem.

"We can remove all of the deer in Ferrysburg and they will migrate back," he said. "It's obvious, we're all going to have to work together."

Scarpino said Ferrysburg's interest in the deer problem stems from the increasing number of complaints being received from residents over the damage to plantings and reports by naturalists of erosion and other damage at the city's Kitchel-Lindquist Dunes Preserve.

Scarpino, who also serves on the Kitchel-Lindquist Dunes Preserve Board, said environmental consultant William Martinus recently complied a natural-features inventory of the preserve and reported significant damage from deer.

Martinus said deer slowly have been stripping away plants that grow in the dune understory, the area of ground beneath the forest canopy. In addition, many preserve plants found in great numbers during the 1970s were not found during the most recent inventory. Martinus found little or no regeneration of tree seedlings or saplings, while remaining plants often show few blooms. Deer eat tree saplings and seedlings that are native to Michigan, including maple, oak, beech, cherry, basswood, cedar and butternut.

And these native plants are being replaced by nonnative and invasive species that deer will not eat, including garlic mustard. "There's almost nothing native in the understory," he said. "We don't even know if the seeds of the plants are there any more."

Scarpino envisions the task force reviewing information gathered to date before formulating a response, which could include a regional approach.

"We've been told from representatives that the larger the area you work with, the more options you have," he said. "In my mind, that sets the stage for a regional effort. But that depends on each government."

In Grand Haven, officials once again are seeking a fall and winter deer cull and discussed last week filing an official request with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Sara Schaefer, wildlife supervisor with the DNR, said she does not anticipate any delays surrounding the city's request, which will require specific details as to the number of deer targeted and when and where the hunts will be held.

She said DNR studies have also shown that deer are destroying natural vegetation and are eroding critical dunes.

In Spring Lake Township, there has not been a formal discussion about the deer problem by the township board. Trustee Ron Lindquist believes the issue will be brought up and agrees with Scarpino that there must be a regional approach to the problem.

"I can't speak for the entire board, but I agree there needs to be something done for the region," he said. "Deer don't respect governmental unit boundaries."

Grand Haven Township officials discussed a possible deer population problem last spring and set up a formal system to collect and track property damage complaints involving deer through Geographic Information System maps. Superintendent/Manager Bill Cargo said deer complaints are being placed on a GIS map as they are received.

The township traditionally receives about a dozen deer complaints a year. He said there is no data at present showing the township has exceeded the "healthy" limit of about 600 deer for the township.

Source: MLive