Michigan could soon have its first regional deer cull.
Farmington and Southfield city councils are expected to vote Monday night on whether to join a permanent annual deer cull already approved by Farmington Hills.
Bryan Farmer is with the department of Special Services for Farmington Hills. He says deer herds don't stay in one place, so regional culls make more sense.
He said without natural predators, deer populations keep growing, and so do the problems, like the destruction of natural habitats, and the spreading of disease among deer herds.
"We've had phone calls from residents saying that their dogs have been trampled by deer, they've had to take them for surgery, they want the city to pay for that surgery because we're doing nothing about the deer," Farmer said. "There's been deer-vehicle collisions: each collision costs a lot of money, and they want to know what are we going to do to help with that expense."
Farmer said deer culls are very emotional issues for some residents, who think it's wrong to kill animals. He said it's important for cities to educate their residents about why culls are necessary, and then put annual culls into their master plans so it's not a political issue from year to year.
"It's a very difficult decision, so to make it easier on our decisionmakers, I think that's the ultimate goal, so every city [doesn't have] to face the same trying to explain why it's important. It's what's the right thing to do in terms of managing our environment."
The cull in Farmington Hills — and Southfield and Farmington as well, if their city councils approve the resolution to join the regional cull — would start next year, with trained sharpshooters from the USDA operating on public lands and on large private lands (with owner permission). In the second year, the program would train up to five officers to cull deer with bowhunting and add them to the sharpshooter program. Subsequent years of the cull could have both programs running in the same year.
Farmer said he hopes the tri-city cull will be successful, and that other areas in southeast Michigan and across the state will replicate it. That effort would be aided by a reform effort underway to modify the state's deer management plan last updated in 2016.
He said it's hoped that city councils could soon obtain ready-to-use deer cull education materials for residents, and a deer cull resolution and master plan amendment to adopt, or reject, saving cities the time and expense of conducting surveys and research from scratch.
Such a template would greatly ease the process of establishing regional deer culls like the one he hopes will become official this week among Farmington Hills, Southfield, and Farmington.
