Please continue to fund deer management. This successful program has successfully begun to lower deer numbers, with the result of reducing the destruction of native vegetation in our parks, lowering car/deer collisions, lessening the likely hold of spread of Lyme disease among citizens, lowering the likelihood of deer contracting wasting disease, and enabling citizens to enjoy vegetable gardening such as Project Grow and backyard gardening. If the cull is not funded, the deer problem will be increase again, and past efforts and money will have been wasted. This program needs to be ongoing. Note that costs decline over time once a maintenance level is reached. Thank you.
Please continue funding deer management. Turning Ann Arbor into a deer sanctuary would bring us high and rising numbers of deer-vehicle collisions. We are back down to 50 after peaking at 90 before the culls. Ending deer management would also trash, over a period of decades, the whole woodland ecology of our public parks. When deer are overabundant they eat too many of the future trees from the forest floor to sustain the canopy. Destroying Tree City's trees and biodiversity is completely contrary to the City's Natural Areas Preservation program, its Urban Forest initiative, and A2ZERO. Because of the key role of deer in deer tick reproduction, dense deer hotspots in town will also support Lyme disease. In the absence of major predators and a hunting season, our deer population would double in size every two years without rifle culls and "road culls" or doe sterilization. Don't cull with cars. Deer management is an ongoing City responsibility. Stay the course. See wc4eb.wordpress.org
I continue to oppose any funding for deer killing in Ann Arbor. This seriously flawed program has been wasting taxpayer dollars for too long on what amounts to private "pest control". It was never about protecting the parks or public safety as evidenced by years of FOIA'd emails dating back to 2014. Ann Arbor does not have a deer overpopulation problem - it has a deer intolerance problem. Shift the $120K to the police budget or set aside a small amount of money for non-lethal management options. And let's get on with solving REAL problems in this City.
Please continue to fund deer management. This successful program has successfully begun to lower deer numbers, with the result of reducing the destruction of native vegetation in our parks, lowering car/deer collisions, lessening the likely hold of spread of Lyme disease among citizens, lowering the likelihood of deer contracting wasting disease, and enabling citizens to enjoy vegetable gardening such as Project Grow and backyard gardening. If the cull is not funded, the deer problem will be increase again, and past efforts and money will have been wasted. This program needs to be ongoing. Note that costs decline over time once a maintenance level is reached. Thank you.
Please continue funding deer management. Turning Ann Arbor into a deer sanctuary would bring us high and rising numbers of deer-vehicle collisions. We are back down to 50 after peaking at 90 before the culls. Ending deer management would also trash, over a period of decades, the whole woodland ecology of our public parks. When deer are overabundant they eat too many of the future trees from the forest floor to sustain the canopy. Destroying Tree City's trees and biodiversity is completely contrary to the City's Natural Areas Preservation program, its Urban Forest initiative, and A2ZERO. Because of the key role of deer in deer tick reproduction, dense deer hotspots in town will also support Lyme disease. In the absence of major predators and a hunting season, our deer population would double in size every two years without rifle culls and "road culls" or doe sterilization. Don't cull with cars. Deer management is an ongoing City responsibility. Stay the course. See wc4eb.wordpress.org
I continue to oppose any funding for deer killing in Ann Arbor. This seriously flawed program has been wasting taxpayer dollars for too long on what amounts to private "pest control". It was never about protecting the parks or public safety as evidenced by years of FOIA'd emails dating back to 2014. Ann Arbor does not have a deer overpopulation problem - it has a deer intolerance problem. Shift the $120K to the police budget or set aside a small amount of money for non-lethal management options. And let's get on with solving REAL problems in this City.