Oh, deer, what can we do?
Whitetail deer
R News reports, Strieter lights go up in Mendon:
The New York State Department of Transportation is installing 780 deer reflectors on Route 65. They are designed to flash in order to discourage deer from crossing the road.
The DOT is putting them in along Clover Street from Reeves Road south to Mendon Center Road. That area saw 31 reported deer-car collisions last year.
This area of Route 65, outside of Mendon Ponds Park, is one of the highest deer-MVA stretches of highway in New York State. Data has been collected by the Mendon, Deer Management Task Force for the last few years. This will be the first time that the NYDOT has installed these lights with the baseline data for comparison and are anxious to see the results.
I drove down that area one night about 20 times driving a shuttle back and forth from a wedding. It was scary.
I’m going to be wildly politically-incorrect here, but one of the cheapest and most effective ways of managing deer overpopulation is carefully managed hunting by professional (or at least, highly skilled) hunters. Close off the road for a day and send in the hunters - no bag limit, no tags required, property owner permissions secured in advance, DoC officers on hand to make sure everything’s done right and donate the venison to charity.
Back when I lived in Southern Indiana, the local state park was overrun with deer, to the point where they were killing the trees, endangering threatened plant species and still starving to death. Two seasons of managed hunts later - using the system I described above - everything was fine.
I don’t know if a managed hunt would be cheaper than reflectors, but it would likely be more effective, since I’m sure the deer will get habituated to the reflectors over time. Also, during mating season, the deer (or, at least the lust-craved ones) aren’t going to be deterred by some stupid blinking light.
Thomas-you are not politically incorrect at all. That is, indeed, the most effective way to manage the herd, and the Deer Management Task Force brought that to the attention of the county legislature. A controlled hunt in the Park was not even taken into consideration by Maggie and her minions. I can guarantee that it will never happen with a Republican legislative majority. The problem is, of course, augmented by the surrounding property owners who do not allow hunting on their property.
You’d be surprised at how controversial a simple controlled hunt can be. In the run-up to the Brown County hunt I mentioned above, there was all sorts of anguish, mostly by PETA but also by some people who should have known better. All sorts of expensive, unworkable alternatives were proposed (contraceptives, spay-neuter, trap and release). It’s Bambi syndrome - people get stupid over deer because they’re cute.