Wineka column: Potential for trouble rises as numbers of deer in city grow

Carroll and Bonnie Owens have daily visits, morning and afternoon, from deer. They've had up to seven in their backyard at one time. The deer come up from the Catawba College area into their Meadowbrook community. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Carroll and Bonnie Owen have daily visits, morning and afternoon, from deer. They've had up to seven in their backyard at one time. The deer come up from the Catawba College area into their Meadowbrook community. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Carroll and Bonnie Owen have daily visits, morning and afternoon, from deer. They've had up to seven in their backyard at one time. The deer come up from the Catawba College area into their Meadowbrook community. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Carroll owen watches the deer in his back yard. The Owens have daily visits, morning and afternoon, from deer. They've had up to seven in their backyard at one time. The deer come up from the Catawba College area into their Meadowbrook community. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

Carroll and Bonnie Owen have daily visits, morning and afternoon, from deer. They've had up to seven in their backyard at one time. The deer come up from the Catawba College area into their Meadowbrook community. Photo by Jon C. Lakey, Salisbury Post.

The deer come to Carroll Owen's backyard three times a day, if he puts out the deer corn.

"We'll be in here piddling, and all of a sudden, there they are," Owen says.

Owen and his wife, Bonnie, delight in the daily deer visits, and Carroll spends at least $5 a week on a 40-pound bag of deer corn he buys at Walmart. Sometimes he spices up the menu with apples.

"It has just turned into one of the most pleasant things," says Owen, who watches the deer from his living room. "It totally surprised me."

Early on a recent Monday afternoon, seven deer came into view behind Owen's house. He says he usually can count on seeing at least three or four — a doe and some yearlings.

When all seven are in the back yard, the crowd probably represents two herds, Owen reasons, just from the way they react to each other.

Two bucks were among the herds in his yard Monday.

"This is the five-point coming up here," Owen says, following a buck's entrance from the woods behind his house.

The thing that's a bit unusual about seven deer in Owen's backyard is that he and Bonnie live in a long-established Salisbury neighborhood.

It's a vivid illustration of the growing presence of white-tailed deer populations within towns and cities in North Carolina and across the country.

The deer coming to visit Owen aren't causing any problems, but that's not always the case for many urban residents who consider them a nuisance, even a danger.

Deer can ravage gardens, shrubbery, flowers and ornamental trees.

They pose traffic hazards. The ticks they carry transmit disease.

But when their overpopulation becomes a problem in the sprawling urban areas that have replaced their habitats, the deer are usually protected by ordinances that prohibit hunting, or even the discharge of firearms within a town limits.

Their natural predators, such as wolves and cougars, are not a factor, and deer populations can double every two to three years in the absence of predators.

It may sound harsh, Sgt. Tony Sharum of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission says, but often in cities "the only predators are Fords and Chevrolets."

Sharum emphasizes that it's not illegal to feed deer on private property, as Owen is, especially since they aren't being a nuisance for his neighbors.

But it's clear the numbers of deer are growing in Salisbury and some day may present a problem.

"It is an emerging issue in many municipalities across the state," says Doug Paris, assistant to the Salisbury city manager.

Most of Salisbury's deer population seem to follow creeks and greenways, Paris says. The Grants Creek corridor is home to many deer, but sightings are not uncommon throughout the city.

Sharum says deer notably show up off Jake Alexander Boulevard and Harrison Road, where he has seen eight to 15 in a herd.

Paris says a group of hunters approached city staff members last year about the possibility of a hunting season within the city limits — something not permitted now for gun or bow hunters.

The city considered a study, in which a group would be hired to conduct camera studies and possibly make a good estimate of the city's deer population. A line item for that study didn't survive last year's budget cuts, however.

Elsewhere, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission has been helping cities organize Urban Archery programs to reduce their deer populations. Almost 20 towns and cities in North Carolina have culled their white-tailed deer under permits obtained from the commission.

"Salisbury is not that far along yet," Paris says.

Kannapolis most recently approved an urban archery program to eliminate some of its deer.

Urban Archery season in towns with approved programs started Jan. 9 and runs through Feb. 13.

The program is pretty tightly controlled.

Hunting is only allowed from preapproved hunting stands, elevated blinds or trees. It can't take place in parks or close to schools, churches and streets. And hunting usually must take place on properties of at least 10 acres.

A cursory scan of the Internet also shows culling programs under way in places such as Bridgeport, W.Va.; Cayuga Heights, N.Y.; Warsaw, Ind.; Grand Haven, Mich.; Oxford, Ohio; Leesburg, Va; and Ottumwa, Iowa.

Residents in those towns have cited concerns about vehicle accidents related to deer, damage to properties and disease.

Incredibly, North Carolina's deer population in 1900 was estimated at 10,000. Today, it's 1.2 million.

Sharum remembers that when he first joined the Wildlife Resources Commission in 1988, the state had about 450,000 deer.

Rowan County has plenty of white-tailed deer. In 2008-2009, 2,534 deer were harvested in Rowan — almost half of the number were bucks. Rowan ranks ninth in North Carolina with 4.03 antlered bucks harvested per square mile.

Carroll Owen's deer first showed up to dine on acorns that fell into his yard from his neighbor's two giant oak trees.

It took the deer about a week to eliminate the acorns, but Owen liked their visits so much he began putting out the corn. They have kept coming back since about the third week in November.

The Owens' 3-year-old granddaughter, Kate, often takes up a seat at the back picture window to watch the deer eat, sniff and prance. Her front-row seat sometimes includes juice and a snack.

The deer are only about 40 or 50 feet away.

Owen often watches them from his tinted back door because the deer can't see him from there. He and Bonnie have taken countless photographs, and they have a pair of binoculars at the ready just for closer looks.

When they're eating is done, or they've been spooked by something, the deer bound away toward Grants Creek. Just as quickly as they appear, they vanish.

"It's a neat thing," Owen says.

Read Mark Wineka's blog, "Wineka's World," at www.salisburypost.com.