When speaking to the Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources at the UBCM next week, Kimberley Mayor Don McCormick is hoping to urge for a quick answer on the application Kimberley is putting forward for a translocation permit for this January or February.
“This meeting is number one on our urgent list,” McCormick said. “Our count last year was 150 deer, that’s 25 over our threshold (set in the Managing for the Future document). We expect this year’s count will be up over that.
“We are looking at having to take some deer out this winter. We are applying for a translocation permit.”
It’s a complicated process to get there, though McCormick is optimistic given that the results of pilot study conducted in the East Kootenay were very positive.
“The only slight problem was a few deer finding themselves in other municipalities, but it was a small number,” he saId. “But part of the application is how to deal with deer that are so habituated to urban settings that they come back again and again. We are trying to organize this in a way that it is in the Conservation Officer’s jurisdiction.”
McCormick says the city will be looking to tap into funding that is already available for urban deer to pay for translocation.
“The cost of a kill cull and a cull by translocation is about the same. Given how heavily we rely on tourism, we don’t need the bad publicity around a kill cull. And with translocation, we can remove as many deer as we wish. With a kill cull, you can only remove 30 per cent of the herd.”
Part of the conversation with the Minister will be to point out all the other actions Kimberley has taken to deal with urban deer including, changing bylaws, enforcing fines for feeding, improving signage and providing annual education in elementary schools about deer/human interaction.
“We’ve done all these things. The application is a last resort, but there is an urgency to get it done. I expect the Minister to back us up.”