Deer Control at Heart of Wildwood Hunting, Firearms Debate

Many Wildwood residents who attended Tuesday's public hearing about possible changes to the city's hunting and firearms regulations believe their contribution to deer population control has served quite well over time. And they do not welcome more restrictions on gun control and where to hunt within the muncipality's boundaries.

"Too many people are afraid of hurting Bambi," said Louise Belt, a Wildwood resident who lives across from . She said her family has loved and hunted deer for the past 36 years.

"In fact, we moved from Town & Country to Wildwood so we could hunt deer," Belt said. "There, they first took away our rights to hunt with guns, then they took away our rights with bows and arrows. Now you know what you read about deer issues there."

Although Tuesday's hearing was about where and with what firearms to hunt related to public safety, it quickly also became about local deer population control.

The Wildwood resident who initiated the review of current Wildwood hunting and firearms regulations, Tom Mitchell, stated in his presentation and situation analysis of the topic that 778 whitetail deer were harvested in St. Louis County in 2011 with firearms.

"The majority I estimate were in Wildwood. That estimate is roughly 80 percent of the St. Louis County harvest, or 622 deer," he said.

He said with figuring an average “harvest rate” of 67 percent for each shot made (misses, nonrecovery, nonregistered harvests, etc., increase shots 33 percent), he estimated the number of shots in Wildwood at about 827 in 2011.

During the peak of the gun season in mid-November, Mitchell estimates there are roughly 554 shots in 11 days or about 50 per day. "Two-thirds of the harvest takes place during this portion of the season. My whole point with this motion is that this is too many hunters, too many shots, and it makes our
particular area unsafe for outdoor activity without the feeling of being hunted ourselves."

The deer population is massive, however, said Wildwood resident Marc Perez at the public hearing. "If we don't control deer in Wildwood, it will cost the city $100,000 to bring in professional hunters to shoot them. There's no need for that."

He said he did not know of any accidents that had happened due to hunting, but that there were plenty of deer-related accidents due to vehicles. "Every time a driver strikes a deer, there's a chance for major damage to the drivers and passengers. Conservation magazines estimate it costs $1,000 to $1,500 every time a vehicle strikes a deer. I don't think the deer population in Wildwood is decreasing on its own. It would be expensive, wasteful and unnecessary to have to turn to professional hunters to control them (the deer)."

Perez said he hit his first deer with his vehicle about six months ago, and it cost $800 to fix his bumper.

Is This the Real Underlying Issue that Prompted This Matter?

"I think we're the neighbor (Mitchell had referenced in his multiple presentations and meetings with the Board of Public Safety, Wildwood City Council and Administration/Public Works Committee)," said Mary Ann Virant at the hearing. She said her family lives on 60 acres off Shepard Road, and had been there for the past 40 years. She referred to their property as one of the largest amounts of land left in Wildwood.

Virant said they had seen the deer population keep growing and were concerned about driver-related safety. "MDC checked our fence lines, there was a lot of deer fur. We needed to hunt."

She said deer are common daily at their place. "The deer routinely eat with our horses, and our Border collie doesn't even bark at them anymore."

"We were shocked when we got the city's notification about this public hearing," she said. "It's silly to think the deer population will go down."

Virant said they have "four fellas" that perform organized hunting on their property; Mitchell apparently is no longer one of them. When questioned by committee members, she said Mitchell used to hunt on their land before they bought it and lived there.

"The hunter in charge of our organized hunting group did not believe Mitchell was a safe enough hunter to be allowed to hunt here," Virant said.

A couple of other speakers at the hearing also had stated they wondered if this issue was initiated from a neighbor-to-neighbor problem. For example, Wildwood resident Nick Riggio said that Mitchell's property was on the edge of Chesterfield and that "maybe this is a Chesterfield neighbor problem."

YOUR TURN: Do you fear the Wildwood deer population would explode if additional hunting regulations were put in place that restricted hunters? Have you witnessed any hunting-related problems? Do you think the current hunting and firearms regulations are sufficient and relevant?