City policy safeguards Ashland’s destructive deer, which don’t just go after dogs; they take out tens of thousands of dollars in landscaping
By Conde Cox
Our community should address the negative impact that our city policies to protect our destructive urban deer population are imposing on all of us.
Not only are these sickly non-wild deer a physical threat to our household pets, as Ashland.news recently reported, but also these deer also destroy tens of thousands of dollars worth of landscaping in our city every year. Indeed, many local citizens are forced to put up large unattractive fencing around their yards, solely to keep these destructive deer off of their landscaping.
Not wild
We are not dealing here with wild animals — these deer in our town are in fact obviously sickly, sometimes aggressive and often destructive. They would not last five minutes in a true wilderness environment precisely because they are sick, not wilderness creatures, and are unable to defend for themselves — except when attacking our pets and our residential landscaping.
These deer are protected by our local law enforcement from harvesting and from relocation. I know this because when I called the city to ask (sarcastically) who was going to reimburse me for the thousands of dollars in vet bills that I incurred as result of one of these sickly urban deer attacking my small dog, I was reminded that these deer are protected from harvests or removal under our city ordinances.
Policies need to change
This city urban deer policy, which I believe is backed up by Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife policy, needs to change. That’s especially important given the upcoming election ballot item relating to a city proposal to borrow $75 million for a new Mount Ashland watershed Ashland drinking water reservoir, because a large percentage of the water projected to be needed by our residents in the future is strictly for irrigation of our domestic plants and residential landscaping.
Growing gardens, feeding deer
Yet, we protect the urban sickly deer population in our town that are every day destroying our landscaping! Why incur huge debt to supply our residents with plenty of future irrigation water while simultaneously protecting the urban deer that are destroying our landscaping — and, sometimes, our pets?
And I am sure that there are additional costs incurred every year by some local residents for motor vehicle repair caused by street collisions with these sickly, wandering, destructive creatures.
In short, why borrow $75 million for water for future landscaping that these deer will largely destroy anyway? And these same deer are also threatening and injuring our pets.
We need a fresh look at our city policies that protect our sickly destructive urban non-wild deer population.
There is no need to borrow tens of millions of dollars to build up new city water reserves that will be largely used to quench the thirst of our landscape plants, so long as we continue with policies that protect these destructive deer that have the effect of largely nullifying the value of all that additional water!
Conde Cox is an Ashland attorney.
