Don't feed the deer: Hendersonville seeks solutions after 84 vehicle crashes in 2022
Hendersonville had 84 reported vehicle crashes involving deer in 2022 and 12 additional police reports as of early March. The city wants action to identify steps to address the population.
There are likely more unreported deer vs. auto collisions and there is an impact to yards, gardens and landscaping according to Oliver Barry, who has chaired a deer control monitoring committee Hendersonville established years ago.
“It’s been a problem for years,” Barry said. “A lot of people like to feed them.”
Hendersonville’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen recently approved a $7,500 appropriation to the USDA to conduct an aerial survey that, hopefully, will give the city a county of the city’s deer population. The USDA survey has been completed and a report is expected next month.
The survey request is to break down numbers in Hendersonville’s specific peninsulas and potentially lead to action steps in conjunction with the Deer Control Monitoring Committee.
“Urban wildlife is a real thing,” Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency Outreach and Communications Coordinator Barry Cross said. “An area that is not hunted where people feed the animals is going to have wildlife. Wild animals provide for themselves, so feeding wild animals is basically inviting them to unprotected areas.”
Hendersonville passed an ordinance that went into effect in 2016 to effectively ban intentional deer feeding in the city limits.
There has been one citation issued for the ordinance since that time according to Hendersonville police. People deliberately feeding deer on their property continues to be problematic in Hendersonville according to Barry and other officials. A reluctance among neighbors to turn in neighbors is probably a reason for that lack of enforcement, Barry said.
What can be done?
Landowners can apply for depredation permit to remove nuisance or destructive “big-game” wildlife, but those are generally geared toward farmers and larger property owners.
The TWRA is “hesitant to write permits” for landowners in neighborhoods with smaller lots to shoot a deer in order to balance firearm safety requirements and responsibility for what they hit that could potentially make it a police issue, TWRA Maj. Jeff Skelton said.
Shooting a deer with a bow and arrow can also lead to problems if an animal doesn’t die and makes it injured to another property.
Hendersonville has done surveys in past years. The latest survey was done on the ground that resulted in a very low count that officials believes was flawed. The latest survey looks at each peninsula in the city, which Hendersonville Mayor Jamie Clary believes will reduce flaws in the count.
Education should increase on topic such as how feeding deer multiplies the deer population in an area that isn’t hunted, and how that food isn’t healthy for the animal, Barry said. Education can also lead to stricter enforcement of the existing ordinance with more reports to police.
Feeding deer is also inadvertently done with vegetation that grows up and attracts deer. The deer population is estimated at about 1.5 million statewide, according to the TWRA.
Reach Andy Humbles at ahumbles@tennessean.com or 615-726-5939 and on Twitter @ AndyHumbles.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Hendersonville to address deer population after 84 vehicle crashes in 2022
