Miami Student

Issue date: 4/20/07 Section: Community

The Oxford Deer Project was created to help citizens understand the number of deer that exist in the city and to see if they pose a problem to residents.

Oxford residents may be seeing more than one additional Bambi, yet according to preliminary results from an ongoing survey, not many residents are too concerned about a rising deer population in Oxford.

A presentation was given by Miami University's Institute of Environmental Sciences (IES) Thursday evening in Boyd Hall regarding an ongoing online survey with the Oxford Deer Project. Oxford residents can still participate until April 25.

According to the Web site for the Oxford Deer Project, the white-tailed deer population throughout Ohio has risen from 17,000 in 1970 to approximately 600,000 as of 2006, with an all-time record of 700,000 reached in 2004.

Miami University professor of zoology Thomas Crist said Oxford's growing deer population is a result of increased development of land in conjunction with the deer's natural tendency to reside at the edge of forests. He said that due to this, the issue warranted examination by the Oxford Environmental Commission (EC) in 2006.

Oxford EC member Prue Dana, vice mayor of Oxford, described the duties of this commission as mainly a variety of cleanup projects.

"(The EP) handles everything from yard waste to picking up recycling to (controlling) storm water to handling the deer problem," Dana said.

The EC worked - along with a group of students and professors from IES - in fall 2006 to conduct a survey of public opinion.

In addition, four infrared cameras were set up at various points in Oxford to survey the deer population, according to Sharrah Moss, a Miami graduate student involved with the project.

She said that despite the installation of cameras, it was difficult to determine the correct deer population.

"A population estimate still could not be made from this, however we were able to find out information about (the deer population's) health and the male to female ratios," Moss said.

Moss said that the results of the survey so far did indicate a problem, though residents still seem to enjoy the wildlife that the deer bring to the area.

"The majority (of those surveyed) did say there is a problem, but they also say they enjoy watching the deer," Moss said. "They feel the problem is deer-vehicle collisions, a major concern, followed by damage to vegetation."

Continued...

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