Richmond County’s warden believes an expanded fall hunting season could help address an increasing local deer population, particularly on Isle Madame.
The municipality voted last month to authorize staff to seek out private companies to compile data on the deer population in the county and on the north side of Isle Madame. Richmond officials will also investigate the possibility of bringing Nova Scotia Community College students on board for a co-op work program that would track deer numbers.
The move comes as Nova Scotia’s Natural Resources Department confirms numbers are on the rise across the province. However, in a statement to CBC News in December, department officials pointed out their recent efforts to increase the number of deer eligible for the annual fall hunt in Richmond County.
Warden wants numbers by spring
The province’s standard practice has been to gather three years of data before considering a managed hunt. However, Richmond Warden Lois Landry wants figures compiled in her county by the spring to guide an expanded local hunt next fall.
“It really is about making sure that you get the information at the right time, so you can get the information about the doe population and the fawn population, so that they can make decisions for a fall hunt,” Landry told reporters following the latest regular council session in Arichat.
“[We don’t want] to do it where there’s a heavy snowfall, and the deer might actually be burrowing in some little small location. So, really, we have some time, but we want to make sure that everything is in place so it can be done on April 1.”
In its statement to CBC, the Natural Resources Department said it had recently issued 200 bonus deer stamps and 75 antlerless deer stamps as a measure to help reduce deer density in the area.
Landry isn’t convinced. The warden said visitors to north-side Isle Madame frequently encounter up to 70 deer in a single drive. She also pointed to her own backyard as an example of deer finding their way into residential areas without prompting or feeding by local residents.
“My on-site septic system is a peat moss system, and when it snows, I can tell you that I have nose prints around my septic system, because it’s more obvious that there’s peat moss to eat there. So we’re luring deer with our gardens or our septic systems, whether we have people throwing crumbs out to them or not.”
Other municipalities taking action
Richmond officials hope the recent activities of other municipalities can bolster the county’s case for an expanded deer hunt in southeastern Cape Breton.
Those include the Municipality of Colchester County, where voters in five districts backed “a safely managed urban deer bow/crossbow hunt” in a plebiscite that coincided with October’s municipal elections. The Town of Truro and nearby Millbrook First Nation have had such a hunt over the past three years, and the Town of Yarmouth has struck a working group to examine its own deer numbers.
