Living sustainably in the Foothills also means co-existing with wildlife.
The area has a massive wildlife population: it’s a rare day that a group of deer isn’t seen hanging out along Veterans Way in Okotoks or a bald eagle doesn’t soar above Foothills County.
Homeowners that like to garden or grow their own produce have probably had a few run-ins with the area’s resident urban deer. They’re certainly a controversial subject, but love ‘em or hate ‘em, the deer are here.
Gordon White, an urban forestry parks technician with the Town of Okotoks, is one of the key players when it comes to managing deer and other urban wildlife.
“The deer have become more and more of a nuisance and a problem,” he says, “and so the Town recognizes that we also have our challenges, like growing vegetation and keeping it from getting damaged.
He acknowledged the problems that homeowners face when it comes to deer damaging their property and eating their gardens.
“They’re making it difficult to grow plants and vegetation that's under six feet tall,” he says. “The deer have made their whole livelihoods out here, and there's quite a few resident deer that I’ve seen frequently in the Town boundaries. They’ve probably been here for their whole lives.”
Deer are safe for the most part, but have the potential to pose a threat, according to White.
“The odd time we get some aggressive behaviour from the deer,” he says. “Typically, it's a doe with a newborn or young fawn, and those can be protective and can act aggressive.
“All the reports that have come in typically include a dog. People walking dogs, the dogs appear to be a threat to the deer, because they probably resemble coyotes.”
The odds of deer harming people or pets are slim, but the damage they cause to property is a major concern.
Abundance of food
White says that due to an abundance of food, deer have made towns like Okotoks and Diamond Valley their home.
“That's probably one of the biggest reasons why the urban deer have become so much of a nuisance as they have: because people are intentionally feeding the deer, and so then they don't have a need to go anywhere else.”
Deliberate feeding of deer is a cause for concern in Okotoks. It is outlawed by Town bylaws, but continues to happen. Some retailers in the area sell bags of deer feed for this purpose, prompting further concern.
“If those people aren't feeding the deer, then the deer are looking for other vegetation to browse on,” says White, emphasizing that even a few people feeding them poses a major problem for the rest of the community.
White says the Town is working to put in place stricter enforcement of the bylaw to discourage and prevent people from feeding deer, primarily on private property.
He adds the urban environment provides a lack of predators and near-endless availability of food, which allows deer to extend their mating seasons. This makes fawns a common sight in Okotoks and contributes to their population growth.
When it comes to their population, the Town is keeping an eye on the situation.
“We've been doing a deer count for about 10 years now,” says White.
The deer count is the Town’s way of monitoring populations and generating statistics to share with council and community.
“The last few years, we've kind of refined it to the point where we're doing one count a year during the month of February,” he says. “Typically, when we do our count, we fan out. We've got 12 routes throughout the community that people travel in a one-hour period and then keep track of the number of deer, species and gender.”
The first count, held in 2015, tallied a total of 66 mule deer, a number which had increased to 108 by the 2020 count. Last year's count showed that Okotoks' deer population had grown to 139, up from 124 a year earlier.
White says the count is necessary for the Town when it comes to making decisions for next steps in deer population management, adding that drastic steps like a cull would not be as easy as people might think.
“It's important to recognize that ungulates are a provincial resource and managed under the provincial government,” he says, “so the municipal government doesn't have the authority to go and harass or interfere with wildlife.
“A section within the Wildlife Act says you're not allowed to harass deer, which also includes culling and indiscriminately putting them down. It’s important to know that if we do anything more than what we're doing already, it probably will involve the provincial government.”
Millarville moose
Near Okotoks, Patricia Ryan, a resident of the Millarville area, experiences a different wildlife situation: moose have been frequent guests in her backyard, even staying there for weeks at a time.
“The moose have been hanging around here, they’re very habituated to this little pocket here,” she says.
“I've only lived here a year, but the cow moose that I've seen, she was here last spring with her calf and she was pregnant, and then she went off and had her babies, and then she came back with those babies.”
According to Ryan, the moose have an established family unit.
“Her calf from the previous year is still with her,” she says, referring to the cow moose that serves as the family’s matriarch. “She had twins last spring, she had a male and a female, and the older sister’s babysitting the youngsters.”
When it comes to the calves, Ryan says they have obvious personalities.
“The male is so much more gregarious than the females,” she says. “It’s quite fun to sit and watch because they're in my yard a lot.
“He tips things over and he's quite funny to watch, because he's so curious and so gregarious, and the female is shy and skittish and very nervous.”
She says the female calf is terrified of passersby and vehicles, while the male is more curious and fearless.
Ryan is happy to have the moose in her backyard, and avoids interacting with or approaching them.
“It’s fun stuff,” she says. “I've had no negative impact at all from having the moose in my yard other than, you know, people like to stop and watch them and pull into my driveway to look at them.”
White says moose are well-established in the Foothills and have been spotted in Okotoks.
“The River Valley is a corridor,” he says, “and moose in the last 10 years have started to occupy the prairies in Alberta, like east of the Foothills and into the grasslands and such, which is, I think, kind of unusual."
White recalls a moose sighting in Crystal Shores, adding they don't pose much threat to people in most cases, but residents should always avoid contact and exercise caution.
The abundance of wildlife in Foothills County, and the way that the urban environment blends with nature, appeals to many but continues to generate some controversy.
“It's nice to have wildlife in the community, but it can be tough to find a balance,” says White.
