After seeing recommendations and opinions of the committee, a member of the Okotoks Urban Deer Task Force is stepping down.
Gabriele Barrie, who runs Okotoks Pound Rescue, said she decided to remove herself from the Town committee as the recommendations come forward, largely because she feels her voice was not being heard at the table and the option to kill the deer was still in play, albeit as a last resort.
“I feel that with my views, I do not belong into this group, and fear that a lot of Okotokians will lose their sense of belonging here, once the task force recommendations have been made next month,” Barrie wrote in her resignation letter to council. “I do not want to be part of this.”
In an interview, she said her involvement in the task force initially was to be part of a group aimed at making decisions to help the animals and residents live harmoniously, while forming strategies to help curb the population – such as proper fencing, prohibiting feeding of the deer, and immunocontraceptives.
Though she loves the deer, she said it was clear the number of them in Okotoks had increased dramatically in recent years and was becoming an issue.
Barrie immigrated to Okotoks 40 years ago, and at the time there were few deer wandering about town, and the ones seen were typically milling about by the granaries along South Railway Street or in the river valley.
“When animals you like become more and more it’s a worry, because sooner or later people won’t tolerate them anymore,” said Barrie. “It’s a concern. Obviously some people are scared of the deer and you cannot just brush that off.
“If people are scared, they’re scared – like some people are scared of big dogs.”
She said as the population increased discomfort levels also rose, and added to that was frustration levels among residents with dogs or gardens they felt were at risk due to the deer population.
At the beginning of the Urban Deer Task Force’s work, Barrie was interested in promoting education and humane solutions to handling the situation, which she said biologists in many studies have indicated is “here to stay.”
The experience was discouraging, she said.
“I went on the task force because I’m interested in all the animals in Okotoks,” said Barrie. “It was really that I was only one against seven others, basically.”
Grant Pryznyk, chair of the Okotoks Urban Deer Task Force, said Barrie had been a solid contributor to discussions for the last 18 months.
"We've always had open discussions on a wide variety of subjects and options that we're considering," said Pryznyk. "I know some of us have agreed with some things and disagree with others, but I can't say much more than that."
While there had been some disagreement on certain issues among members, he said that was part of developing the strategy and ensuring the committee looked at every option available in order to present a comprehensive list of recommendations for council.
That included culling, despite some people taking exception to the idea, because it was something tackled by other western Canadian communities like Kimberley, B.C. Whether it is undertaken in Okotoks is to be determined, but it had to be named as a possibility, he said.
"A lot of places wouldn't go with culling because they wouldn't find it's the ultimate answer," said Pryznyk. "It's just a discussion on an option, it doesn't mean any option like culling is going to be recommended at all, it's just that we have to have that discussion to say we did discuss all the options other municipalities had used and come to our own conclusions based on that and other information we have."
Barrie said Okotoks is in a position to learn lessons from other communities as it strives to reduce its own deer population, such as Oak Bay, B.C., where culling and relocating deer was not successful.
The deer had higher mortality rates and when populations were removed from the town boundaries, other herds moved in and took their place, she said.
There were instances of neighbours setting up traps and then executing deer in their backyards, and she said she doesn’t want to see Okotoks come to that point. In her opinion, the option to kill the deer should be removed from recommended strategies altogether.
Barrie said the first thing the Town should consider is contraceptives, which are administered humanely by sedating the deer, injecting it with birth control, then tagging its ear. It worked in Oak Bay, where numbers of new fawns were reduced, she said.
In addition, the Town should implement a strict no-feeding policy - something Barrie herself was once guilty of.
“It really attracts them,” she said. “And when your neighbours don’t like the deer then it creates hatred. We must not attract them by feeding them.”
To help those who want to protect their garden spaces, she said Okotoks should permit higher fences on residential lots, which is one of the only ways to prevent deer from entering yards.
“There are fences that could really look good,” said Barrie. “I come from Europe and all the yards have high fences. Some with bushes, some not, but these fences can look very nice.”
Okotoks councillors agreed at their March 22 meeting to have Town administration investigate ways to permit temporary fencing, as suggested at its March 8 meeting by Okotoks Garden Club president Susan Russell, such as rebar with fishing line strung across to make four-foot chain link fences higher.
Those options could include an amendment to the land-use bylaw or non-enforcement of the bylaw prohibiting the temporary fences.
“We would come forward with the tools in our toolbox that could achieve these objective, council could choose what they feel is the best tool,” sad Okotoks CAO Elaine Vincent. “What would come back would be the suite of options that would allow for the outcome of temporary fencing to protect gardens, and then there would be a suite of choices that could allow for that to happen.”
The options are expected to come before council April 12. The Urban Deer Task Force will also be presenting its final recommendations in April.
