A photo of a timber wolf walking on school grounds went viral, shared over 1,000 times online, and discussed at Monday’s meeting of the Ely School Board.
Obviously, having a wolf walking around where children are playing is not ideal, but the wolf is just a symptom of the real problem. We need to reduce the number of deer in the Ely city limits.
This decision needs to be made by the Ely city council ASAP. We’ve advocated for a twostep process and both can be decided on right away.
First, ban all deer feeding in town. This should be an easy decision. Encouraging deer to live in town by feeding them so they keep crossing streets and avenues is unsafe. We’re lucky no one has gotten hurt yet. But it will happen, or at the very least, more work for the auto body shop.
Deer are wild animals and can definitely survive without 50-pound bags of corn being poured on the ground. Wild animals need to live in the woods and feed on natural foods. Yes, that applies to bears as well.
The second decision is not as easy but it is the key to reducing the population. We’ve heard reports of 21 deer feeding near the Pioneer Mine at the same time. How many is too many? Would it be 31, 51 or 101? How about 201?
Cities are allowed to have in-town deer hunts, and this has been done right in our area, including in Tower, Cook, and Aurora. Cities like Duluth hold hunts every year. It can be done.
There are rules that need to be in place including a limit on the number of permits, archery only, a proficiency test and the permission of land owners.
Here are some of the reasons why Aurora has held in town hunts:
• Implement a cost-effective, safe strategy to reduce deer population for the long term.
• Reduce the potential for disease due to overpopulation.
• Increase hunting pressure on antlerless deer to decrease reproduction.
• Reduce vehicle collisions and property damage.
• Reduce garden, tree and shrub damage.
• Reduce the “refuge effect” - movement of deer into town during firearms season.
These all make sense and they apply here. We will add in reducing the number of wolves in town. Let’s get going.
