Township exploring options for controlling deer

By Dana Casadei

For those concerned by the growth of the local white tail deer population in Bloomfield Township, or consider the deer to be a nuisance, a solution may be coming, but not any time soon.

“There is no magic bean for this urban deer discussion,” said Chad Stewart, Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), who spoke at the Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, September 8.

During his informational presentation, Stewart covered the biology of deer, the process each community should consider with urban deer management, and the options. This type of community-based decision about deer management comes with four phases: problem definition, decision making, implementation, evaluation and adaptation, Stewart said.

Before any type of a final decision is made though, the township will have to define what the board and the community want to achieve with this. Defining what solutions they hope to achieve will make for an easier decision among the eight different options Stewart presented, and where they must start.

Of those options, there will be a tough decision to figure out what’s the most important for the community: cost, efficacy, speed, or controversy. Stewart said at best, a solution for controlling deer population will have two, maybe three of those; and it’s very unlikely one option – he presented eight – would have all four.

A few options were eliminated immediately during Stewart’s presentation, like trapping and relocating deer, and reintroducing deer’s predators into the community.

Other options to potentially get the deer population under control in Bloomfield Township that Stewart – who has been a deer biologist for 10 years with the DNR, and involved with white tail deer management – spoke about included hunting the deer through hired sharpshooters or local hunters, trapping and removing the deer, contraception, sterilization, and fencing and repellants.

Each of the eight options comes with their own set of pros and cons, ranging from cost to efficiency and safety concerns. One thing was for certain among the board though, doing nothing was not an option, with treasurer Michael Schostak saying just that.

No solution was selected during the Monday night meeting, but supervisor Mike McCready did seem keen on the idea of gathering more information through a citizen advisory committee.

“I like the idea of a citizen advisory committee to tackle this subject with us much like the road advisory committee,” he said. “I would entertain having them study with us and come back with recommendations.”

Other trustees seemed in agreement, noting how many people came to speak out about the deer population at the board of trustees meeting, and how passionate residents are about the issue.

Public comment at the meeting went on for over 10 minutes, with several residents speaking up about everything from safety concerns and car crashes involving deer, the fear of them spreading Lyme disease – one woman said her dog recently contracted it – to pets and humans, and the costly damage deer are causing to local landscapes and declining yard appeal as well.

“There’s a dual concern for us – car accidents have tripled, and calls have gone way up,” said police chief James Gallagher.

The calls related to deer that the police department have received has nearly doubled over the last decade, going from 246 in 2015 to 469 in 2024. From January to August this year they have gotten 311 calls where deer were mentioned, which is more than they received for the full year from 2015-2018, Gallagher said.

Some of those calls are related to the traffic incidents that happen involving deer in Bloomfield Township, a number that has also seen significant growth.

McCready commented that there’s roughly one traffic incident per week in the township that involves deer; and this past August, there was one week with four separate incidents, an all-time high.

Between Jan. 1, 2015 and Aug. 27, 2025, the police department has taken 747 car vs. deer crashes, with nearly 60 taking place in 2025. In 2022, there were 99, a tremendous increase from the 32 that took place in 2016, officials said.

When it comes to deer management it comes down to biological carrying capacity, which is how many deer the area can support ,where they would be thriving, and how many deer people are willing to deal with, aka the social carrying capacity.

“What we typically see is people get fed up with deer before they reach biological carrying capacity… this community can probably hold more deer,” Stewart said.