The Forest Preserve District of Will County is planning its winter deer management program, including some preserves where nearby residents have opposed the program but officials say increased deer population requires it.
Forest preserves in the deer management program will include Messenger Woods and Messenger Marsh in Homer Glen, Hickory Creek Preserve in Mokena, Goodenow Grove in Beecher, Thorn Creek Nature Preserve in Park Forest, Lockport Prairie Nature Preserve in Lockport and Plum Valley Preserve in Crete.
Messenger Woods and Messenger Marsh were included in the district’s inaugural deer management program in 2010 but dropped after residents asked the district to stop culling deer. The preserve was added again for this winter because of the increasing deer population.
District officials check which preserves have an overpopulation of white-tailed deer, which can lead to problems within the ecosystem if left unchecked, said Ralph Schultz, executive director of the forest preserve district. Too many deer browsing can lead to fewer nesting areas for birds, loss of food and lack of protection for other animals, increased sedimentation in streams and creeks and increased flooding as topsoil is washed away, he said.
Deer in areas where the herd is overpopulated tend to be in poor health and could suffer from disease, Schultz said.
“We protect the land and all the species on it,” Schultz said. “One species cannot get out of sync.”
When the deer are overpopulated, it can drastically change the environment around it, taking the ecosystem out of its equilibrium, Schultz said.
The district uses aerial photos to count deer. When the deer density gets too great, certified sharpshooters kill a select number of deer to reduce their population to a more manageable level, Schultz said. The deer meat is then processed and donated to the Northern Illinois Food Bank, he said.
He said the approach is humane because sharpshooters have to be able to kill a deer with one shot and must be certified by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
Randy Juras, a member of Citizens Against Ruining the Environment, Will County’s oldest environmental organization, said alternatives need to be researched before deer are killed.
Juras, a Lockport resident and former member of Homer Glen’s environment committee, cited a 2012 advisory referendum in Homer Glen where voters, by about a 2-to-1 margin, said they opposed the forest preserve’s deer culling program. He asked that the forest district respect the residents’ vote.
“The deer come into my backyard,” he said. “The grandkids love them. They don’t bark. They don’t bite. They are not a nuisance. At what point do you value the environment around us?”
Juras said alternatives such as a sterilization program that would minimize deer reproduction should be considered. The forest preserve district could also fence some of its new saplings so they aren’t tempting for the deer to eat. Policies should also be enacted so deer’s natural predators aren’t being killed, he said.
“It isn’t the deer’s fault we no longer have wolves or bobcats,” he said. “We pushed them out. “Shouldn’t it be our responsibility to care for what we left behind?”
Joseph Turrise, another member of Citizens Against Ruining the Environment and a member of the Sierra Club, agreed that alternatives to killing deer need to be explored.
“It’s not OK to take a life needlessly, whether human or animal,” Turrise said.
Schultz said the district has looked into other methods of deer management, but they are expensive and not as effective.
The forest preserve aims to have about 10 deer per square mile of land, but has detected 80 deer or more per square mile in some of its preserves, Schultz said.
Messenger Woods, for instance, has more than 55 deer per square mile since 2018, which is why it was reintroduced to the program.
Countywide, the district plans to cull 250 deer, with the majority taken in Hickory Creek Preserve, Thorn Creek Nature Preserve and Goodenow Grove Nature Preserve.
Mokena assistant village administrator Kirk Zoellner said when the forest preserve initiated the deer management program a decade ago some residents were concerned over safety and who was going to be responsible for shooting the deer. Residents took ease when they learned that trained sharpshooters were responsible for the culling, and the village has not received calls either for or against the culling of deer in recent years, he said.
Becky Blankenship, a wildlife ecologist with the forest preserve district, said the district charts deer trends to monitor deer reproduction and movement.
Many of the forest preserves are on a downward trend, meaning they are closer to hitting the target of 10 deer per square mile, but deer in the Messenger Woods and Hickory Creek areas have been increasing, Blankenship said.
The multiyear process is working, she said. Forest preserve district officials point to Raccoon Grove Nature Preserve in Monee as one of its success stories where the target deer population has been reached, Blankenship said.
“It’s not just killing deer to manage the deer,” she said. “It’s to maintain an ecosystem.”
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
