Quispamsis council has unanimously voted to increase the number of deer a hunter can kill, or harvest, as part of the deer management program from one to two this fall, joining the neighbouring town of Rothesay which voted this week for the same.
Mayor Gary Clark tells CHSJ News they have seen an alarming number of collisions and near-misses involving deer in their community.
“This is troublesome to me,” says Clark. “We recognize that there are people who love the deer and enjoy seeing them, but we must, and I can’t emphasize enough, we must balance that with the safety of our residents.
“I believe by continuing with the program and increasing the number of tags, we are once again putting the safety of our residents first and we believe this is the right thing to do.”
Last year, a total of 69 deer were killed under nuisance permits within the towns of Quispamsis, Rothesay and Hampton involving 147 hunters.
182 deer last year were killed in traffic collisions which is down quite a bit from previous years, though deer biologist Joe Kennedy has previously told us the harshness of the winters of 2014 and 2015 ‘decimated’ deer numbers and we’ve been seeing the growth since then with the deer population rebounding.
All three communities, Quispamsis, Rothesay and Hampton, have taken part in the deer management program since 2014. Hampton has not yet voted on this.
