Deer are certainly cute and all, but too many of them can make for a real problem. Residents in Roanoke, Virginia, say a growing deer population is destroying gardens, damaging merchandise, and raising the risk of tick-borne disease. Now they want the city to act. Casey Jones, owner of the Townside Gardens nursery in Roanoke, has started a petition asking the city to spend more on deer culling, WDBJ reported, with almost 400 signatures collected so far.
Jones said deer coming down from the woods have been eating the nursery’s plants for two years, destroying hydrangeas and other stock. She said the business loses $500 to $1,000 a week in merchandise when it doesn’t keep up with sprays, granular repellents, and motion-activated deterrents. An eight-foot fence on the back of the property has not stopped the deer, which jump it or walk around onto Franklin Road.
The problem reaches into surrounding neighborhoods as well. Resident Emily Jarrett said it’s not unusual to see 10 or 12 deer together in her yard through spring and summer, eating vegetation they never touched before. She also said she noticed more ticks in her yard and had to deal with a deer carcass decomposing in the woods near her property that the city wouldn’t do anything about.
Jones said the petition is meant to open a conversation with city and state officials about options including more funding, additional kill permits, relocation, and fertility control. She and others plan to attend a Roanoke City Council meeting on July 20. The petition is posted on Change.org and available in hard copy at the Townside Gardens store.
Why Residents Say the Deer Are More Than a Nuisance
The complaints go beyond ruined landscaping. Jones said plants considered deer-resistant are now being eaten as the herd grows and food in the woods thins out, and that gardeners are losing money and interest in a hobby they enjoyed. She said heavy browsing also clears a path for invasive plant species to move into local woodlands.
The health concerns are what several residents stress most. Jones tied the deer to the spread of tick-borne disease in people and a higher risk of chronic wasting disease within the herd itself. City Councilman Phazhon Nash echoed the public-health framing, saying Lyme disease has been rising in the area and linking that to the ticks that travel on deer and end up biting people and pets in their yards.
What the City is Thinking of Trying
Nash said the deer issue has been on his radar and that it’s time for a plan. The city raised its deer culling budget from $40,000 to $65,000 this year, and Nash said he also wants to pursue a local ordinance allowing bow hunting of deer within city limits during hunting season. No deer hunting is currently permitted in Roanoke.
Nash is meeting with the city attorney to see what the council would need to do, and he would model the rules on frameworks already used in Roanoke County and the City of Salem, including a minimum deer-stand height and buffers around schools and public parks.
Any program would still require a hunting license, a hunting-season timeframe, and shooting from a stand so arrows travel downward. Nash also wants to work with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources to set a healthy population target with a bow ordinance in the fall.