It's humans vs wildlife in booming American West   Jan 27, 2006

By Laura Zuckerman

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Mary Smith used to consider it charming when she saw the occasional mule deer traipsing through this small Idaho town. That was before herds of the long-eared animals native to this remote mountain region began camping out in her yard, eating everything in sight.

"They practically ring the doorbell," Smith said of the bucks, does and fawns that have laid waste to thousands of dollars of landscaping.

Smith's experience is mirrored in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming where land that once served as wildlife habitat is being converted into housing and commercial developments.

The phenomenon is nothing new in urban and suburban America, where high-rises, strip malls and subdivisions long ago sprawled across acreage that used to support wildlife. But in the wide-open spaces of the Northern Rockies, where the deer and the antelope still play, rising conflicts between residents and wildlife are causing fresh consternation.

The leap in human-wildlife encounters coincides with soaring housing starts as increasingly affluent newcomers settle the interior West. Incursions into the communities along the region's scenic river and mountain valleys are pronounced in the winter, when stressed big-game herds leave the high country's deep snows and subzero temperatures to find greener pastures.

From resort communities in central Idaho and southwest Wyoming to Montana's capital city, officials are cracking down on four-legged marauders.

In Salmon, Idaho, residents have greeted the mayor's contention that deer herds are breaking a city law that bans animals from running at large with a mix of praise and guffaws. But the mayor is deadly serious: He wants the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to detain the deer that he says are running amok, even if it means shooting the most egregious offenders.

The proposal has divided the city, with many residents objecting to the prospect of officials being deployed to protect landscaping.

In the exclusive ski community of Ketchum, state game wardens are evicting an elk herd that has made a golf course its winter residence. Former owners of the golf course fed the elk for two decades but new owners plan to develop the area.

Attempts to wean the elk from the site sent the animals careening through neighborhoods in search of tasty treats, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in landscaping and property damage.

WESTERN CULTURE CLASH

Pharmacist Monte Straley, for one, is disturbed by the deportation plan. The Ketchum resident points to the clash in cultures between native Westerners who have made their peace with wild animals and Information Age settlers who enjoy such encounters only from a distance. "They come out West to enjoy the lifestyle, then complain when it inconveniences them, like the elk eating their landscaping," he said.

Game wardens in Helena, Montana, shot a record number of deer in city limits in 2005 after the animals threatened residents, cornering a paperboy and charging pedestrians. Officials instituted the sharp-shooting policy on aggressive deer last year for the first time in the city's history, arguing the animals were endangering the public.

"It's a safety issue," said Helena City Manager Tim Burton. "We've had animals jumping off parking structures, animals crashing through plate-glass windows, animals goring pets to death."

Last month, Helena officials outlawed the intentional feeding of deer, with the maximum penalty $500 and six months in jail.

Wildlife managers say they are hard-pressed to keep pace with the land-use and social changes rippling through the Rockies. While experts are required to submit analyses of the impact sprawl will have on wildlife, developers in the majority of cases are under no obligation to adjust plans to accommodate animals.

Game wardens in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming say that they have become victims of their own success in repopulating game herds hunted to near extinction during the settlement boom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Population gains and cultural transitions in some segments of the West have underscored what Mike Korn, Helena area coordinator for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, calls the "Bambification of wildlife" after Disney's winsome deer.

"On one hand, they are embraced as wild symbols and on the other hand they're looked at as large domestic pets," he said.

Game managers have long frowned on the feeding of wild animals, a practice they say makes them dependent on artificial sources of sustenance and breeds disease. A ban already is in place in Montana. In Wyoming, lawmakers will vote in the upcoming session on legislation that outlaws the feeding of big-game and trophy animals, a measure adopted two years ago in Teton County, which contains the tourist town of Jackson.

Left to their own devices, "some people will love wildlife to death," said Jim Lukens, regional supervisor with Idaho Fish and Game.

 

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