Politics & Government

Ross Feeding-Ban Proposal Gains Second Wind; Targets Deer Feeding

The ordinance, if passed, would be the first of its kind in the state — and the second time Ross Township has debated passing it.

A small statue of a spotted fawn is nestled in the foliage of Karla Maruca’s backyard garden. Frozen and lifeless, it is the only deer seen on a recent afternoon. But signs that others have been there are everywhere.

Across Maruca’s backyard and front yard in the Kinvara Plan in Berkeley Hills and throughout her garden beds are footprints. Droppings are found a few feet from her back deck and the hunting stand she has installed in one of her trees. Trees are stripped of greenery on their lower trunks, and flowers and bushes across the yard are gnawed to the woody stems.

The deer usually come every day — six regularly, three doe with their three fawn, but sometimes it can be as many as 10 or 12. They ignore the items she throws at them from her deck. When her neighbor recently installed a patio, the deer sat in the nearby trees and watched the workers lay the brick, she said.

“They could not get over this,” she said. “This is not natural.”

For four years, Maruca has been working to find some way to control the neighborhood nuisance. She chairs the Ross Township Deer Management Committee, which plans in the fall to present the township’s board of commissioners with an ordinance that would ban the feeding of certain wildlife.

Targeted primarily at deer feeding, the local law would be the first of its kind in the state — and the second time Ross Township has debated passing it. A proposed feeding ban in 2008 failed in a 4-4 vote before the commission, with one member absent.

Gary Fujak, the local wildlife conservation officer for the Pennsylvania Game Commission and an advocate for the feeding ban, said he was optimistic this time around. The nine-member deer management committee formed in 2010, sparked by the failure of the first proposal, and has worked to craft a more palatable version. Wards 1, 2, 5, 7, 8 and 9 are represented on the committee.

“I believe more people are involved,” he said, adding that the 4-4 vote in 2008 was so close that the issue was worth revisiting.

“I believe there is a renewed interest in it.”

Township commissioners are wary.

“I’m convinced there’s an even split in the township, 50 percent want us to control it and 50 percent want us to keep our nose out of it,” said Dan DeMarco, who represents the 1st Ward. “That’s what makes the issue very difficult.”

DeMarco voted with Commissioners Gerald O’Brien of the 7th Ward, Grant Montgomery of the 9th Ward, and Chris Eyster of the 2nd Ward in favor of passing the ban in 2008.

Now, he said, he’s leaning the other way.

“I have some concerns that maybe it could cause some animosity between those who feed the deer and those who don’t want the deer fed,” he said. “We’ve got a lot more important issues to worry about.”

Commissioner Lana Mazur, of the 4th Ward, was absent at the vote in 2008. She said she is not in favor of the idea.

“It would pit neighbor against neighbor,” she said, echoing the concerns of Commissioners Dan Kinross of the 3rd Ward and David Mikec, of the 6th Ward, both of whom voted against the proposal in 2008.

Commissioner Grace Stanko of the 5th Ward also voted against the idea in 2008. She said she relies on feedback from her constituents and hasn’t floated the idea of a ban recently.

“I haven’t made those phone calls,” she said. “I can’t say how I’m going to go.”  

Commissioner Peter Ferraro, of the 8th Ward, also voted against the ordinance in 2008. But this time, there's a chance he'll vote for it, he said. He said he makes his decision on how to vote based on the feedback he receives from the people he represents. So far, he's heard more from those in favor than against. 

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"I'm probably leaning toward supporting it," he said. "But me personally, I personally love the deer. The other morning I went out to get my newspaper and there was a buck in my yard that was just magnificent. Even though they eat my flowers, eat my hostas, it doesn't bother me." 

Maruca said the deer management committee is being sensitive to the criticisms heard during the first debate, and the revised ordinance, which is still  and may continue to see revisions, is taking a broader approach, addressing not just deer feeding but also the feeding of other wildlife, such as fowl, raccoons, feral cats and skunks.

With one exception.

“We will not regulate bird feeding,” Maruca said. “Bird feeding is totally out of here.”

Enforcement of the ordinance is the biggest sticking point at the moment, she said. The draft ordinance proposes a written warning first. If that doesn’t stop the problem, the person violating the ordinance could be cited and fined from $50 to $300 for each offense, plus court costs.

She said she understands concerns about using police manpower but said she believes the very fact of the law will make a difference in people’s perception of the practice.

“Hopefully this isn’t going to get that far [where police need to be involved],” she said. “We want to stop it up front.”

The ordinance is necessary, Maruca, Fujak and other advocates said, because feeding contributes to an unnaturally large population, creating traffic hazards, property damage and increasing the risk that diseases will spread as wildlife concentrates at artificial feeding areas.

It is the first step to an overall township deer management plan, they said.

No numbers are easy to come by to quantify the deer population in the Kinvara Plan in Berkeley Hills — or across Ross Township. The township police department responded to around 217 total calls for service related to deer in 2010, down slightly from the previous year’s 240. The numbers have not varied much from 2008, with 197 calls, and 2007, with 236 calls.

In that four-year-period, 14 percent of the calls included reports of vehicle collisions with the deer. The number of those reported has been increasing slightly year over year, with 42 reported in 2010, compared with 32 in 2009 and 26 in 2008.

Nearly 70 percent of the total calls during that four-year period were related to deer that were found injured or dead. The numbers are according to a prepared by Ross Police Chief Robert Bellan in January.

As for property damage, Maruca, through her own tracking of complaints she fields, said Wards 1, 2 and 9 are those with the biggest deer issues. She has gathered around 40 complaints since the fall of 2010.

There is some evidence as well that the deer may be causing damage to the township parks, according to by a service forester with the Pennsylvania Department of Forestry.

The report, dated Aug. 26, 2010, said that 78 percent of the more than 200 acres of park land was in danger of not replacing itself if it suffered significant damage.

That’s in part due to invasive plant species — and in part due to the white-tailed deer, said the forester, Michael DiRinaldo.

“The high deer population on these lands result in native vegetation being eaten while the non-native invasive plants are left to grow,” he said in the report.

Fujak said he wished he could define the number of deer to quantify the problem and make it easy to picture.

“People always want to know, how many deer,” he said.

But that hard data doesn’t exist, he said, not in any clean form, at least.

“It all comes down to if the residents of Ross or West View feel there is a problem,” he said.

This story was updated at about 3 p.m. Saturday to include the thoughts of Commissioner Peter Ferraro, of the 8th Ward. 

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