Birth control approach to reducing Bloomington deer population discussed

Four members of the deer task force — the 11-member advisory group that formed more than two years ago to study solutions to the city’s deer overpopulation problem — held an hourlong teleconference with Stephanie Boyles Griffin, senior director of wildlife response, innovations and services for the human society, Monday afternoon to receive input on the city’s deer issues. During the conference, Boyles Griffin talked about how other communities have used methods such as birth control and sterilization to control their urban deer, while task force members noted that those methods are likely not feasible in Bloomington.

Monday’s teleconference came ahead of three other meetings planned for Wednesday through Oct. 2, in which the task force members are expected to finalize a lengthy report and recommendations for managing the deer. That report will be presented to city and county officials late next month. Expected to be included in those recommendations, task force member Dave Rollo told Boyles Griffin in the teleconference, are a “palette of lethal and nonlethal solutions” including feeding bans, fence height recommendations, planting deer-resistant vegetation and ways of shooting the deer.