The urban deer issue in Invermere will finally see some action in 2015, with Invermere council having made the deer cull operational earlier and the district having secured a permit for the cull in 2014.
“It is likely (deer will be culled) if we get complaints about aggressive deer,” said Invermere chief administrative officer Christ Prosser.
Invermere council voted in May 2014 to make proceeding with a deer cull operational (allowing district staff to go ahead and work on the cull) with a cap of no more than 30 deer culled each year and with costs of the cull capped at $30,000 a year. A permit from the provincial government was necessary, since the deer are technically jurisdiction of the provincial government.
Prosser said that there no specified time for the cull, and that complaints from residents will allow the district to target problem deer in specific neighbourhoods.
Volunteers who were members of the previous deer committee carried out Invermere’s annual deer count two weeks ago, on Saturday, November 29th, counting a total of 165 deer in the district.
“That’s about average compared with other years, given the temperature and time of day (morning). It was a really cold day,” said Prosser, speaking on the number of deer.