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Deer Letter

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I THOUGHT FEEDING THE DEER WAS PROHIBITED
After over a year's debate, much community angst and a myriad of justifications floated by the anti-deer B Board, remember : "the deer might attack us"; "the deer-borne ticks might make us sick"; "the deer might destroy Ranch habitat"; "the deer are starving-well, they might starve", et al; et al, and supported by fuzzy math "guesstimates" (their word, not mine) from the TX Parks & Wildlife biologist, concerning deer overpopulation on the Ranch, said Board enacted a regulation, with a monetary fine for violation, that feeding of deer was thereafter prohibited. The Board continued to press the need for drastic deer herd reduction-target number of 300 animals- and proceeded to contract with a "professional" to trap & slaughter (oh, excuse me, they prefer to call it the more PC term of " harvest and euthanize") the deer at a minimum cost of $125. per deer-total, initial cost of $37,500 of our hard-earned dues monies. The program to commence about Dec. 1, 2010. Oh yes, the Board and GM then decided that a permanent dues increase would be necessary to finance a continuation of the eradication activities until????.
So, after about six weeks of activity, rumor has it that close to 100 deer have been trapped & slaughtered (sorry, I forgot my PC ness) with the non-edible body parts being buried in shallow trenches in the "barns" area on Ranch property, and, according to one credible resident observer, sometimes left in an open trench to be eaten by buzzards and other scavengers. When the target number of 300 deer is accomplished, some 10,500 lbs. of body parts (est. average of 35 lbs. waste per deer) will have been disposed of in some manner at the barns location. Several occupied residences are mere yards from the disposal site. In addition, two live creeks, that enter into our pristine Lake Greenbrier, are nearby (downhill) from the barns area. Anybody ever hear the term "runoff contamination"?
Anyway, there it is to date. As this letter title asks, " I thought feeding the deer was (is) prohibited". Why then is the Board's hired eradication contractor allowed to place corn-baited traps all over Ranch properties in order to attract more deer onto and about the Ranch in order to bait, trap & slaughter said deer and to have us pay for it? Remember, the Ranch isn't fenced and deer daily move on and off the ranch at will. Sorry if I don't get this convoluted logic. Sounds (to me) like a better deal for the contractor than us Ranchers and conflicts with the goal of permanently reducing the resident deer herd. Granted I'm just an old retired cop and surely not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but, I'm pretty sure that there's some badly flawed logic afoot here. The words "needlessly expensive" and "boondoggle" come to mind! Thanks to my fellow Ranchers and the Gazette for allowing me to herein state my comments and opinions. They are solely mine and not intended to denigrate any individual or entity. Respectfully, Don Milliken HLR resident.

Good letter Don. I would like to hear a response from our Board to this letter. Put it on the Casper site for those with computers and send it to us for those that don't or those who prefer to read it in print. We shouldn't be operating with rumors on a matter such as this. W.C.