Washington State is looking for deer hunters and cooperative landowners to work together to reduce the burgeoning deer population on Whidbey Island, along with several others in North Puget Sound.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has stated that participating landowners could be paid up to $1,000 for permitting deer hunters onto their properties.

According to the Whidbey News Times, Department wildlife biologist Ruth Milner stated that the overpopulation of black-tailed deer can lead to increased browsing on the local plant species and, “a cascade effect on insects and birds that depend on a robust, layered canopy within the forest.”

The increasing deer population is also causing safety problems with more and more vehicle-deer collisions occurring throughout the islands’ road systems.

Coyotes on the islands do prey on the deer, but their numbers are too low to keep the population in check, according to Milner. Other apex predators, such as wolves, cougars and bears, have not had much presence on the islands for the last hundred years or so.

Hunter numbers are also low on the islands, due to the lack of public hunting land available, Milner said. That’s where this new program fits into the plan. To be involved, a landowner needs to own more than five acres, and they can control how many hunters are allowed, when they can hunt and the specific areas that they can hunt on each property. But, the Department of Fish and Wildlife states that landowners cannot control who is allowed to hunt on their property.

For more information contact Rob Wingard, the private lands access manager at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, at 360-466-4345, ext. 240, or by email at Robert.Wingard@dfw.wa.gov

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