Deer culling divides Bluffton neighborhood: ‘It’s like a slaughter’
Neighbors in the woodsy Bluffton community of Rose Hill are at odds over the culling of 141 deer, a move seen as necessary by the property owners’ association but considered an overreach or even a “slaughter” by others.
Residents of the bucolic community divided by U.S. 278 voted in favor of culling deer by a small majority, after a petition against a board decision to selectively kill the animals forced a vote. The community’s POA says the deer population was too high, and a surveyor they hired says the same.
But some neighbors said they question the POA’s methods and are waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of gun shots.
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources came to Rose Hill and said the deer population was too dense, POA board president Sue Wolford said.
Last fall, the POA commissioned wildlife conservationist and manager Charles J. Tims to survey its deer population. Over the course of two days, Tims’ team found 281 deer in Rose Hill — 100 on the north side of the neighborhood, and 181 on the south side. The team was also hired to perform the cull itself.
With few natural predators and a high fawn-to-doe ratio suggesting some does are producing twins and triplets, deer can’t live healthy lives in the Rose Hill woods at the current rate, the survey said.
The POA board decided to take up the issue in 2025 after years of hesitancy, despite its controversial and emotional nature, Wolford said.
“I have seen deer come by with a broken leg, or a compound fracture in my yard. People have had dead deer in their front yards and backyards. The company that takes away dead animals said it took 14 dead deer out of Rose Hill in a year,” she said. “We said, ‘you know guys, we need to do something about this.’”
The population density on both sides was “very high,” Tims wrote in a Nov. 16 letter to the POA. A minimum of 20 acres per deer is suitable for Rose Hill, he said, and the neighborhood has 7.9 acres of foliage per deer on the north side and 3.5 acres per deer on the south side.
But some neighbors have raised concerns about Tims’ business practices and questioned why he was called in to do both the survey and the cull itself.
Concern grows over number of deer killed
When the Rose Hill board voted to approve culling late last year, many neighbors were outraged. Resident Joy Coe started a petition to force the board to either repeal its motion, or put it to the community for a vote, in accordance with Rose Hill’s covenants. Neighbors voted in favor of the cull by a small margin.
Nancy York, who has lived in Rose Hill for over a decade, said people who owed money to Rose Hill didn’t get to vote. York said she’s not against the culling, but she is concerned with the number of deer that are being culled and how the POA has communicated throughout the process.
“I do believe we should have some semblance of culling. But it shouldn’t be this crazy. It’s like a slaughter,” she said.
Tims’ business wasn’t incorporated at the time of the survey, York said, and the count was completed in one day for each side. Other communities have taken weeks to do deer surveying, she said.
State records show Tims Properties LLC was registered Jan. 6, after the survey was done. A phone call to Tims was not returned. Surveying processes are typically completed by an outside entity, like a private consulting wildlife biologist, but the final decision is ultimately up to the POA, the SCDNR told WSAV news.
Wolford said 65% of the ballots that went out during the vote were returned, and that hiring Tims to do both the surveying and the culling is not a conflict of interest. Tims, she said, is a wildlife specialist who would probably rather be doing conservation and educational programs. But he also understands deer culling is a “necessity” to get to those things, she said.
“He’s definitely trying to get the Rose Hill community into a spot where we have a balance in our ecosystem,” she said.
Typically, SCDNR caps deer culls within a single community at 80, Wolford said. But Rose Hill is divided by U.S. Route 278, so two permits were issued to address two separate herds of deer, she said. SCDNR did not return multiple emails from the Island Packet requesting information about typical deer culling processes or Rose Hill’s permits.
Neighbors not told when culling happening
The culling is ongoing until March 1, but the POA hasn’t told neighbors when, where and for how long it will happen, beyond saying it’ll be in the evening and in the middle of the night. Wolford said this is for safety reasons; the POA was told not to provide specifics for fear of people trying to interfere.
But the uncertainty has caused emotional distress for York, who said she’s woken up in the middle of the night to the sound of gunshots. On Valentine’s Day, she was on the phone with a friend around 8:30 p.m. and heard five shots. Spots of blood have been sighted on paved pathways, she said.
“I feel like every night that I go to bed, I’m going to be traumatized again, and I’ve been through a lot in my life,” she said. “I can’t walk in my backyard at night, because I don’t know if they’re culling over there.”
Lauren Martel, another Rose Hill resident, said residents have complained about bright lights being flashed into their homes, disturbing people and their pets.
“It’s really been an overreach into private enjoyment of our property,” she said.
Wolford said the board was told by DNR to not tell people days or times of the culling because of potential interference.
“They have found out when Tims’ properties are going to be out there, and they go out with cars, trucks and loud horns to scare away the deer,” she said. “Residents have continued to interfere with the process in every way possible ... they have been very creative, I’ll say that.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 5:00 AM.