Letter: Deer population falling too quickly

For a brief moment I thought the Island Packet was on a deer-killing spree after reading Sunday's article "Bang for the Buck." Blatantly missing were some of the most important statistics reported by Charles Ruth, S.C. Department of Natural Resources deer biologist.

First and foremost, our deer population is down 30 percent, much of this due to herbicide treatments that suppress vegetation when land is cleared.

Second, deer fawns up to the age of 10 months are being slaughtered by coyotes. Yes, we do have coyotes here in the Lowcountry. And third, deer hunting still remains at an all-time high.

For these reasons and others, eight of the 16 communities involved in the SCDNR Deer Maintenance Program that were mentioned in Sunday's article have decided not to cull (kill) the deer this winter.

Our deer population is diminishing all too quickly. Ruth stipulates that bills have been introduced in the state Legislature to address the decline in deer populations, but that change is slow to come. We moved here to live in harmony with nature; let's not kill the deer that remain.

Doreen Fekner

Bluffton

This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 8:54 AM with the headline "Letter: Deer population falling too quickly."