Springfield grapples with deer population

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Springfield officials are taking a closer look at allowing deer hunting inside city limits to help control a deer population that is growing exponentially.

A committee of Springfield City Council members met last week to discuss an urban hunting season, with some appearing to endorse a citywide bow-and-arrow hunt while others were more cautious.

"Everything goes well until it doesn't," said Councilwoman Cindy Rushefsky, who at one point during the meeting challenged her colleagues to consider the possibility of a worst-case scenario in which a child is killed by a wayward arrow, The Springfield News-Leader reported.

A deer-management expert with the Missouri Department of Conservation assured members that urban deer hunting is safe. Since the conservation department started keeping records, there has never been a serious bow-and-arrow hunting injury in Missouri, urban wildlife biologist Brad Jump said.

City Councilman Mike Carroll said he believes it is much more likely for a person to be hurt in a car crash caused by deer than to be hurt in an urban hunting accident.

The newspaper obtained public safety records of car crashes involving deer in Springfield for 2012 and 2013. According to those reports, deer contributed to or caused 30 wrecks in city limits during those two years, with seven people injured.

Most of the wrecks occurred October through December, coinciding with the rutting period, a time when male deer fight for access to females. Also, a majority of the accidents happened in the evening.

Managed deer hunts happen each season near Lake Springfield and Fellows Lake, with 60 deer taken in those two areas since 2009. Those hunts have stabilized the deer population in those areas, Jump said.

But the number of deer in urban areas is growing; in some parts of southeast Springfield, Jump said, deer density is three or four times higher than the conservation department recommends.

Council members said they plan to continue discussing the urban hunting option.