County to explore ways to reduce feeding of wildlife

Thompson spoke before the Wasco County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday, Dec. 7, where he encouraged county commissioners to consider adopting a wildlife ordinance to prohibit the feeding of deer and other problematic animal populations by residents within the county.

“So what we’re trying to address is ongoing feeding issues that we see within many of our rural communities, ” Thompson explained.

Disease outbreaks

“The primary driver for the conversation today is ongoing disease issues that we see, primarily within deer, associated with these rural communities,” Thompson said. Feeding is problematic in a number of areas of Wasco County, including Maupin, Pine Hollow and Rock Creek, then south The Dalles in the Cherry Heights area and west of The Dalles on Sevenmile hill. “These are areas where we have had some specific issues pop up,” he explained.

“We see people feeding deer, and that creates concentrations of deer that are helping spread these diseases,” Thompson told commissioners. “These create a suite of different issues.”

Of primary concern is “Adenovirus/Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease,” a blood disease similar to bluetongue in cattle with a high fatality rate and unknown long-term consequences. The disease shows up most often in arid climatic conditions, and in 2015 an outbreak saw a “pretty major die off within the local area,” he said. Such outbreaks have since continued to occur, especially in areas where the deer are being fed. “The majority of these mortalities are within these rural communities where we tend to see members of the community feeding deer,” Thompson said. “These unnatural concentrations of deer lead to spread of the disease, which is passed by nose-to-nose contact. Having these concentrations of deer has been shown through science to be part of the problem.”

Since the 2015 outbreak, “we’re not seeing the fawn production amongst our local deer herd. It’s gone down by almost 25% annually.”

Another issue among local deer herds is deer hair loss syndrome. “We see a lot in the Sevenmile Hill area; this is an exotic hair loss that is also spread through that unnatural concentration of deer.”

Deer aren’t the only wildlife impacted by disease issues, Thompson added. Skunks and raccoons can also become overly concentrated through feeding. Raccoons are of particular concern because they carry diseases that primarily affect pets, but can also be an issue for humans. These include round worms, canine distemper, parvo virus and others. “These are very common and can be spread by raccoons,” he said, which become concentrated in areas where they are being purposefully fed, or are attracted to pet food left outdoors.

Other issues

In addition to disease spread, feeding wild animals can also lead to conflicts between neighbors, because unnaturally large populations of an animal drawn in by one resident can have negative effects on nearby property owners. “We see a lot of conflict from that,” Thompson said, especially around the feeding of wild turkeys. Large flocks can gather, wrecking havoc on yards and gardens over a large area.

Feeding turkeys is especially troublesome now, with high levels of avian influenza being seen throughout the region, Thompson added.

Predator issues

High populations of deer in semi-urban areas can also attract predators to a community, Thompson said. “Mountain lions tend to follow their prey. By creating a community where deer readily interact with our housing environments, their predators follow them in,” Thompson noted. “They’re hunting those animals in our backyards. So indirectly, we’re encouraging more use within our rural communities by mountain lions, because we’re feeding the deer and encouraging them to be in our yard.”

Urban coyote populations are also on the rise, Thompson noted.

Herd quality

Thompson, who has worked in the Gorge area for more than 20 years, said long term feeding has even changed the behavior and general health of deer in the region.

“We’re altering their life history traits, so we’re seeing fewer and fewer deer migrate on an annual basis,” Thompson noted. “That has long term biological effects. Studies have shown that deer that do not migrate have lower summer survival than deer that do migrate. So there’s advantage for deer to follow that natural food source.”

Thompson added that as ODFW officers respond to deer issues within these rural communities, the deer they see are not in good condition. “The diet they’re being fed is not proper for their digestive system,” he explained.

Processed feeds are incomplete, and like hay alone are not good for a deer. Deer need a very diverse diet throughout the year, to enable them to put on those stores of winter body fat, Thompson explained. “So we see lower overall body condition, because those deer are now staying within communities and not following that traditional migration.”

Solutions

For the past 10 years, local ODFW officials have worked on outreach, talking about the negative effects of feeding wildlife, both individual in meetings hosted by the agency, Thompson said.

“The first question you hear in one of those meetings is, ‘Is it illegal?’ So having a county ordinance in place adds another talking point as we’re working with communities to achieve what is biologically appropriate for the species.”

Why feed deer?

Why do people feed deer? Some people simply feel the deer need help and that they are hungry. Others have a simple desire to have them in their yard. Many people just don’t understand the harm they are doing.

Near the White River Wildlife Area, and the community of Wamic, wildlife officers are often called upon to remove dead deer people find in their yards.

Frequently, those deer died from being fed improperly. “It’s pretty easy to kill that animal, feeding them the wrong thing,” Thompson said. “Throughout the winter period, once every week or two, you’re picking up a deer in somebody’s yard and having to explain that what they thought was a kind act most likely caused the animals ultimate demise.”

Moving forward

Following the presentation by Thompson, commissioners reached a consensus to partner with local ODFW personnel in working out a draft resolution or ordinance, which could then be brought forward for public input and discussion.

Although some cities have passed ordinances prohibiting wildlife feeding within city limits, no similar county-wide ordinance has yet been adopted in Oregon, Thompson said. Such an ordinance will have to address agricultural practices which could be inadvertently impacted if no allowances were made for them, such as outdoor cattle feeding or other agriculture activities that also attract or concentrate wildlife.