About two dozen Clintonville residents sat attentively in a meeting room at the Columbus Metropolitan Library Whetstone Branch Tuesday as Columbus City Councilwoman Nancy Day-Achauer and her legislative aid, Jacob Dilley, fielded questions about the city's deer population.
One woman in the audience leaned forward.
"We truly have a problem when 10 deer cross High Street all at once in the — I'm going to say "ravine area" — between Clintonville and Worthington, right there, near St. Michael's," the woman said. "Ten at once on a Sunday morning. They were not going to church."
The man behind her chimed in: "And there were not deer there decades ago. I went to St. Michael's."
Others vehemently agreed.
It was the second meeting in Clintonville to discuss the neighborhood's growing deer population. The first, in March, had about 125 attendees.
"Clintonville is where the deer problem is. We have deer everywhere in the city, but it's concentrated in this area," Day-Achauer told WOSU.
About two-thirds of responses in a city survey released earlier this year came from Clintonville, where residents reported property damage and deer-involved vehicle crashes.
Tuesday, Day-Achauer and Dilley outlined a no-feed ordinance that Columbus City Council is expected to vote on next week.
If approved, the law would prohibit anyone in the city from purposely feeding deer with salt licks, nuts, hay or plants on private or public property. It's does not criminalize accidentally feeding deer, as the animals like to munch on decorative plants like hostas, roses or fruit trees.
Law enforcement and state agencies would be exempted from the feeding ban, as would farms, zoos, authorized animal sanctuaries and educational institutes.
"I'm tired of them eating my trees, my plants, hoofing my yard into my garden, scaring my dog."- Bob Thomas, Clintonville resident
Dilley said the law looks to keep deer from congregating and disrupt their patterns. Some neighboring communities, like Worthington, already have no-feed ordinances on the books.
The Columbus Division of Police would respond to complaints and are expected to give warnings before issuing misdemeanor citations and fines.
"If we get a lot of complaints about purposeful deer feeding, that will help identify hotspots where deer are aggregating to feed," Dilley said. "These are also built-in patterns to these deer that has passed down over time through generations of deer lineage. You get taught as a little baby deer that you go to this yard because this yard has the yummy hostas."
Dilley acknowledges that the feeding ordinance will not actually reduce the existing deer population. That will require more extreme measures that don't fit into Columbus City Council's tight budget this year.
Lowering deer populations often involves sharp-shooting programs with trained professionals or municipality-approved community hunting. Those options can be expensive and involve prep work like a formal deer count.
Many area residents at Tuesday's meeting seemed prepared to accept any solution to the deer problem.
"I'm tired of them eating my trees, my plants, hoofing my yard into my garden, scaring my dog," said Bob Thomas.
Thomas said he's lived in the Clintonville neighborhood for four decades, and the deer only became a problem in the last few years.
"I have a great appreciation for nature, and deer are beautiful animals, (but) they don't belong in a civilized community, they create traffic problems, they have their seasons where they are a little aggressive," Thomas said.
Jackie Monter said that her property has become "deer central." She showed Day-Achauer a photo of rut marks on a tree right next to her house.
"I tell you, it's scary," Monter said.
Monter volunteered to participate in an official deer survey if that became an option in the future.
Council meets at 5 p.m. on Monday at Council Chambers on 90 West Broad Street. Council members are slated to vote on the no-feed ordinance then.
