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Jurisdictions struggle over how many deer are enough Sickly animals raise questions about culling as DNR studies issue. By David Peterson Star Tribune May 15, 2017 — 12:46am Dennis Anderson, Star Tribune Some experts have said that there are too many deer in some jurisdictions. An abundance of sickly and undernourished deer in the metro area is raising questions about whether cities are doing enough to keep them healthy by keeping their numbers down. “Ramsey County should have 300 to 400 deer, not the 1,200 to 1,500 that it has,” said John Moriarty, senior wildlife manager at Three Rivers Park District, who lives near Roseville’s deer cull and sees deer often in his backyard. “Ramsey has a lot more deer than \[it\] should.” Under pressure from an outside audit that found shortcomings in the agency’s approach to deer, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is devising its first-ever comprehensive plan to manage the state’s entire deer herd, beyond overseeing hunting. And Topic A — in fact, a topic to be taken up this week at a meeting in Sauk Rapids — is the health of the deer. The DNR planning process, designed to yield a proposal toward the end of this year, is expected to ponder whether the state should take a more proactive role in steering the situation rather than letting often ill-informed local elected officials decide. “It’s challenging,” Moriarty said, “when one city will \[follow expert advice on culling deer\] and another won’t. Because the deer don’t care which side of the road they’re on.” “The DNR needs more boots on the ground to be doing fieldwork,” said Valerie Bombach, project manager for the state Office of the Legislative Auditor. “Some areas of the state could sustain more deer and \[in\] others, some say there are way too many deer. We didn’t see them connecting all the pieces. They should sample deer for signs of poor health. Other states do that.” Feeding ban considered The citizens of Roseville were warned last winter that the sound of muffled gunshots might linger for weeks as sharpshooters thinned out the city’s deer. It turned out that 20 animals were killed at baiting sites on a single evening.