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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,June 17, 2019 Page 12 Councilmember Groff agreed and thought the Commission was on the right page as far as what it is doing with the DNR and other agencies. He liked the idea of coming to the Council each year with a report of what is going on. Councilmember Etten appreciated that the Commission had a decision and moved beyond an exact number to talk about a healthy herd. He asked how the Commis- sion would identity that. Commissioner Newby explained there are a number of factors that go into a healthy herd. As part of the DNR and USDA surveys, winters are analyzed for deer that did not survive, body fat, and also takes into account the birth rate. A healthy doe will typically give birth to twin fawns. What was seen over the last few years is that the does reproducing were only giving birth to single fawns and some were not producing at all, which would suggest the herd was less than healthy. Also, there were some external indications the deer that were harvested as a result of reduction were sickly and less than healthy. There are a lot of fac- tors that go into what makes a healthy herd but generally there should be fewer, healthier deer than a lot of deer that are sick. There is a lot of calcullus that goes into it with the DNR but those are the primary factors. Councilmember Etten indicated he appreciated those numbers and wondered if the Commission thought there was a reasonable low-end cap that maybe policy makers would set a low end and then within that, the Commission identifies based on DNR feedback. Commissioner Newby thought that would be the goal. What the Commission would recommend and what the Commission is trying to do is for the City to stick as close as possible to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources recom- mendation recognizing that there are a number of variables. He thought 15 to 19 should be the goal and should not necessarily be a hard and fast number. Mayor Roe thought the Council felt it made sense to allow that process to move forward. He thought the reality of it was that it might mean in the near-term years, there might be more than twenty taken in a given year to help move closer to that healthy population more quickly. But he thought in the out years, it might mean less and some years where nothing would be done. It all depends on how the population stabilizes. Commissioner Newby noted there are a lot of variables but there are a lot of things the City can do to keep it closer to the target goal. Councilmember Etten asked what the end goal would be for the City for citizens to report deer sightings in the City.