Balgonie-area farmer frustrated by hungry herds of deer

In the 26 years Charlene Werner has lived and worked on her Balgonie-area farm, she can’t remember seeing so many deer on her property.

On any given day, she said she will see anywhere from a couple of deer to herds of 35 or more invading her property, looking for food and eating anything they can find – including some of her beloved trees.

“We moved our livestock feed. We fenced it off. They ate our pea straw bales before I did manage to get them moved. The biggest issue in our yard now … they’re eating our evergreen trees,” she said.

At first the damage wasn’t that apparent, but in December Werner began to notice her evergreen trees were being stripped of their needles several feet from up the ground.

“We started trying to scare them off with air horns and things like that. They’re everywhere in my yard. It’s annoying,” she said.

“They’re there in the morning. They’re there in the afternoon. They come through the driveway and set off that alarm. They’re there at night when we do chores.”

Werner said she and her husband sprayed their trees to try and prevent the deer from eating them, but without success. She said she hasn’t had a dog outside the home in more than a decade, but doesn’t feel it would help scare off the deer at this point.

Video of Balgonie area farmer Charlene Werner’s husband in his grain truck at the end of February. There are at least half a dozen deer surrounding the truck, eating- and seemingly unconcerned about people or vehicles nearby. ⁦@CKOMNews⁩ ⁦@CJMENews⁩ pic.twitter.com/BP562BmkB9

— Lara Fominoff (@LaraFominoff) March 30, 2023

A recent video of Werner’s husband shows several deer eating what appears to be some spilled grain around his truck, and the animals are seemingly unafraid that a running vehicle and people are nearby.

“We have never had this problem in 26 years that we’ve been out there,” said Werner. “We really don’t have any options.”

Werner said she didn’t see nearly as many hunters as usual around their land or area last fall, and that could also be contributing to the deer issues they’re experiencing.

“(It’s) probably due to a lot of factors, including gas prices and permission onto the lands. There’s probably a few factors,” she said.

According to the 2022 Saskatchewan Big Game Draw Results Summary, there were 34,949 mule deer draw applicants, with 9,444 drawn. There were 14,002 applicants for the antlerless mule deer draw and 7,967 names drawn. Not every draw results in an animal being harvested, however.

During the annual Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities convention in Saskatoon, president Ray Orb said his organization has several resolutions asking the province to address wildlife damage, including increasing the number of names drawn and tags handed out.

“This year, I believe what we’re seeing and our board members are seeing, it’s probably the worst-case scenario out there, because we had an early snow. We had a lot of ice,” Orb said.

“Wildlife are really in trouble, so we need to figure out something.”

Premier Scott Moe said some depredation tags may be issued to SARM for certain areas of the province experiencing especially difficult wildlife issues, but he said it’s a short-term solution while the Ministry of Environment considers it a last-resort option.

“We are aware of concerns with elk and deer feeding this time of year,” the ministry said in a statement.

“When we receive complaints, we ensure they are shared with wildlife biologists to be considered during the hunting season setting process. If population and field report data suggest deer or elk populations are increasing beyond normal levels, the Ministry of Environment will issue additional hunting licences or implement additional antlerless seasons to help reduce populations.”

So far, Orb and Werner say that hasn’t helped.

“In the long term, I think we have to have a better management plan for wildlife, and it is also increasing limits, especially mule deer,” said Orb.

Orb said an open season in some areas of the province might be one of the solutions, so deer populations are better controlled.

–Editor’s Note: This story has been updated. Not all the deer affecting Werner’s farm are mule deer.