Deer a growing problem in N.E. suburbs

KINGSTON, N.H. – Parts of northern New England are suffering from a surplus of deer, to the annoyance of some residents and business owners.

“They are like giant rodents,” said Richard Senter, who owns Kingston Nurseries. “It’s a terrible, terrible problem.”

Senter’s wife, Rachel, said the couple has been tolerating the animals for a while now, but have lost hundreds of young trees to their voracious appetites.

“We have been subsisting for many years with the deer. But now it has gotten so bad the plants don’t come back. After years of growing yews and arbor vitae, we cannot grow certain trees anymore,” she said. “It’s a huge economic issue.”

The Senters said deer have eaten the tops off hundreds of shrubs and trees at their nursery, ruining plants that can cost between $32 and $100 each. They say this year alone they have lost thousands of dollars’ worth of plants.

And they are not the only ones having problems.

As southern New Hampshire’s deer population grows, the animals are learning to thrive in neighborhoods and subdivisions – the construction of which drove away natural predators such as coyotes.

Deer feel so comfortable with people they will stand beneath windows in a home and eat shrubs, said Robert Calvert, a wildlife damage specialist for the state Fish and Game Department.

He said the southern part of the state is not hunted as heavily as areas farther north, leading to a steady rise in the population in recent years.

“Deer are very adaptable. They have good survival skills,” Calvert said. “They will lie down between two houses in hunting season because they seem to know hunters cannot shoot in a developed area.”

He also said deer are not going deep into the woods in summer, as they typically would, because food is plentiful in new developments, which often are built across paths deer traditionally follow through the woods for generations.

Kip Adams, state Fish and Game Department deer project leader, said the number of deer in the Rockingham County region is a third higher than target levels.

“While we are trying to increase the deer herd in other parts of the state, we are trying to decrease our deer herd in that area,” he said. “The deer population is quite a bit above where we would like it.”

He estimated the number of deer in the area at 8,200; the goal is a maximum of 5,600.

Deer invasions in suburban areas also have been a problem in Maine, said Gerry LaVigne, a deer biologist with the state Fish and Game Department.

“Anywhere from Brunswick down the coast to Kittery and you’ll find a large swath of land where deer live,” he said. “There are also a surprising number of deer problems in Maine’s larger cities.”

Many towns in southern Maine have experienced a population boom in recent years, with housing developments springing up in areas where deer have lived for decades, he said.

“Deer don’t wander into suburbia, they live and die there,” he said. “Their habitat isn’t destroyed, it’s just that it’s been altered, and people and deer have to share the same woods.”

In addition to coming into yards to nibble in gardens, deer also pose a health threat, LaVigne said – deer ticks are notorious carriers of Lyme disease.

While he said homeowners could install fences and spray repellents to deter deer, LaVigne said the best way to curb deer problems is to reduce their numbers through hunting.