Clifton Deer Round Two Coming Soon!
It’s Fall, a time of crisp cool air, leaves turning colors, bringing in the porch furniture, and fencing off the small trees to protect them from rambunctious rutting bucks! To folks working on the Clifton deer project, it means gearing up for the second round of deer sterilizations.
Soon volunteers will be leafleting property owners inside the study area (bordered by Clifton Ave, Ludlow, and I-75), setting up and tending bait stations, readying the field surgical facility, and, of course, asking for donations!
This Fall (2016), we hope to treat last year’s female fawns, the does missed last year, and any new immigrants, with a goal of reaching at least 95% of all does in the study area. Teams of wildlife biologists, veterinarians, and volunteers will again work long nights, hoping this year to finish in just three days. Once again, The Humane Society of the United States will be participating in our field operations.
Field operations will be followed by a two week field camera population survey. Close examination of literally thousands of pictures from strategically located cameras will enable our consulting wildlife biologist to estimate with high reliability how many deer are in the study area and, most importantly, how many have immigrated into it over the past year. Thus, the project will have its first empirical data to begin to answer the all-important question of how effective fertility control can be in managing deer populations in open settings like ours. Fingers and toes are crossed!
Again, the capture process will occur at night when deer are active and humans are less so. Like last year, all operations will be coordinated closely with the Cincinnati police. Flyers will be left at houses within the study area providing the dates of the operations and names and phone numbers, including CPD’s, for residents with questions or concerns that might arise before or during the sterilization operations.
Last year went very smoothly and we anticipate this year will also. As previously reported, last year’s field observations, confirmed by the camera survey, showed almost twice as many deer as estimated based on the Parks aerial infrared surveys, making this second year more expensive than originally planned – although our costs are still about 25% lower than last year’s. Right now, the project needs about $15,000 more to meet its Year 2 budget. Grant applications are pending with three foundations, but individual donations remain an important source of our funding.
Thanks to a generous $5,000 challenge grant from The Animal Welfare Institute, now is the perfect time to make your donation! Best for the project (since with no credit card processing fees, 100% goes to the budget) are checks made out to CliftonDeer.org and sent c/o Laurie Briggs, Treasurer at 724 Lafayette Ave.,
Cincinnati, OH 45220. Perhaps an easier way is to donate through our website at
http://cliftondeer.org/donations/. Every dollar you contribute is tax deductible and
goes directly to pay for our out of town wildlife biologist and veterinarian team and
for direct expenses, like corn for bait stations. There are also other “painless” ways to contribute described on that donations page, such as designating CliftonDeer.org as your charity of choice with Kroger.
The support of our friends and neighbors has been and continues to be much appreciated.
If you aren’t following us on Facebook, we invite you to do so at https://www.facebook.com/CliftonDeer.org/
The Team at CliftonDeer.org