Not a Eureka! moment

This problem is only going to get worse

Monday, March 11, 2013

THE ON-again, off-again, on again deer hunt in Eureka Springs, Ark., was finally on this past deer season. Hopes were high. At last something would be done about all these deer in town.

The state’s archery-hunting season was over on the last day of February. So town officials gathered ’round, and tried to figure out how many deer were taken out of circulation after Eureka Springs’ first archery hunt. After all, the season had lasted the better part of four months.

Surely the herd pestering townfolks could be thinned out a bit. Or more than a bit.

So the kill count started.

One . . . two . . . three . . .

Eureka Springs isn’t exactly unique when it comes to its Bambi problem. And the critters are a problem. Cars run over them in the streets. They eat up gardens. Deer are nice to look at, but too many of them and a town can be overrun with the critters. So the people of Eureka Springs voted to let bow hunters clear some of them out within the city limits.

Six . . . seven . . . eight . . .

It’d be hard to blame citizens for wanting an archery-only hunt in their picturesque little city, which caters to the tourist trade. And bow hunting is certainly safer than hunting with firearms. No letters, please. There’s really no debate about that assertion. Archers have to be much closer to game, which means the hunters are not as likely to misidentify something and take out a golden retriever in somebody’s fenced in backyard.

Arrows and bolts don’t go as far as bullets, either, which lessens the chance of other mistakes. And bow strings don’t go KA-CHOW, OW, OW, OW! like a 30.06, so no tourists would be dropping to the ground, breaking souvenirs and, later, writing nasty letters to the chamber of commerce.

Nine . . . ten . . . eleven . . .

So how many deer were taken out of the herd in and around Eureka Springs? How many deer are not going to be munching on tomato gardens this summer? How many deer have been taken off the streets? Literally.

Twelve.

Yes, an even dozen. (Compare that to the nearly 300 taken in this year’s urban deer hunt at Fairfield Bay near Greers Ferry Lake.) Twelve. That should dent the herd in Eureka Springs by . . . not much.

You’d think that since the state gave hunters 50 tags for the Eureka Springs hunt, it’d be easy enough to fill those tags. After all, city deer are used to people being around. Another house ape in the park isn’t likely to scare off a city deer. (Hey, what’s that one holding?Looks like a string and a stick-) THE STORIES in the paper mentioned one detail almost in passing. One of the aldermen in Eureka Springs said the hunt wasn’t helped much by people harassing hunters, and frightening off the deer by beating pots and pans.

Yes, that would probably interfere with a deer hunt.

We hope those who-in the alderman’s words-participated in that “moronic illegal behavior” don’t have tomato gardens to worry about this summer. If they do, maybe they could sit outside between dusk and dawn each day beating their pots and pans to keep the deer away. They already have practice at it.

Such foolishness doesn’t help solve the problem. If the pan-beaters think they have a better solution, they should present it to the city council, complete with a way to carry it out and pay for it, and then get enough voters to the polls to approve it. Otherwise, they ought to stay out of the way. And let hunters do the job that nature, and the pan-beaters, haven’t been able to.

Editorial, Pages 12 on 03/11/2013