Overwhelmed by hungry deer, citizens of Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville will have to be patient as Quebec won’t be able to respond to the overpopulation of the neighboring national park until autumn.
“They have already eaten all of our cedar hedges and are running out of food. You have to go further,” stresses Adam Mizera, who lives near the Mont-Saint-Bruno National Park.
The Journal reported this fall that the park’s surplus white-tailed deer do not hesitate to forage, crossing the streets and ransacking anything in their path, to the great displeasure of residents.
“It’s getting worse and worse,” says Élie Tremblay, another resident who notices the animals have to walk a few blocks away for lack of food.
The situation is unlikely to improve anytime soon as the Société des Establishments de Plein Air du Québec (Sépaq) will not resume slaughtering around 100 surplus animals until the fall of 2023.
The Department of Environment, Combating Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks must first make a regulatory change, Sépaq spokesman Simon Boivin said via email.
Current law prohibits any form of hunting or trapping in Quebec’s national parks.
Too many deer
The park has a density of 15.3 deer per square kilometer, three times the capacity of the ecosystem.
Postponing the response plan could potentially make the situation worse, according to Martin-Hugues St-Laurent, a professor of animal ecology at the University of Quebec at Rimouski.
“If we wait and see instead of acting, we allow the population to continue to grow and move away from the goal,” comments the deer specialist.
Understanding that it is necessary to change the legal framework to start the process, he believes that waiting will end up requiring more effort and costing more.
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