LASD Board Meeting, December 12, 2022: School Forest No Place to Shoot Deer

[XLFD]

The agenda packet of the regular December meeting for the Ludington Area School District (LASD) Board was very light on official acts, so much so that the main topic of discussion and action was to reconsider an action the board took back in October after introducing it at that meeting.

Absent Board member Leona Ashley, they would make the last bond payment (just under $900,000) in regard to the elementary school construction, they would also officially sell the gifted lot at 510 Sixth Street, presumably for the reasonable price they agreed to at the November meeting.  There was some discussion on the book review process as concerns age or content appropriate literature, but no new policy except some general concept to keep the parents involved.  Retiring Board member Josh Snyder received the month's Soaring Oriole Award.

The issue of the night was whether to amend a bylaw to make it friendlier to the already-passed deer cull (paid for by the City of Ludington who couldn't find adequate grounds within the city limits to cull) or to reject having the deer cull in the school forest.  Four people would speak, three would urge the board to not host the deer cull, the other (Jason Wolven) would criticize their way of holding their meetings in three different ways.

Instead of decorating my house up for Christmas, I prepared myself for this meeting by buying each board member a Christmas card featuring reindeer with a personal method to each contained therein.  I also adapted a traditional Christmas reindeer song (Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer) into a plea for the board to not subject our children to this barbarism on school grounds, sandwiching it between pleas made in prose.  I attended in and led off the comment period wearing a reindeer costume:

XLFD:  "I have provided the board with a page from the official Michigan School Forest Guide, a manual written by the DNR, educators, attorneys, and other stakeholders explaining everything you ever wanted to know about school forests. It notes that "school forests attached to the main campus would never allow weapons near school buildings."  If you can't heed this maybe some bad versification and singing will dissuade you.  Key the music:

You know Dasher and Dancer
And Prancer and Vixen,
Comet and Cupid
And Donner and Blitzen.
But do you recall
There never was any cull?
School forest no place to shoot deer
Never ever meant for this
And if you let it happen
All the kids would boo and hiss
First graders would be heartbroke
Their wing's spirit is the deer
Fresh blood on the fresh snow
Shouldn't ever happen here
You've approved a winter's cull
Someone needs to say:
"Let's not scare our son or daughter
Let's revoke this senseless slaughter
Children and deer will love you
For this bit of sanity
School forest no place to shoot deer
Don't go down in infamy

Please reconsider your decision to allow a deer cull in the school forest that surrounds the elementary school.  Do it for the kids who don't yet know how inhumane and unsporting these deer culls actually are.  This isn't the noble recreation of hunting this is more along the lines of a massacre, a senseless slaughter that could emotionally scar our area's children and adults alike when they find out it was allowed on school grounds by people that are supposed to care about their child's physical and emotional security.  Listen to your heart and have a Merry Christmas because of it." [END]

I was pleasantly surprised after my seasonal pleas for deer forest clemency that local attorney, Tracy Thompson, who impressed me as the unflappable city attorney for Scottville before his retirement a couple years back after decades of underpaid public service, impressed me even more with another impassioned and legal defense (without props) of why the board shouldn't have a deer cull in the school forest bringing up several points I never did.  Another woman made a brief statement in support and after Wolven finished his comment, I figured there was a good chance that sanity would prevail.

The board itself reviewed the three tactics presented to them by their law firm in consultation by Superintendent Kyle Corlett.  One was to suspend board policy 7465 (which restricts activities in the district's school forest), amend the policy, or to deny permission for the city to use the school forest.  After some discussion, the first option was rejected and it looked as if two members (Nagle and Reed) leaned towards disallowing the cull in the forest, while two members (Snyder and Foster) were strongly leaning to keep it active.  The remaining two (Autrey and Carlson) seemed as if they might go either way.

I fully expected a deadlock which would mean that their prior decision would hold, but when Nagle moved to deny permission and Reed seconded it, a roll call vote had the motion lose 2-4.  The other motion passed unanimously.  What was most troubling was that even though two voted the way I hoped, the only reason they went that way is that they thought the superintendent had already spent a lot of time dealing with the controversy.  No concern for safety or the kids were noted.

They heard an impassioned plea from a guy in a deer suit singing a mangled holiday verse, a guy who brought a protest sign to a committee meeting showing a high-powered rifle and saying "Ludington School Board Promotes School Shootings" and promised them an injunction and a helluva lot of protests if they went forward, followed by a respected attorney talking a lot of sense and law about why having a deer cull in the school forest would be a bad idea, both stressing how it would negatively affect both adults and kids-- and the tone deaf school board ignored them and their concerns.

It's exactly why Mr. Wolven and I have regularly noted that the school board does not care one bit about what the public says at their meetings, and that's exactly why they will record for posterity in the minutes of this meeting by saying "four citizens addressed the board" during the comment period.  

[Willy]

Love your Rudolph rendition. Do you know if any  biologist have studied the school forest cull plan? Deer herds consist of mainly female deer and their offspring. Their home range is most likely to be no more than 250 acres in size but can vary due to the availability of food. Ludington covers an area of over 2000 acres. If I'm not wrong, I believe the school forest is approximately 160 acres in size. What good will it do to cull the deer on such a small piece of land compared to the entire City of Ludington and the surrounding area. I don't think that high powered rifles are allowed in or around cities and residential areas so shot guns or cross bows must be used and will be less effective for the purpose of culling. Once the deer figure out that they are being hunted they will be sure to scatter. This may cause panicking deer to run out into traffic to avoid being shot which may cause car accidents putting motorists in harms way. This makes no sense. 

[XLFD]

I think I recognize the trophy on top of the truck as one of those that went to council and wanted the city to buy back assault weapons and then came a month later and asked the city to bring in the assault weapons to mow down deer in the city limits.

I can't rightly make this make sense any more than you.  The school forest is on 160 acres (1/4 sq. mile), and it technically surrounds the Ludington Elementary School on at least three sides.  The cullers, who can be independently contracted hunters, can drop bait piles where baiting isn't allowed, have free reign to drive ATVs and trucks through the area, shoot from the vehicles at any hour of the day but will choose nighttime so they can use their night vision to shoot their high-powered rifles with silencers into anything that resembles a deer.  Since the school is not a residence with inhabitants, the law's 450 foot radius shooting restriction around it doesn't have to be observed. 

Local hunters with bows would be optimum if there was a problem, but do you see any archery classes in a school that expelled a kid for talking innocently about an air soft gun?  Hunters have already confirmed 4261 deer kills in the calendar year of 2022 up to this point in Mason County, I have walked the school forest twice in December and have yet seen a deer, so what do they expect to get in January or February, and will they ever let us know when?  There has been no recent deer census mentioned, there has been no statistics or biologist's report, there's been nothing other than a concerted effort by Hosta gardeners to keep them off their property.  You know the type, they love open borders but can't deal with the consequences.

Attorney Thompson made the observation that people walk through the school forest at all times during the day as it is public land right next to a high-density population area, it's an accident waiting to happen, particularly since you will have those that wish to end this barbaric practice nearby protesting it.  School officials are under the mistaken impression that this is going to be a surgical operation well planned out by professionals that will take all precautions necessary, but all I have seen so far is prayer beads, leeches, and trepans, surgery tools of the witch doctor.

[madmike]

Safety Zones and Other Restrictions
What are the firearm safety zones?
No person may hunt with a firearm within 450 feet of an occupied building,
dwelling, house, residence or cabin, or any barn or other building used in
connection with a farm operation, without obtaining the written permission of
the owner, renter or occupant of the property. The safety zone applies to hunting
only. It does not apply to indoor or outdoor shooting ranges, target shooting, law
enforcement activities or the lawful discharge of firearms for any nonhunting
purpose.

[XLFD]

Thanks for the additional reminder madmike, that since this is an 'official deer cull' and not a deer hunt that the safety zone law does not apply to those residential buildings adjacent to the school forest, which, especially to the south on Johnson Road and to the west on Sherman Street, are prolific.  The safety-zone exception they qualify for means that the redneck snipers the USDA can hire can 'legally' shoot deer as close to these houses as they want, and the flimsy chain link fences will not offer much protection from stray bullets.

[madmike]

How silly of me to forget that the rule makers would be exempt from the rules they make.

[Willy]

I'm pretty sure the firearm safety laws apply in this case. This action is still considered a "hunt". The goal of the hunt is to cull the herd, which of course means to reduce it. Every hunting season throughout Michigan is considered a cull which is accomplished by means of a hunt by private citizens done under a license and in accordance with DNR rules. The school property cull is no exception. It's just the timing of the hunt, the process of baiting and the number of animals harvested that are the exceptions.  

[XLFD]

Willy, the 'deer cull' is euphemized as Wildlife Damage Management (WDM) services (aka Integrated Pest Management IPM services) by the USDA's APHIS team.  It's not hunting, they go out of their way to say it isn't, nor does the DNR enforce any hunting rules they break.  And this is a main reason why I'm all for hunting on private property and select public lands, it actually thins the deer herd significantly in a comparatively safe manner, but I'm totally opposed to this deer cull taking place on school grounds, where nothing meaningful will be accomplished.

[Willy]

I still disagree. I have found no evidence that the safety regulations do not apply to deer culling.

[XLFD]

A letter to the editor from Terry Grams to be published in tomorrow's COLDNews:

At a cost of $58,500 and many broken hearts the city decided to enter a contract for a deer cull in the long shot hope that it will save a few plants and flowers.

The following is the exact wording from the petition for the cull. “We believe that there are far too many deer in the city limits.

Believing there are too many deer in the city is not knowing that for a fact. No real scientific survey has been conducted.

One of the rationales for thinking there are too many deer is the number of car deer collisions in the surrounding area.

In fact, it is not the deer but the increase in traffic on the rural roads around Ludington causing the increase. This is a quote from the Deer Management Report published by the (Michigan Department of Natural Resources) “Statewide deer population estimates indicate that the Michigan deer population grew steadily through the ‘70s, ‘80s, and early ‘90s, but has experienced a gradual long-term declining trend since 1995”.

The areas for the kill are reported to be Cartier Park and the school forest even though killing in Cartier Park could result in the city losing ownership of the property and it is illegal for the city to pay for the killing in the school forest because it is not in the city limits. The school board says Ludington is paying for the cull on school property.

State law requires the permission to hunt with a firearm within 450 feet of any residence by that resident. The DNR can dictate that a cull is not hunting so they don’t need your permission to allow shooting near your home. One state legislator tells me they are looking at this potentially hazardous practice now.

If you live near the killing zones, I suggest you keep your prayers up to date, your pets clear of the area and hope no stay bullet hits your home or a passerby on the roads surrounding the areas. The following is the plan of action. If you are uncomfortable with it, I suggest you let councilpersons know. “At the request of the City of Ludington, Wildlife Services will lethally remove white-tailed deer under permits issued by the (DNR). Wildlife Services may utilize suppressed firearms from vehicles, ground blinds, elevated stands and/or baiting. Wildlife Services will prepare deer for processing in a secured building provided by the City of Ludington.” Contaminated with toxins or not and it is certainly possible considering the toxic chemicals saturating the ground and water around Ludington’s north side.

If the deer are living in the city how is killing deer in Cartier Park or the school forest going to change that. It seems to me that it is more likely that it will encourage the deer there to seek safety within the city thereby exacerbating the problem, unless we believe the deer are stupid enough to flock to the killing zones. Suppressed firearms are not silent like in a movie. Both you and the deer can hear them.

There could be DNR-approved baiting in advance to draw the deer to the killing zones. This in turn could increase the population of deer in areas around Bryant Road, Johnson Road and Jebavy Drive where there is heavy traffic including the drop off and pick up of children from school. This is against the rules and regulations we the taxpayers must obey. Another case of you cannot, but they can.

[Willy]

Also, why hasn't the process of surveying for deer with the aid of a thermal imaging drone been used or proposed to determine if there are any deer to be culled. This would be a good way to determine if there really is a deer problem and exactly where the deer are located and what the actual population of the deer may be.

[XLFD]

Considering that the proponents for the deer cull haven't had to show any sort of meaningful statistic or fact to support their cause, it shouldn't be surprising that they wouldn't offer any proof that there is an actual problem within the city limits.  They choose the usual bugbears like car-deer accidents but offer none that happen within city limits, the chart below showing car-deer crashes per year in MI over the last 20 years show that car-deer events have greatly reduced as of late (look at the high numbers between 2002-2009). 

How many citizens were calling for a deer cull then?  Zero!  Get a license go hunting in Mason County if you are concerned about deer numbers; there are very few wintering in the city limits during the winter so go out to a deer yard you can legally hunt in.  Late antlerless firearm season is on until January 1st.