DETROIT, Mich. — Statistics released by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) show that while car-deer crashes have gone down recently, these types of crashes are still a major problem, especially in the heavily populated southern part of the state.

In 2005 there were 6,097 car-deer crashes in southeast Michigan alone, down from 6,196 in 2004. At the same time there were 58,741 car-deer crashes statewide. Nine people were killed last year as a result of these crashes, and 1,700 were injured. According to a report released in January by researchers at Michigan State University, Michigan has the largest number of reported car-deer crashes in the Midwest.

The researchers, Professor Shawn Riley and graduate research assistant Krishnan Sudharsan, estimate that 65,000 deer-vehicle crashes yearly create total direct costs of $149 million statewide. Also according to the report, it’s estimated that only 47 percent of car-deer crashes are reported. So, why are there are so many car-deer crashes in Michigan? The answer, according to the experts, is the huge growth in the deer population, and the state’s inability to curb this growth in heavily populated areas.

“We have made a concerted effort to reduce the deer herd population statewide,” said Rodney Clute, a big game specialist at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

The state has been successful with its deer population reduction efforts in the northern part of the state, which is heavily forested and with large swaths of public land easily accessible to hunters.

When the DNR wants to reduce the deer population in a given area, it issues more antlerless deer licenses. This has been the case in several northeast counties in recent years, where bovine TB is still an issue. The persistence of bovine TB in the northeast area of the Lower Peninsula is also a result of a lack of accessibility, according to Bridget Patrick, coordinator of the bovine TB eradication project. Patrick said that the disease is concentrated in a small area of privately owned land.

The southwest portion of the state, on the other hand, is agricultural, which give deer an abundant food supply. Clute explained that privately owned land is not so easily accessible to hunters. The DNR believes that the success of ongoing population control efforts will depend heavily on the willingness of private landowners to allow hunters onto their property.

“Accessibility is the key without a doubt,” Clute said. According to SEMCOG, the state’s deer population is now four times larger than it was in 1970. In southeast Michigan it’s 10 times larger.

This increase was not an accident, however, or unwanted. According to Clute, the state worked toward increasing the deer population starting in 1971. These efforts were all too successful. By the mid-1990s the situation had gotten out of control, with the deer population ballooning to 2 million. “There’s no way we could sustain that population,” Clute said. The deer population is currently estimated to be 1.75 million.

Oakland County, a collection of suburbs north of Detroit, had 1,704 car-deer crashes in 2005, the highest county number in southeast Michigan. It also ranked fourth in the state, behind Kent, Jackson and Calhoun counties. Jackson and Calhoun are southern counties, while Kent is north of Grand Rapids, on the northwest side of the state.

For more Michigan car-deer crash statistics, go online at www.semcog.org, and click on the Michigan Deer Crash Coalition logo. For car-deer crash statistics from other states, visit the Deer Vehicle Crash Information Clearing-house at http://deercrash.com

This farm news was published in the Dec. 13, 2006 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.