Hendersonville committee releases key ideas to limit deer population

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Hendersonville has a deer problem. There’s simply too many in the area, according to city leaders. To combat the issue, a deer committee was established. News 2 spoke with committee’s chair to learn what keys ideas they have come up with so far.

The committee reported there are about 69 deer per square mile on the Saunders Ferry peninsula alone. According to residents, some of the deer destroy gardens, carry ticks, hurt their pets and create a danger on the roads.

“Information to us is the key. Helping people be informed, having one single source of information,” said Jerald Barrett.

Barrett is chair of Hendersonville’s Deer Monitoring and Control Committee. He said the group has been hard at work talking with folks and coming up with ideas. According to him, step one is complete, allocating money to survey the deer.

“The Board of Mayor and Alderman have approved a biannual USDA survey, which will utilize a helicopter with clear technology to continue to monitor the deer population size,” explained Barrett.

The second idea includes creating a webpage to monitor population changes.

“We’re calling it the deer dashboard, which would include the number of deer car accidents in Hendersonville, of course any carcas removals…semi-annual surveys — what are they telling us,” added Barrett.

Barrett said that the third idea will take more legwork. It includes creating a list of hunters who have been vetted for safety and competency. Homeowners would be allowed to reach out to this group to hunt on their land and control the deer population.

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“We’re also exploring what any other sort of specific hunts would look like, whether that is on city land or Army Corps of Engineer land,” he concluded.

Barrett says the goal is to have these new ideas in place for next year’s deer season.

For more information about the city’s Deer Monitoring and Control Committee, click here .

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