Plan to cull deer on Sidney Island, B.C. divides residents

Parks Canada and local First Nations say an estimated 300 to 900 invasive deer, which were introduced to Sidney Island in the mid 1900s, are decimating the native ecosystem.

Plans to cull hundreds of deer on a small gulf island off the coast of Victoria have divided residents, with some calling on the government to call the plan off.

Parks Canada and local First Nations say an estimated 300 to 900 invasive European fallow deer, which were introduced to Sidney Island in the mid 1900s, are decimating the native ecosystem.

Island residents voted narrowly in February to OK a Parks Canada plan to destroy the animals, but some like Rob Milne say the initiative isn’t needed.

“They basically want to eradicate the deer on a claim there is too many and the vegetation is not recovering enough,” he said.

“But in order for them to control the invasive species of fallow deer in this national park at the tip of the island, they think the only way to do that is to eradicate the deer on the entire island, meaning the 80 per cent of it that’s private.”

Milne said islanders organized an effort more than a decade ago to remove hundreds of deer, and since then private hunters have worked annually to kill off hundreds more, bringing the population down to a sustainable level.

“There’s a lot of risk, the aerial shooting; there’s a lot of disruption. They’re talking about getting waivers to hunt rules that let them shoot at night, semi-automatic weapons, use night lighting. They want to be able to use dogs that will chase these deer,” he said.

“Should you stay inside when this is going on? We don’t know. We’re not supposed to walk around the island we gather. We don’t know if they’re going to require us to check in to say if we’re on the island or not. We think so, but there’s no process established.”