Duane Hicks
With the deer population at a high right now, the Fort Frances Airport is looking at options for keeping the animals away from the runway.
The town is applying for funds for perimeter fencing—the best, long-term measure against deer.
But if those dollars don’t come through this year, the airport will have to find an alternative, and that may include having members of the Fort Frances Sportsmen’s Club bow hunt deer on airport property.
About 15 people, including area residents, Ministry of Natural Resources staff, town management, and members of the sportsmen’s club, attended a meeting last Wednesday afternoon on this subject upstairs in the maintenance garage at the airport.
Airport superintendent Bill Caul said the Fort Frances Airport has been experiencing problems due to the increasing deer population.
One private aircraft hit a deer in late fall while it was landing, causing serious damage to the plane.
In a second incident, a Bearskin airplane hit a deer with its landing gear while it was taking off (although there was no damage to the aircraft).
At that time, the airport got a deer removal harassment permit to shoot nuisance deer, but ended up not shooting any deer by the time it expired in December.
Caul noted one of the problems was the permit did not allow airport staff to shoot deer during night-time, which is when they are more of a problem to aircraft trying to land here.
Caul said 2009 was the worst year for deer he’s ever seen at the airport, and the deer are starting to come back already.
In the last two weeks, there’s been anywhere from a half-dozen to a dozen deer on airport property every morning.
“We chase them back in the bush and they stay away all day, and come out again at night,” he noted.
Caul said airport staff has increased the frequency of runway inspections prior to landings to try to ensure deer are not on the runway when planes come in.
The town is in the process of applying for funding from Transport Canada for an eight-foot high fixed-knot fence specially-designed to keep out wildlife.
The 5,800-metre fence will cost about $300,000, but the federal government will foot 100 percent of the bill if they approve it.
However, if the funding doesn’t come through in time for fall, the town will have to do something else to keep the deer away from the airport.
In keeping with an MNR requirement to hold a public meeting to get input on the deer issue, one was held last Wednesday at the airport.
Several ideas were brought up—ranging from electric fences and propane cannons that create noise to scare off deer to getting rid of the grass and other vegetation deer may feed on and replacing it with gravel.
But a suggestion from the Fort Frances Sportsmen’s Club to permit bow hunting of deer on airport property was decided as the most effective, and cost-effective, measure if the town can’t get that fence this year.
“If you go down to the States, almost all the airports down there have a controlled archery cull, which we could organize through our property if that’s what you wanted to do,” said club member Brad Houghton, who provided Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown with information as to what was permitted at some of those airports.
“It’s not a big thing because you don’t have 100 people shooting guns around. It’s pretty controlled,” Houghton added.
“Organize it through the sportsmen’s club because our property abuts this, and they’re all bedding there anyway,” he reasoned.
Several factors will be considered.
For example, the area to shoot deer formerly allowed under the last permit—the runway and surrounding area—was too small and that would need to be increased to include the edge of the bush area to the north of the airport in order to stop the deer before they get to the runway.
Also, because of the high level of deer activity, there probably would have to be consideration for allowing the shooting of nuisance deer outside of the normal hunting season.
The town met again with the MNR and Houghton last Thursday afternoon to further discuss what might be done in case the fencing funding doesn’t come through.
The meeting last Wednesday also saw some people share their thoughts on the high number of deer in the Fort Frances area.
Several felt the fact the airport removed trees from its property last year has drawn more deer there.
Brown explained the decision to remove trees was not the town’s. Rather, he said the airport was ordered by Transport Canada to remove the trees, adding the airport has to maintain certain sight lines for landings and take-offs.
Caul said Monday he’s in the process of writing a report based on last Wednesday’s meeting. A copy will be sent to everyone who attended the meeting, who, in turn, can provide comments to Caul if they have any.
Caul then will write a final report, incorporating these comments, on what the airport is going to do and submit it to the MNR for approval.
“From there, if there’s permits to get or whatever, then we can start that process,” he explained.
“It’s going to be down the road, probably a month or so, before we get that far,” Caul added.
