Duane Hicks
Fort Frances is in the process of applying for funding to get perimeter fencing put up to keep deer away from airport property.
But if that money doesn’t come through, the town will have to find a better away to deal with deer to safeguard runways—and that may include having members of the Fort Frances Sportsmen’s Club hunt deer on airport property using bows.
About 15 people, including area residents, local Ministry of Natural Resources staff, town management, and members of the sportsmen’s club, attended a meeting yesterday afternoon on this subject upstairs in the maintenance garage at the airport.
Airport superintendent Bill Caul said they’ve been experiencing problems there due to the increasing deer population.
One private aircraft hit a deer in late fall while it was landing, causing serious damage to the airplane.
In a second incident, a Bearskin airplane hit a deer with its landing gear while 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.
The town now 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 pay 100 percent if they approve it.
However, if the funding doesn’t come through in time for this 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, several ideas were brought up yesterday.
A suggestion by the 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 the perimeter fencing 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 [club] 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 noted.
“Organize it through the sportsmen’s club because our property abuts this, and they’re all bedding there anyways,” 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.
As well, 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 agreed to meet today with the MNR and sportsmen’s club to further discuss the archery cull option.
