The least we could do for them is to respect them more when we drive. They cannot avoid us because we are all over their territory. Why don’t more of us speak out and demand change? Do we shrug it off as “just another dead deer?” Are we so self-absorbed that animal lives don’t count? We must wake up to the sad reality that due to reckless past and ongoing development deer and elk are now doomed to live in our midst on our busy city streets, county roads and highways. She might have been carrying a fawn, whose life has now been snuffed out also. Nowadays I consider myself blessed when I do not have to cry out in pain over another dead doe as I did one recent morning on S. When I moved here in 1979 they were abundant. Fewer accidents save lives and tax dollars spent on carcass removal. Washington Drive, 15th Street and Century Drive. The death toll in town is equally horrendous, particularly on Knott Road, Mt. Century Drive, Huntington Road and others.
Highway 97 by underpasses are struck on roads such as Cascade Lakes Highway, S. Every year we are losing more and more of our once abundant wildlife not only to development but also to deer/vehicle collisions.ĭeer saved on U.S. We need to adopt a more deer- and elk-friendly policy if we want to avoid disaster. Isn’t it time we came to our senses and followed the example of Washington state, which requires consideration of impacts to wildlife before new projects or development can occur? Great damage has been done already in our area. They were displaced and roamed to a golf course where they were not welcome. The Brookswood residential development was elk winter range not long ago. Elk once occupied the area where Widgi Creek is now. Urban sprawl and development occupy valuable wildlife habitat that includes elk winter ranges.įormer deer and elk terrain on the west side is now covered with a warming hut, golf courses galore, and growing residential developments reaching far into the forest. The Bend area has ceased to be deer- and elk-friendly. Little do they know this is no longer safe for them. For generations mule deer have come to Bend and surroundings this time of year to birth their young and to raise them for six months, until they are ready to travel the hundred miles or so to their wintering grounds east of here.
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