Select hunters tackle Plum Island deer overpopulation

Green Bay Press-Gazette

An evening view of Plum Island Lighthouse, one of the featured lights during the Door County Lighthouse Festival.

PLUM ISLAND - Cedar tree branches typically reach the ground, but on Plum Island, between the tip of Door County and Washington Island, there are no cedar tree branches below eye level.

The culprit? Hungry deer.

Plum Island's forest is three generations behind in undergrowth because deer in high numbers forage on the greenery, said Dustan Hoffman, manager of Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

The refuge owns Plum Island, so along with experts from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, they called on deer hunters this year to apply for a nuisance control program, which sets aside certain dates for small groups to hunt there.

"That helps us with our management goal because we can track the number of deer that are harvested," Hoffman said. "If we just had the island open to state season (people coming and going), we would never be able to request that information."

A lack of people coming and going allowed the deer population spike. Plum Island has been uninhabited since 1991, when the U.S. Coast Guard moved its search and rescue facility from Plum Island to Washington Island.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources experts estimated about 30 deer needed to be eliminated to solve the nuisance issue. The six-day hunting blocks started Oct. 15, and were expected to go through New Year's Eve, but all 30 tags were filled by mid-November.

Hoffman said they believe 15 to 20 deer remain, which is the ideal herd size for 325-acre Plum Island.

But deer can easily swim the one-mile Lake Michigan stretch from Plum Island to one of the neighboring small islands, like Detroit Island, or the mainland, so they needed this "management control if we're going to create the best migrating habitat," Hoffman said.

Hunters could bring up to nine other hunters during their set time, and each had to use a rifle or shotgun, because archery "is more of a recreational method," Hoffman said. And the project had a serious purpose.

"We’re trying to create the ideal habitat, including for the deer, but we’re trying to help the deer to not overeat themselves out of the habitat," Hoffman said. "We’d like Plum Island to be an example of what a healthy forest system would look like."

The habitat is home to migratory birds, including a steady population of bald eagles, and several other wildlife species. But there are no raccoons, rabbits or other animals with the same feeding behaviors as deer, Hoffman said.

It's likely the effects of the first Plum Island hunt plan won't be seen for more than 20 years, Hoffman said. The refuge and DNR will continue to monitor deer to keep levels low, and if they keep "work(ing) toward that goal ... it's got all the elements it needs," he said.

One element is limited shoreline use along Plum Island, so there's not much invitation for invasive species to grow on the island, but Hoffman said the refuge has an ongoing program to rid it of the invasives that are already there. No human developments sit on the island, and along with refuge staff, the nonprofit group Friends of Plum and Pilot Islands helps maintain and preserve the land. The island's only occupants are lighthouse ruins, a fog signal building and a boat house, all resting near several Lake Michigan shipwrecks.

The island, the only refuge-owned land open to the public in Door County, welcomes tourists between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

The DNR offers year-round nuisance deer abatement programs throughout the state. Its Wildlife Damage Abatement and Claims Program assists farmers with damage prevention and offers partial compensation when their crops are damaged by wild animals. Similarly, the Urban Wildlife Damage Abatement and Control Grant can be used in more populated areas to rid problem areas of deer as grantees wish, like organizing a managed hunt, using sharpshooters approved by the DNR or modifying habitats, among others.

While opportunities to deer hunt on Plum Island have ended, people across the state are sporting camouflage and neon orange through Dec. 1 for the annual gun-deer hunting season.

Hoffman said the refuge plans to hold a hunt next year but will not know until early fall how many permits they will be able to offer. It will follow the same early October to mid-November timeline as this year.

Contact Sammy Gibbons at (920) 431-8396 or sgibbons@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @sammykgibbons or Facebook at www.facebook.com/ReporterSammyGibbons/.

FOR MORE DOOR COUNTY NEWS:Check out our homepage.