Wood pellets exports double
Nearly $500K for car crash
Mounties won't be charged
Vise grips as steering wheel
$36M for vaccine injury 
Canadians split on budget
Car insurance fuels inflation
Santos ends comeback bid
Douglas C-54 plane crashes
Retail sales slip 
Rogers Q1 profit down 
US TikTok ban sent to Biden
Warriors snakebitten in loss
Iginla off to Europe
Rockets ink prospect
Perry teams with Lu Kala
Megan denies harassment
Swift ‘one of the family’
My grand children came for a visit the other day and wanted to play in my backyard. I had to tell them no. The backyard was off limits because gramdpa cannot keep up with cleaning the bio hazard scattered around the yard. The yard looks pristine right now with a fresh blanket of snow. But under that blanket is a veritable cesspool of deer urine and scat.
Like so many others, for the past few years I have done battle with the ever expanding deer population. Built barricades - they jump them, put up netting - they pull it down. The sprays are temporary and ineffective. It only takes a couple deer a couple hours to devastate a cedar hedge or vegetable garden. Their palates are adapting and they eat yew, roses, grapes, fruit and tulips. I planted 100 tulips 3 years ago that I have never seen bloom because the deer ate the shoots. All around the neighbourhood are various homemade battle structures, fence extensions made from chicken wire; hedges wrapped in nets; electric fences; boxes made with netting.
The city and province need to devise humane solutions to reduce the deer population in the outer neighbourhoods of Kettle Valley, Black Mt., and Dilworth. They are responsible for approving the development up the mountain sides and they are the ones collecting our ever increasing property taxes. If there was a gang of humans roaming the neighbourhood with hedge trimmers and defecating in our gardens and jumping out in front of moving cars, there would be a response. The city has informed me that they will not respond to the problem unless they receive a significant number of complaints.
Do you have concerns about the over population of deer in your neighbourhood and the resulting damage to landscaping and property and possible safety and health concerns? If so please call the Kelowna Parks Dept. at 250-717-2757 ask for Blair Stewart (manager) and lodge your complaint. The only way the city will take action on this issue is if enough concerned homeowners call and register a complaint.
Jim MacDonald
