Oh Deer! Roseville Residents Battle Animal Grazing

When Ilona Rouda and her husband Robert returned from traveling this spring, the Roseville couple looked out in their backyard and found just a fringe of vegetation left on row of their tall shrubs. 

Ilona, who lives in north central Roseville, blames a pesky herd of deer for her landscaping and gardening woes. The animals are stripping away trees and devouring plants on her property, she told City Council members.

 “I like Bambi. But I just don’t want Bambi eating everything I put in the garden,” Rouda said. “I am asking you to consider ways of managing the deer population.”

Some of Rouda’s neighbors, who live near , also said they are facing similar deer damage.

“There is not a thing I can grow. They (the deer) are killing my trees with their horns and eating the barks off the whole hedge row,” said resident Gregg Mouder.  “As much as I don’t like the idea of harvesting, I don’t see any alternative.” 

Residents said they believe the deer herd in their neighborhood is growing and gotten worse in the last year. One neighbor saw 23 deer in their backyard during one day, Ilona Rouda said.

Resident John Chelstrom contended of the deer herd, “Not only is it a nuisance, it is a safety hazard.” He noted that the deer cross busy streets.

Mayor Dan Roe told the residents that Roseville is monitoring deer activity and that it would have city staff follow up with them.   

Officials with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said they get plenty of calls from around the metro about deer problems  

Bryan Lueth, DNR north metro wildlife manager, said, “Deer have adapted to living in suburban and urban areas,” reaping the benefit of few predators, municipal firearm restrictions and often an abundance of food from home gardens and landscaping.

Ramsey County does a deer survey for Roseville, said John Moriarty, county parks natural resources manager. He counted 54 deer across the city of Roseville earlier this year as part of a helicopter fly-over census.

“It is hard to say how many deer are too many deer,” he said. “It is up to the city to say what is a tolerable level of deer in a neighborhood.”

Moriarty said DNR guidelines consider about 20 deer per square mile in deer habitat areas as an upper limit that wildlife areas typically can handle.

Lueth said the DNR can issue special removal permits in cases where cities have deer management plans and are seeking assistance from the state in carrying them out. Several Twin Cities communities have deer management plans including North Oaks, Maplewood, Golden Valley and Minnetonka, Lueth said.  

Ramsey County also assists cities that have deer management programs to assist cities trim their deer herds.  This fall, the County plans to hold archery hunts in seven county parks, including three in Shoreview, Moriarty said. Those hunts will take place in parks that are at least 100 acres in size, he said.

Whatever Roseville decides, lona Rouda said she’s already lost a lot of time and money trying to keep the deer at bay. That’s included using deer-resistant products such as Liquid Fence and this month replacing most of her arborvitae with Black Hills spruce.