Deer pose problems with planes

SANDPOINT — The Sandpoint Airport will again attempt to curb its resident deer population by allowing bow hunters the opportunity to harvest a deer on the property during archery season.

Bonner County Airports Director Jim Kaiser asked City Council members Wednesday to approve bow hunting and discharging of a firearm in city limits. Council members unanimously approved the request.

"The reason we are doing this, the overarching reason, is for safety," Kaiser told council members.

Kaiser told the Daily Bee an aircraft was "totalled" a couple years ago and another was heavily damaged in collisions with deer at the airport. At least once a week, he said, an aircraft has to wait to take off because of deer on the runway.

Council members approved a request last November by Sandpoint Airport officials to allow deer hunting on the property. The measure was limited to experienced bow hunters then as well, but none were willing to take on the task, Kaiser said.

Since no bow hunters were willing to hunt at the airport, a project ensued to trap the animals. Seven deer were trapped and harvested after January of this year and the Bonner Community Food Bank received more than 300 pounds of meat. The focus of that project was on a herd of deer living in the middle of the airport. This year the focus will be on the resident deer at each end of the runway.

If the deer are not harvested during archery season, they will be trapped. The approval of firearm discharge in city limits allows the officials to trap the deer and discharge a .22 caliber rifle at point-blank range to "dispatch the deer humanely," Kaiser said. The meat will again be donated to the food bank.

"Fish and Game said there is about a 5 percent chance, if we even could transport them and relocate them, that they would survive," Kaiser said. "So this really is more humane."

Kaiser said this should be the last year the airport will have to take such measures because a wildlife fence is in the plans for 2017. The fence is costly and Federal Aviation Administration funding would not be available for three to four years, so airport officials looked for a faster way.

Quest Aircraft Company, located on Turbine Drive, is doubling in size. Kaiser said because of the company's growth, the airport is eligible for a block grant fund from the state of Idaho for infrastructure. A fence is considered infrastructure, he said. They will be going before the state in December and Kaiser said the airport has an "excellent shot" at getting the money.