This sucks>>>>> I grew up in this area and these new residents have moved right up into the hills where the deer live. The deer dont really have anywhere else to go other than their yards in the winter. You can go up ther and watch herds of elk in the neighborhoods in the winter also. The thing that really ticks me off about this is that above alpine there are some great places to hunt. There is the lone peak wilderness area and there is another horse trail that goes up into another great part of that area. They now want to decimate the deer in these areas becuase they are a problem (which they should have thought of before they moved there in the first place)-----which will kill the general hunting up above Alpine.
The other problem is that there is that the road that goes up to the lone peak trail head goes back behind these peoples homes. They are always trying to get this road closed because they dont like to see hunters or hikers wandering up into the hills behind their homes.
These people just piss me off!!!!!
ALPINE ? Carrie Pearce knows firsthand about hungry cougars stalking deer in Alpine's foothills. For most of the past three months, she says a cougar has roamed her property looking for prey.
And she insists she's not crying wolf. A few months ago, Pearce says, she mistakenly thought she heard a neighbor's sick cat in the trees near her house.
"I thought, 'Oh, poor kitty,' and started walking right out into the trees. I went in and got the boys and some sticks and tried to find it," Pearce said. "I was really dumb about it."
Fortunately, Pearce, who has since brought a German shepherd to the house to protect their property, didn't find the cougar that night.
But she has heard one walking in the thick scrub oak that grows around her home and spotted tracks on a nearby hillside. Her teenage son also found parts of a freshly killed fawn on the path from the house to the family's horse corral.
Granted, she acknowledges, deer, elk and cougars lived in the hills long before construction crews began work on the showy homes that now dot the hillside.
Still, the houses were built, and Pearce fears for the safety of families.
Worry about an attack has residents ready to sign on for a "deer-thinning program" ? which means the deer seen near Alpine homes would be killed to reduce the likelihood of cougars using back yards as hunting grounds.
Wildlife experts say the deer aren't the problem. They say that people who build homes on the hill should have known that if you move to the mountains the creatures that live in the mountains will live hear you.
"This is going to be interesting," said Steve Flinders, wildlife manager for central region of the Division of Wildlife Resources. "The city has allowed planning and development right inside the forest area."
Flinders said the division could do "deer control work" in some Alpine neighborhoods ? and they've done similar work for other places in the past ? but some of the city's neighborhoods are adjacent to the summer range for deer.
Flinders said a number of cities in Utah County are doing the same and can expect the same kinds of problems.
In Alpine, the deer are eating plants in gardens and expensive landscaping around homes that typically sell for more than $400,000, said Steve Weidner, who has collected more than 250 names on a petition to the city pleading for help.
Weidner and a few Alpine homeowners plan to talk this week with city officials about the problem, which Weidner says is aggravated by the fact that cougars are following the deer down to what has become their traditional nesting places alongside the homes.
"Where deer are in preponderance, the cougars come in. They come down and they don't go back up because there's plenty to eat here," Weidner said. "It's getting worse, so our first concern is now safety. The millions of dollars we've all lost in landscaping damage is secondary."
Flinders said the DWR currently has no plans to thin the herd or kill any deer.
He supports plans for a bow hunt in the area but said the city will have to relax an ordinance preventing any discharge of bows, muzzle-loaders or shotguns within the city.
"The writing on the wall is, I'm sure there will be strategies approved to get rid of the deer," he said. "The people will win."
The other problem is that there is that the road that goes up to the lone peak trail head goes back behind these peoples homes. They are always trying to get this road closed because they dont like to see hunters or hikers wandering up into the hills behind their homes.
These people just piss me off!!!!!
ALPINE ? Carrie Pearce knows firsthand about hungry cougars stalking deer in Alpine's foothills. For most of the past three months, she says a cougar has roamed her property looking for prey.
And she insists she's not crying wolf. A few months ago, Pearce says, she mistakenly thought she heard a neighbor's sick cat in the trees near her house.
"I thought, 'Oh, poor kitty,' and started walking right out into the trees. I went in and got the boys and some sticks and tried to find it," Pearce said. "I was really dumb about it."
Fortunately, Pearce, who has since brought a German shepherd to the house to protect their property, didn't find the cougar that night.
But she has heard one walking in the thick scrub oak that grows around her home and spotted tracks on a nearby hillside. Her teenage son also found parts of a freshly killed fawn on the path from the house to the family's horse corral.
Granted, she acknowledges, deer, elk and cougars lived in the hills long before construction crews began work on the showy homes that now dot the hillside.
Still, the houses were built, and Pearce fears for the safety of families.
Worry about an attack has residents ready to sign on for a "deer-thinning program" ? which means the deer seen near Alpine homes would be killed to reduce the likelihood of cougars using back yards as hunting grounds.
Wildlife experts say the deer aren't the problem. They say that people who build homes on the hill should have known that if you move to the mountains the creatures that live in the mountains will live hear you.
"This is going to be interesting," said Steve Flinders, wildlife manager for central region of the Division of Wildlife Resources. "The city has allowed planning and development right inside the forest area."
Flinders said the division could do "deer control work" in some Alpine neighborhoods ? and they've done similar work for other places in the past ? but some of the city's neighborhoods are adjacent to the summer range for deer.
Flinders said a number of cities in Utah County are doing the same and can expect the same kinds of problems.
In Alpine, the deer are eating plants in gardens and expensive landscaping around homes that typically sell for more than $400,000, said Steve Weidner, who has collected more than 250 names on a petition to the city pleading for help.
Weidner and a few Alpine homeowners plan to talk this week with city officials about the problem, which Weidner says is aggravated by the fact that cougars are following the deer down to what has become their traditional nesting places alongside the homes.
"Where deer are in preponderance, the cougars come in. They come down and they don't go back up because there's plenty to eat here," Weidner said. "It's getting worse, so our first concern is now safety. The millions of dollars we've all lost in landscaping damage is secondary."
Flinders said the DWR currently has no plans to thin the herd or kill any deer.
He supports plans for a bow hunt in the area but said the city will have to relax an ordinance preventing any discharge of bows, muzzle-loaders or shotguns within the city.
"The writing on the wall is, I'm sure there will be strategies approved to get rid of the deer," he said. "The people will win."
