Fallow deer ‘ticking time bomb’ explodes
By Robb Magley, Gulf Islands Driftwood
March 11, 2026
A population of non-native deer that has been altering the ecosystem on Mayne Island for decades has grown into the thousands, according to experts, now numbering more than five times an estimate from 10 years ago.
Jeanine Dodds has lived on Mayne Island since 1960, currently serving her seventh term as local trustee for the Islands Trust. When she spoke to the Driftwood in 2015, she described the fallow deer population — estimated at about 1,000 then — as a “ticking time bomb.” At a webinar on Wednesday, March 4, she told attendees she agreed with locals who blame provincial regulators far more than anyone who originally brought fallow deer to the Gulf Islands.
“I grew up here as a child on SḴŦAḴ, Mayne Island, Helen Point,” said Dodds, “and I know what that landscape looks like today and it’s heartbreaking.”
The fallow deer landed on Mayne in the 1980s, when a development plan was approved for a game farm located near Horton Bay, on the island’s southeast corner. At the time, game farms were being promoted by the province itself, as a means of diversifying B.C.’s agricultural revenue streams — and through the Game Farm Act, a permit to farm fallow deer was issued in 1990.
By 1992, according to Dodds, there were already concerns expressed locally about overstocking, and by 1994 visitors were writing letters to the editor about the dwindling vegetation on the island.
“At that time, the housing I was living in overlooked the historic Robson Farm,” she said, in a large valley to the west of the game farm. “I looked out my window and saw the strangest three deer.”
What followed those first “wild” sightings outside the original farm were literal decades of passionate community discussion and earnest meetings with various ministries, staff and elected officials as they struggled to grasp the size of the problem — and how to solve it.
Fallow deer today share Mayne Island — if unevenly — with a native species of Columbia black-tailed deer; anywhere large predators have been pushed out, the deer population increases. But while black-tailed deer are found throughout the Gulf Islands, the severity of impact caused by fallow deer is consistently higher.
“Fallow deer have a larger gut system that processes a wider variety of forage,” said Mike Janssen, a forest ecosystem restoration specialist for Parks Canada. “So they eat a wider variety of plants and can do more damage than black-tailed deer.”
Fallow deer also tend to travel in larger groups, eating the new leaves off their preferred plants year after year — and as the old leaves fall off, eventually there are none left. Biologist Rob Underhill, who works with the Mayne Island Conservancy, explained that where the deer have been active, the native plants have been replaced — mostly with non-native deer-resistant species.
The impacts go well beyond just the plants the deer are eating; plants are the building blocks of the ecosystem, Underhill said — taking energy from the sun and making it available to organisms down the food chain, as well as offering the “structural habitat” they need to shelter and reproduce.
“Deer overpopulation also reduces food for pollinators,” he said. “Birds that directly forage on flowers or eat the insects that rely on plants are affected. It has a cascading effect.”
Fenced restoration sites tell the story of how well plants can recover, but they require significant investment and management once the deer are kept out. Underhill said some 2.5 kilometres of fence has been installed on Mayne across different restoration projects, and groups have been gathering data on what grows.
“Fencing isn’t an ideal option. It’s expensive to install and requires maintenance when trees fall on them, or materials reach end-of-life,” said Underhill.
“Studies suggest the populations will have to decrease very significantly, at least below eight deer per square kilometre, if we want to see a return of herbaceous plant communities to these sites.”
Island farmer Peter Robinson has direct experience with how costly fencing can be. Robinson has run Mayne Island’s 144-acre Hedgerow Farm since 2016. Hedgerow has been operational since the 1870s, he said, and when his family took over, the primary production came from hay fields — alongside fruit from heritage apple and pear trees.
“In our first year, we were surprised to see [fallow deer] herds in the fields, numbering 50-plus,” said Robinson. “In the orchards, there was browsing on branches up to about nine feet when they stood on their legs.”
Robinson’s fencing mitigation on the orchard alone has cost some $9,000 so far, he said, and with another $5,000 or more expected this year to finish enclosing that area — and he’s already spent more than $27,000 fencing the hay fields, with another $50,000 needed to protect them fully.
With hay production bringing in less than $12,000 last year, he expects “payback” in restored production will take at least a decade to materialize. Meanwhile, comparing his per-acre hay production today with his first few years at Hedgerow, his yield has dropped — from 65 to 70 bales per acre to about 25 as the deer population has increased.
“We saw about 50 deer per day on the fields, and they can eat about two per cent of their body weight each day,” said Robinson. “Those fallow deer can consume the equivalent of about 900 bales per year.”
In 2018 the Ministry of Wildlife decided to unilaterally change regulations, designating Mayne Island as an open hunting area for fallow deer year round — and with no bag limit.
“This caused huge consternation within the community,” said Dodds. “It’s all very fine that we have that, but we have very few properties that can — or should — be hunted.”
Robinson allows a select group of professional hunters on their property — hunters removed about 100 in the last 14 months, he said — but his observations had been that the deer could reproduce faster than they were being taken.
A Parks Canada fallow deer management program on Sidney Island to the south collaborated with trained First Nation hunters, with a number of animals being harvested there. Tsartlip Elder Carl Olsen was among knowledge keepers who spent time training young hunters for the task, and said while youth were willing to learn — and that he still goes out with some of them on weekends when he can — it takes a long time to teach the safety and cultural aspects of hunting.
“You also need to teach them how to clean the deer properly, to skin it, how to be safe about collecting meat,” Olsen said, agreeing they “barely made a dent” in the population.
“I think that was a really good project, but you don’t learn how to hunt in one or two years,” Olsen chuckled. “I still learn new tricks about hunting.”
In early 2025, Mayne Islanders successfully lobbied the Capital Regional District board to urge the B.C. government to provide sustained funding for fallow deer control. Robinson said staff from the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship had told the Mayne Island Deer Management Society they needed to take on the task of counting the deer themselves.
“They told us how to estimate the size of the population, so using their instructions we undertook an island-wide survey,” he said. “We had 102 people take part, all at the same time in the evening last year, walking the same distance and recording all the deer they saw.”
The count came to a total of 723 that day: 68 native black-tailed deer, and 655 fallow, mostly located in the most densely inhabited areas of the island where the latter have become comfortable around people.
Presenting those numbers to wildlife staff and the ministry, Robinson said they calculated a likely real population of a “staggering” 5,200 fallow deer on the island — and with a biodiversity-ideal target of 200, he said, “now the government knows we have a significant problem.”
“The impacts of the deer are readily obvious,” said Robinson. “If you go from Mayne to Galiano, you will immediately see the difference in the understory.”
But whether it’s reinstating the use of rifles, allowing trapping and baiting, permitting the sale of fallow deer meat — currently required to be destroyed after a hunt — tracking with drones, administering birth control or subduing with tasers, the province reiterated whatever solutions Mayne Island chooses will come without senior government funding, at least for the moment. Robinson said there had been some openness to regulatory changes, if they didn’t cost much to implement.
That puts the onus, as it has been, on Mayne Islanders.
Offering advice after eight years managing the Sidney Island forest project for Parks Canada, Janssen said it would be important to recognize what kind of effort managing deer in populated areas really is. While the work on Sidney was indeed an “ecosystem” project, he said, it turned out they hadn’t anticipated how much of a “people project” it needed to be.
“Successful deer management in the Gulf Islands requires identifying the course of action that the most people can agree to,” said Janssen. “The goal isn’t just to find the most effective deer management method; the goal is to determine which methods are likely to be effective, and also have the most support among the people involved.”
That means getting more voices to the table early, he said, long before picking deer management techniques — addressing concerns well before you start, even when there are serious disagreements. If there are shared objectives, the process of hashing out how to get there can be transformative in a positive way for a community, Janssen said, noting he’d seen people surprised by how much respect and camaraderie could result from those conflicts.
“Not everyone has to agree,” he said. “Even though some people might prefer a different approach, at least they understand the chosen approach — and they can live with it, rather than feel a need to actively oppose it.”
And, Janssen pointed out, even if fallow deer are eventually completely eradicated, there will still be native black-tailed deer.
“Unless there are wolves and cougars on that island, those deer are always going to need to be managed,” he said. “So the question for Mayne Island is, will deer management be a source of conflict, or will it bring people together? I would say that choice belongs to the community.”
Public Consultations and Next Steps
On November 22 / 23, 2025, MIDMS held public consultations on Mayne and over 120 people attended. We presented information on the discussions that we have had with provincial government officials in 2025. The deer count undertaken on Mayne in April (see below) proved to be key in getting the attention of senior government officials who have recognized that we have an “extreme problem” with fallow deer on Mayne. Our discussions have moved up through the bureaucracy, and we are now at the level where we have made the following seven asks of the province:
1. Reinstate the use of RIFLES to enable a more effective way of hunting fallow deer. Hunters will need to be permitted as will property owners to ensure safety protocols.
2. Allow TRAPPING, which will be critical in our plan for catching the fallow deer.
3. Allow BAITING, which goes hand-in-hand with trapping of the fallow deer.
4. Allow the SALE of fallow meat. While this is a something we think should be allowed, the province is reluctant to allow it because it could encourage the introduction of invasive species throughout the province by those who want to sell those species (e.g. freshwater bass, or fallow deer in other locations).
5. Allow the use of DRONES. We are in discussions with various groups who have expertise in using drones. We would want to use drones to track deer and measure the success of the fallow deer removal program.
6. Allow the use of TASERS. These would be useful in capturing and subduing the fallow deer. Users would need to be approved and licensed by the RCMP.
** Please note that none of these six asks have been approved so the affected regulations remain in place. Always consult the current regulations and specific local rules for any exceptions or updates on the official BC Hunting & Trapping Regulations Synopsis. **
These six asks do not necessarily require political approval, and our hope is that we can move forward on most of these with officials. The approvals process could take up to a year.
7. Provide $4.5 million in FUNDING over five years. The plan would be to hire expert employees who will manage the fallow deer removal program over a five-year period. This ask will require political approval, and we are hoping that it will be included in the 2026/27 provincial budget planning process which could result in funding in 2027.
Next Steps – Political Advocacy
MIDMS is writing a letter to the Ministers of the provincial departments responsible to request that our funding ask is considered in the current and future budgets. (letter to be posted here once it’s sent).
Please write your own letter!
In your own words – tell the province that you support the Mayne Island Deer Management Society’s goal to eliminate the invasive Fallow deer and reduce the Black Tail deer population to a size that our island can accommodate and that the Government of British Columbia should support this work.
Address your letter to the:
Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship
Honourable Randene Neill
email – WLRS.Minister@gov.bc.ca
snail mail – PO Box 9012 Stn. Prov. Govt.
Victoria, BC V8M 9L6
And cc your letter to the following two Ministers:
Minster of Agriculture and Food
Honourable Lana Popham
email – AF.Minister@gov.bc.ca
snail mail – PO Box 9043 Stn. Prov Govt
Victoria, BC V8W 9E2
Minister of Environment and Parks
Honourable Tamara Davidson
email – ENV.Minister@gov.bc.ca
snail mail – PO Box 9047 Stn. Prov Gov
Victoria, BC V8W 9E2
On April 13, 2025 a deer population count was held on Mayne.
That night, 102 volunteers came out to walk very slowly on one of 30 preset routes. All of the routes, which were exactly 850 metres in length, had been set and approved by provincial staff as being representative of the island topography and urban/rural conditions. The walk was to be for one hour exactly, starting at 7pm. While this was happening, other volunteers were counting deer on private properties.
The count totalled 655 fallow deer and 68 black tails. The data was sent to the province where statisticians with WLRS analyzed the numbers and determined that Mayne has a total deer population of 5,200 animals. Wow!
MIDMS Meetings with Provincial Officials in 2025
Earlier this year the Mayne Island Deer Management Society contacted officials within the provincial Ministry of Water, Lands and Resource Stewardship (WLRS) about the invasive fallow deer on Mayne Island. This meeting was made possible by the support of Paul Brent and the CRD.
This was the first contact that the MIDMS has had with the province since the original deer committee had its last contact with the province in 2018. Together with a senior CRD official, we presented a fallow deer update to one of the province’s deer specialists and it was decided that the first step towards provincial recognition was to quantify the problem. This is how the deer population count came about.
On September 9th MIDMS met with senior officials of WLRS to discuss the results and next steps.
At this meeting, they acknowledged that we have a problem. This was a major step in moving forward with the province. During the meeting we presented a set of 5 “asks” that we would like to have the ministry consider and a funding request.
The asks are all related to modifying existing regulations that deal with hunting and trapping of deer. These are items that could be dealt with at the ministry staff level and would not necessitate a political decision. The funding request was presented as a requirement to implement the eradication program that MIDMS has been developing for the last two years.
The provincial officials were very receptive to our appeals and ended the meeting with a request to meet again in October. Unfortunately, the provincial strike got in the way. Hopefully, now that the strike is over we will be able to pick up where we left off.