Port Townsend’s deer are fearless.

And that’s the problem.

Joan Fabien told the city council that she’s had teeth knocked out from a deer attack.

“I sustained a serious head and neck injury, with my nose plastered to the side of my face,” Fabien said. “I’m still in physical therapy; I have many broken teeth from this.”

Pets have been attacked as well.

“I have been attacked by the deer, I have been chased by the deer, a 90-year-old woman was knocked down and had stitches in my neighborhood, two small dogs have been killed in my neighborhood by deer,” said Uptown resident Linn Anju during the public comment portion of last week’s council workshop on the deer issue.

“I’m open to any solution that might work. The feeding of the deer, it seems to be problematic at this point,” Anju added.

Some residents fear the abundant deer population could bring in bigger problems.

“I worry about the big predators coming into town, and it’s not their fault, but they’re the ones that will pay for it,” Debbie Jahnke said. “It’s something we must find a way to control or we’re going to end with some very serious problems.”

“It’s a continental issue, and the issue arrises where predators are absent,” Forest Shomer said.

The city is looking to reduce the deer population in city limits, with councilmembers discussing ideas, potential challenges, community involvement, and other aspects of the problem during its Dec. 12 workshop.

“Deer have been on our agenda for quite some time,” noted City Manager John Mauro. “This is an issue that was raised and something we should be taking on in 2023.”

Before any major decisions are considered or made, city officials stressed the importance of information gathering, adding community input, and considering a wide range of options.

“We’ve got 7 square miles in the city limits and we did a deer census six or seven years ago, and I think it was 250. We figured that was a 50-percent undercount,” said Councilmember Libby Wennstrom. “You never drive around here without seeing 20 deer.”

Port Townsend Mayor David Faber asked about types of management programs and their costs and impact.

Matt Blankenship, a wildlife conflict specialist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the city did have choices.

“There’s a suite of options available,” Blankenship said. “You can do everything from contraceptive, you can do anything from sharpshooting, you can do anything from track and relocate. There’s a lot of things that can be done. There’s not a one-off solution to these problems.”

City officials acknowledged concerns about Port Townsend’s deer population have been raised for years.

“I’ve been hearing stories like those that Linn [Anju] and Joan [Fabian] shared since before I started running for office, and they’ve only seemed like they’ve intensified,” Wennstrom said. “It does seem that the area in the immediate vicinity of the [Jefferson County] Courthouse is some of the worst, and that seems to be related to an individual who is actively feeding deer. And I believe in violation of having already been notified.”

“During rut and when they’re baby fawns, these aggression issues are becoming more and more common, and I don’t want to wait until somebody gets killed,” Wennstrom added.

The council agreed that a good first step for the plan would be to set up a community-led task force to accurately count the deer population in town.

“I think most of us agree it’s a big problem, but maybe we need some numbers to kind of show it,” Councilmember Ben Thomas said.

“I think it’s currently beyond our resources,” Mauro said of the likelihood of a city-led task force to count the deer.

With that in mind, the city is likely to rely on the community for aid.

“The community-based decision making is going to be an important aspect of this,” Faber agreed.

The solicitation of a citizen task force voted on by the city council would be a necessary step in the deer-management process, with the group set to be initiated by early to mid 2023, Mauro said.

For now, the city will continue to assess options and gather information before making any decisions on the matter, with lawmakers expected to prioritize deer management in 2023.