FLORIDA DEER FARMERS
PERSEVERING IN THE AFTERMATH OF HURRICANE MICHAEL
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By: Gail Veley - Sponsored by SETDA
fter 150 mile an hour winds from Hurricane Michael ripped apart Bear Creek Mine Preserve in Quincy, Florida, Manager Kaleb Ellis spent the better part of two weeks working in overdrive cleaning up from the devastation of the massive Category 5 hurricane when it made landfall on October 10th, 2018. His non-stop efforts included clearing preserve trees, mending fences, rounding up deer and assessing damage. Like others affected by the storm, it was a painstaking and exhausting 24/7 endeavor. Ellis only paused from those efforts briefly, to clear a tree ready to fall on his own house. Close to two weeks later, when he was able to finally exhale and think for just a mere moment only about himself, he drove 20 minutes to an untouched, unravaged part of Quincy to The Laredo Grill, and ordered his favorite meal. Now, with a plate steaming steak fajitas in front of him, he reached down for his favorite comfort food that always included sauteed peppers and onions. However, as he attempted to eat he stopped, his appetite overtaken by emotion. Choking back tears, the reality hit him hard that only 20 minutes from there, houses were flattened. People were homeless. Deer farms suffered massive damage and devastation. That only a mere 20 minutes away, deer farmers had been forced to look into the eyes of some of their beloved deer too injured from this inescapable storm to ever stand up again, and “do right” by them to end their suffering. To say goodbye to deer they knew so well, fed every day and attached dreams to. Among everything that Ellis had faced after the storm, losing deer was by far the roughest. Yet, many more deer survived than
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perished in the storm either by running away or laying down and low and waiting for it to pass. And many deer came right back home the within a day or two looking for breakfast, along with the care and shelter they were accustomed to. “We didn’t lose more than 15 or 20 deer,” said Daniel Bontrager of Bontrager Whitetails in Marianna, Florida. “Our big barn stood intact and had so many trees around it, that it was buffered from the wind. I’m grateful I didn’t lose my house or my lodge. When it’s all over, you can’t count what you lost. You need to count what you have.” Having adequate supplies such as fencing, wood posts, ample chain saws, generators and manpower enabled Florida deer farmers such as Ellis, Bontrager and Jared Deason from Sweetwater Plantation to start work immediately fixing the damage. However, those supplies weren’t available in Florida in the immediate aftermath. Most came by way of preserve owner Jason Edmondson in Alabama. “Jason called us and said, ‘what do you need?” Deason explained. “He brought t-posts, extra fencing, wood posts, fuel and extra chain saws all on his dime. He didn’t charge for delivery. He just said, ‘here are my receipts.’ We need to give a big “shout out” to him for helping us so much.” With the storm now far behind them, Ellis, Bontrager and Deason all feel on a scale of one to 10, that their farms have recovered to the extent of about a “nine.” Remaining work still includes clearing trees and thick brush within the preserve that still remain where the storm put it. Because of initial extensive fence damage due to trees falling on them, all three men share an important lesson learned from Hurricane Michael. “Don’t plant trees closer than 60 feet from your fences
or deer pens,” Bontrager said. “And if you know a storm is coming, go out and take down your shade cloth. That can pull fences right down with it. Yes, it took you a long time to put it up, but you are better off taking it down.” All three men can’t stress enough the need to be prepared with adequate drinking water, generators and other supplies to get by (as well as machinery on stand-by to help clear fallen trees or rebuild fences) should a storm be predicted and subsequently happen. With chances being very slim that a storm the magnitude of Hurricane Michael (the third most powerful in history) will hit Florida anytime in the near future, none of them are planning to move out of Florida either. “I’ve never thought of moving,” Deason said. “Our regulations are better than most states and Florida is a good state for deer farming. Our agencies are so supportive. We have better weather overall year-round. Our hunting season is August through February. And there’s never any snow with Florida hunting.”
