Bev Longnecker, of Fort Dodge, presented a petition to the council Monday evening asking it to prepare a plan to reduce the deer population in the city.

She said it was signed by 307 people. Many of the people who signed it are gardeners who have seen their gardens devoured by deer. She added that a few of the people whose names are on the petition are out of town residents who insisted on signing it because of their encounters with deer on Fort Dodge city streets.

”Your timing is very good for this,” Mayor Matt Bemrich said.

He said about two years ago he assembled a committee to make some recommendations on handling the deer population.

The group, he said, tried unsuccessfully to get a head count of the deer in the city. Such a count used to be required by the state Department of Natural Resources, and the preferred way to do it involved flying over the city in a helicopter. An aerial head count is apparently no longer required by the state, according to Bemrich.

The mayor said he will get together with that committee again and draft a plan to be submitted to the council.

”Your petition is a good motivator,” Bemrich said.

The council has received complaints about deer in the city previously. About 20 years ago. a plan to allow an urban deer hunt using bow and arrows was considered.The hunt was not held, however.