Instructions: The story below deals with the amount of money spent at South State
College due to the presence of deer on the campus. SSC is registered as a wildlife refuge
where approximately 1,600 deer live. Edit the story for Associated Press style, grammar
and clarity. Fact check the information presented and make the necessary changes. If the
editor requires new or additional information, make additional notations. What
information could help with the overall validity of the story? Rewrite passages
accordingly.
South State College deer have a negative impact on school finances, costing the
college roughly $9000-$16,400.
Derek Mitchell, superintendent of South State College grounds, said an estimated
$500-$600 is spent annually on deer repellent for the campus.
At the South State College Historical Museum deer repellent has been found to be
pretty successful.
Horticulturalist Holly Wright of SSCHM said they have been using the same type
of deer repellent for the past three years.
Despite its success, “we spend $3000-$5000 annually on deer repellent,” Wright
said.
Vegetation has to be replanted on the South State campus as well as at Historical
Museum because deer eat the plants.
Even though deer resistant plants are purchased, Wright said that some of the
plants are pulled out of the ground by the deer when they try the plants and discover they
don’t like them.
Not all deer repellent works and deer will sometimes still eat the plants. Because
deer eat so many of the flowers at Historical Museum, plentiful amounts of plants are
grown in the greenhouse explained Wright. There are extra flowers for the instances
where deer eat other plants and they need to be replaced.
By having their own greenhouses at Historical Museum, Wright said it is a way to
save money. About half of the plants grown in the greenhouse are grown from seed and
the other half from plugs, also referred to as starter plants. Although having a greenhouse
is cost efficient, $5000-$10,000 is spent on plants in general.
As a ball park figure, Mitchell said $500-$800 is spent on vegetation that is
planted for the purpose of replacing that eaten by deer on the South State campus.
Wright said no specific plants are purchased for the purpose of replanting in order
to replace those that have been eaten by deer at Historical Museum for the past several
years because deer repellent has been pretty effective.
The drought does have an effect on the amount of plants and flowers eaten by
deer. When a drought occurs there is less water so deer eat more of the vegetation planted
by the school because those plants have more moisture.
Deciding what plant life to plant is not an easy task.
“It’s a team effort,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell meets with several other individuals including Betty Smith, who works
in the greenhouses on main campus. Smith provides advice on what vegetation to plant.
According to Mitchell, some different plants are going to be planted in the fall to
see how the deer do. There would be more choices in what flowers to plant on campus if
the deer did not eat so many of the plants. Because of the deer there is less of a variety of
flowers on campus.
Deer seem to be the only wildlife on campus that financially impact the school.
According to Professor Adam Hames of Animal Science, other wildlife on campus
includes bobcats, coyotes, turkey, opossum, raccoons and skunks.
Even though deer create the most visual damage by eating plants on campus,
skunks have been known to crawl under Land Hall and even Carroll, Hames said.
Wright said groundhogs often create problems by digging holes in the ground at
Historical Museum and that sometimes the holes have to be filled.
Deer physically impact the South State campus by their presence. There is about a
1-1 ratio of deer to students with about 1500- 1600 deer on campus. According to Hames,
there are about 25 deer-vehicle collisions on campus per year.