What is CBDM?

Community leaders across the country are searching for practical guidance to navigate the contentious deer management issues emerging in their home towns.

Community-based deer management (CBDM) can help

CBDM Process Diagram Deer-vehicle collisions, tick-borne illnesses and costly damage to landscaping and natural areas are on the rise in many places. If this story sounds familiar, you have come to the right place. CBDM is a four-step process designed to help your community understand residents' concerns about deer, consider a range of solutions and create an action plan to address them.

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Learn from others, help others learn

Communities of every size are engaging in CBDM, adjusting the process as deer management needs change over time. Adapt it to fit your community's situation. And please consider sharing your own story. It's a great way to help others learn!

The Process

Phase 1: Problem Definition

Deer-related concerns become so prominent that community leaders charge a person or committee to gather information, assess the community's situation, and define the scope of the problem. As a community learns by doing, it may revise problem definition in subsequent management cycles.

Phase 2: Decision-making

Stakeholders and citizens consider management alternatives and recommend actions. Community officials use information from the group to establish desired outcomes for a deer management program and set a course of action.

Phase 3: Implementation

The community develops a management plan and carries it out.

Phase 4: Evaluation and Adaptation

Evaluation is a pre-planned, vital component for any community’s deer management program. By tracking a set of indicators over time, communities can assess progress toward established management goals, learn by doing, and adjust management objectives, the overall approach, or specific actions depending on what works and what does not.