Weida Ringley, Shelby County 4-H Volunteer Leader/Coach
Below is a newspaper article from the Bartlett Express about our GIS project in Shelby County. We researched and gathered data on the deer.auto accidents in the city of Bartlett for 2014-2016 with number and location of accident, cost of repairs etc. The mayor heard about our project and asked the kids to present it to him and selected staff.
We presented it and received an invitation to continue to work with the mayor and staff to find a workable solution to the problem costing citizens money for auto repairs and sometimes physical injuries. It has become a huge problem in the city of Bartlett requires attention.
We are now involved in researching, collecting data, and mapping statistics on Lyme disease for the area. As you know, Lyme disease is spread by ticks. Ticks have to get blood from a mammal before they can reproduce. The over population of deer has allow the ticks to spread to the lawns of urban dwellers causing an increase in Lyme disease in urban areas where the tick bite is occurring in the yards of urban dwellers.
The team is also involved in forming a deer management plan for the city of Bartlett for future use to help lower the risk, This may take some time as several organizations are working in this area including the TWRA,
4-H Bartlett study pinpoints risky areas for deer crashes
The Shelby County 4-H GIS (Graphic information Systems) team recently presented the mayor and members of the Bartlett engineering staff a report on traffic accidents involving deer. Mayor Keith McDonald has asked them to continue and to develop a long-term solution.
Their study covered deer strikes with cars going back to 2014, and they mapped the GPS coordinates of those strikes to visualize areas of greatest risk. The study included both seasonal and cumulative graphics.
These students have entered the associated maps in the Tennessee GIS annual contest at the University of Tennessee and are waiting to hear if their work will advance to the national contest later this summer.
