FREDERICK, Md. 鈥� It’s a sad, but unavoidable fact: Many deer don’t make it to the other side when trying to cross busy roads and highways.
But those deer that don’t make it to the other side can help Maryland’s roadside plant life 鈥� as compost.
鈥淚 [saw] it Saturday, so it might be a little bit stinky,鈥� said Jim Fogle, a team leader with Maryland鈥檚 State Highway Administration, as he drove to the location of a deer carcass near an Interstate 70 off-ramp near Frederick, Maryland.
As part of his job, Fogle retrieves dead deer and takes them to an SHA site near Mt. Airy, where the carcasses will be composted into wood chips.
As traffic raced by one day, Fogle stopped his yellow truck at the place where he had spotted the particular deer. It had been out in the hot sun for two or three days, and the smell was knee-buckling.
鈥淲hen you get a holiday weekend, and it鈥檚 100 degrees out, yeah, they get pretty bad,鈥� Fogle said. 鈥淵ou better have a strong stomach for it.鈥�
It used to be that the state simply buried dead deer along the side of the road where they were found, but some 15 years ago that practice changed.
鈥淲hat we鈥檙e doing is recycling these deer,鈥� said SHA spokesman Charlie Gischlar. 鈥淎nd after about nine months, we have a usable product that we can go out and stabilize soil with for planting of trees or big wildlife plantings.鈥�
At the composting site, Fogle placed the deer on top of a big pile of wood chips using a front loader. With a pitchfork, he spread the wood chips over the deer until it could no longer be seen.
Once the carcass is covered, the smell virtually disappears. Something people who live in a group of houses nearby undoubtedly appreciate.
鈥淲e used to mix it with horse manure, and it gave out more of an odor,鈥� Fogle said. 鈥淪o we switched it. 鈥� We鈥檙e just using wood chips and it seems to be working fine now. We don鈥檛 get that odor, and so far we鈥檝e been lucky with our neighbors. They鈥檝e been fine with it,鈥� he said.
With manure, Fogle said, higher temperatures are created inside the pile of chips. But even without it, he said, internal temperatures reach 80 to 90 degrees; and that鈥檚 enough to reduce the carcass to a little more than bones in about six months. The compost pile is used for roadside plantings.
Clearly, what Fogle does is not a job for everyone.
鈥淚 enjoy it,鈥� he said, before adding with a chuckle, 鈥淪ome people think I鈥檓 crazy.鈥�
