Downtown Bellingham's busiest wildlife highway (and the deer who ignored the roadblock)

You'd think a skinny strip of grass between two buildings in downtown Bellingham would be the quietest spot in town. Nope. It turned out to be a wildlife expressway. Everybody wanted to use it.

So we did what any reasonable traffic engineer would do: we shut down every lane. Traps wall to wall, building to building. Nobody gets through without stopping at the checkpoint.

Then the deer showed up. No ticket, no toll, no interest in our checkpoint. She strolled up, said hi to the camera and stepped right over the traps like they were speed bumps. Not one bit of hurry about it.

Don't worry, she was never the target, and our traps are sized for the critters we're after, not deer. But it's a great reminder of why we keep a camera on every trap line. We see who's coming and going and make sure nobody we don't mean to catch gets stuck.

Wildlife doesn't care about city limits. Alleys, gaps between buildings and fence lines are their sidewalks, even downtown. If something keeps showing up in a spot like this one, call or text Gavin. We'll figure out who's using your shortcut and close the road for the right customer.