Wildlife. The Fight for Space. : As homes march up hillsides and offices sprout on fields, Orange County’s wildlife battles for its dwindlng habitat. : Development Poses a Threat to Deer

As new homes and roads spread from the flatlands to the foothills in Orange County, they are isolating small herds of deer that are, as one wildlife expert put it, “doomed.”

“Up until 10 to 15 years ago, most of the development was on low, agricultural land, so it didn’t much impact wildlife,” Department of Fish and Game biologist Greg Gerstenberg said. “Since then, development has started to spread into the foothills, which is prime deer habitat.”

Future expansion could cause dramatic decreases in the deer population, Gerstenberg warned, as roads begin to crisscross the foothills and deer are relegated to smaller parcels of land.

“Oftentimes, what you see is that development will surround an area. You’ll have isolated pockets of deer for 5, 10, 15 or 20 years, but they’ll eventually die off” from traffic fatalities, drought and inbreeding, he said.

One such group of deer living in the San Joaquin Marsh area near UC Irvine will not survive the century, Gerstenberg said.

“There’s a slim chance that they will survive five years, and virtually no chance for them to be there in 10 years,” he said. “Many of the original deer have been killed. For new deer to get there, they would have to cross several roads.

“Once, deer could move in and move out and maintain the gene pool,” he said. “Not now. (The habitat) has been closed in by accumulated growth.”

Orange County Animal Control Sgt. Robert Huebner said similar circumstances threaten deer in the Crown Valley Parkway area of Mission Viejo.

“They’re not doing too well. Building has closed around them real tight,” he said.

The result has been a steady stream of deer killed by traffic.

“I just see the deer population getting wiped out,” Huebner said.

To try to avoid that, the Department of Fish and Game and the Transportation Corridor Agencies will capture 30 deer in the Weir Canyon area east of Orange this month. The deer will be tagged with radio collars and released to determine current and potential habitat areas. The information gathered by monitoring them for two years will be used to try to help them survive.

Most of the deer in Orange County are in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains.