Md. Puts Roadkill To Work on Roadsides

Dead Deer Turned Into Compost at Frederick Facility

Washington area motorists kill more than 3,000 deer annually. What, then, to do with all that roadkill?

In Frederick County, state highway workers have an unusual answer: Place the carcasses in giant bins, separated by layers of wood chips and manure, and turn them into compost. By year's end, if all goes well, the first batch of compost could be helping fields of wildflowers grow along some of the same roads where the deer were killed.

A once-popular method of disposal, burying the deer near where they are found, has become less feasible in Frederick with the proliferation of subdivisions and underground utility lines, never mind the problem of frozen ground in the winter.

Still, working the compost bins isn't for everyone.

"Kinda' swing it up," Rob Mullinix told co-worker Robert Morgan recently as the two placed a freshly killed deer next to another deer.

"We want the legs pointed out," Mullinix said. "Just kinda' flip him. Ready?"

"You want it head-to-head?" Morgan asked.

The facility is tucked behind a bank of trees near a rest stop off Interstate 70. The Maryland State Highway Administration has a similar program in Carroll County, which appears to be the only other such operation in the Washington region.

Nationally, the idea of turning roadkill into compost appears to be catching on. Nearly 50 such operations have sprung up in recent years in New York state and other states, such as Kentucky and Ohio, have tried composting roadkill. In Montana, authorities also compost elk and moose.

The Frederick operation has eight covered composting bins, each about the size and shape of a small horse stall. When full, the bins typically contain about 40 deer carcasses in four layers.

The manure in the mixture supplies carbon and nitrogen. The wood chips supply carbon and create air pockets that feed oxygen into the mix. The deer carcasses also supply nitrogen. All combine in an organic process that raises the temperature to about 150 degrees, cooking off possible pathogens such as fecal coliform bacteria, officials said.

Like a lot of things, getting rid of dead deer used to be a simpler affair.