Wildlife researcher Bob Warren and graduate students had no idea the firestorm their research would ignite. Nasty letters. Threatening phone calls. Emotional public meetings. Law suits, injunctions, appeals.

After all, they'd been invited to Sea Pines, an upscale community on the Southern tip of Hilton Head Island, S.C., where community leaders are struggling with what to do about too many deer.

Residents complained about the rising number of deer-car collisions, extensive damage to landscape plants and the threat of tick bites and Lyme disease. How many deer were in Sea Pines? Was it possible to control their numbers without killing them? If so, what would it involve, and how much would it cost?

Over four years Warren, a professor of wildlife ecology, set about finding answers. He designed a series of studies that provided a detailed picture of the situation -- and led community leaders to the sinking realization that there wouldn't be any painless solutions. "It's a deer problem or a people problem, depending on your perspective," says Warren, with a shrug.

Research uncovered the following: The deer population on Sea Pines is about four times larger than the average number per acre on undeveloped barrier islands. Living off a smorgasbord of fertilized hostas and azaleas, the animals are in top condition and reproducing rapidly.

It isn't feasible to relocate deer on Hilton Head. In studies, they either returned to Sea Pines from the North end of the community or continued shrubbery-munching in new neighborhoods.

The final and most troubling finding though -- and the one that sent animal rights activists running for lawyers -- was this: The deer population could possibly be stabilized using contraceptives, but it would require reducing the herd. Without first killing perhaps 100 to 150 animals, the logistics and high costs (between $800 and $1,100 per deer/year) of delivering annual contraceptives to hundreds of deer are simply overwhelming.

Even then, it could take five to 10 years or more before deer numbers actually declined.

Animal rights supporters organized, protested and filed suit against the Sea Pines Community Services Association, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and the University of Georgia. Their position? Leave the deer alone, and let nature take its course.

But wildlife officials say there's nothing natural about the deer situation on Hilton Head. Hunting has been prohibited for decades, and other than automobiles, the deer have no major predators. Designated as a wildlife sanctuary in 1971, the island today is more like a densely developed nature theme park where wildlife and humans mingle but increasingly collide.

Residential areas give way to four-lanes that connect full-time residents and summer vacationers to gas stations, restaurants and shopping areas. The number of deer-car collisions on Sea Pines rose from just 18 in 1993 to 61 in 1999.

Those opposed to managing the deer say people should slow down and plant deer-resistant landscape shrubs. But few of the hundreds of thousands of visitors to Hilton Head each year even know there's a deer problem. Some people feed them. Community leaders and many residents, too, believe controlling the deer population is their responsibility, a cost they accept along with the privilege of living on an island sanctuary.

"For most residents, it's not a question of whether deer on Sea Pines should be controlled, but how," says Warren. "Is it more humane for deer to die quickly at the hands of sharpshooters or on the windshield of a car, where the collision may also maim or possibly kill a driver?"

Ironically, Community Services Association leaders requested and funded the research to head off just this kind of emotional reaction. They held public meetings and educational seminars to help explain the difficult decisions they were facing. They won two lower court rulings, but the case went to the South Carolina Supreme Court last June when deer advocates appealed. The Association has already spent more than $175,000 defending their right to implement a deer control plan, which has the approval of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources -- and the majority of Sea Pines residents, who responded to a mail-out survey last year.

The case highlights the difficult role of modern wildlife mnagers, who, like the deer, find themselves caught in the troubled borders between nature and contemporary life. Other coastal communities are following the outcome closely because white-tailed deer are now a problem nationwide. Since this research began, Warren has been contacted by leaders in several other coastal communities. All want to begin deer control programs soon -- and avoid the litigation they've seen at Sea Pines.

The ruling should come soon from the South Carolina Supreme Court, and community leaders hope it will finally end the two-year legal battle over this research. In the meantime, Warren and colleagues hope to resume their work, which may eventually help humans and deer live more harmoniously on Sea Pines.