More Deer Hunting Allowed
Dec 7, 2007 7:56 - 2 Comments
In June, CindyCG >wrote an article chronicling her brushes with the rising deer population in Our Fair City. It seemed like every time you turned around, a car was colliding with Bambi or a cousin. The problem is that deer don’t have any natural predators around these parts . . . except humans (and, for fawns, coyotes).
As the article points out:
The only proven way to alleviate the problem is by lethal means, and there is a great deal of hunting on the public lands in the County. Archery and sharpshooting are being considered for use in smaller urban parks. You might be interested to know that contraceptives for wild deer are not approved by the FDA, though two studies of captive deer are underway.
Montgomery County Council to the rescue. On Tuesday, it unanimously approved a measure that would expand hunting throughout Montgomery County. According to AP (via WTOP):
Under the new rules, deer hunting will be allowed 50 yards away from a road, on smaller parcels than currently allowed if landowners together create a 50-acre parcel for hunting.
Deer hunting in Montgomery also would be permitted 150 yards away from a building that is occupied by animals but not people. That would allow hunting close to a barn that isn’t next to a house. Signs would have to be posted to tell neighbors about the impending hunt.
The county currently allows managed deer hunts in county parks several times a year, and there is an official deer hunting season in designated areas of the county. A managed hunt is under way at Little Bennett Regional Park off Interstate 270 north of Germantown, according to a county parks official.
All this starts in three months. Get ready!
Follow on Twitter
I was surprised to learn that hunting fees pay for our parks. If less people hunt, we will need to find alternative sources to maintain them. The Department of Natural Resources has training specifically for women to learn to hunt, “Becoming an Outdoors-Woman”. Since I love our parks, I might have to go out and do my part to pay for them and control the deer population!
I lived in Idaho for a couple years and it was very strange to see vehicles abruptly pull to the sid eof the road (usually pick-ups but plenty of times Subarus or just regular cars), people toting rifles hop out and after a few paces start blasting away. At whatever – pheasant, coyotes, you name it. It took getting used to. Out there, the wide open spaces could handle it. I don’t know about that happening here in Montgomery County. Sounds like trouble to me!