In The News: Urban Deer Hunting

August 31, 2009

Photo by Moose

As the urbanization continues across North Carolina more natural habitat gets taken up with homes and expensive landscaping the whitetail deer just learns to adapt. I work inside the city of Raleigh and I see a lot of deer within the city as I travel about and other wild animals are adapting to city life including the coyote and the fox.
The deer presents a difficult problem because encounters with humans especially in the form of accidents can cause significant property damage as well as injuries and death. This happens mostly in motor vehicles but recently a man in New York State died after a collision with a deer while the man was bike riding.

ULSTER PARK — A 68-year-old man died after apparently striking a deer while riding his bicycle Thursday morning, according to the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies said Warren “Bud” Clarke of Ulster Park was riding on Pokonoie Road about 7:20 a.m. when the accident occurred. It appears Clarke struck a deer and was thrown from the bike, deputies said.

The accident was reported to Ulster County 911 at 7:22 a.m.

Daily Freeman

Another significant problem the deer cause is damage to landscaping as they search for food in their urban environment. They have adjusted well learning to eat non native plants that have replaced their usual crops.

That’s the case at the Cary home of Mary Marsha Cupitt, whose house backs up to the Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve. She said deer snacked on her two tomato plants to the point that only a single tomato was left. And she’d rather not get into the state of her hostas.
“They love hostas, and that’s the one plant I have that’s eaten down to nothing but skin,” Cupitt said.

N&O

The NCWRC developed rules to allow cities to offer an urban deer archery season in January to help control the urban deer herd. There has been some reluctance on cities part to institute this but a few have across the state have and there has been no incidents or accidents reported. Bow hunting is very safe and a cheap alternative for cities during this time of dwindling budgets.

City officials have raised legitimate concerns about urban deer hunting, said Greg Batts, a biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. Those include the cost of managing the program and, more importantly, safety questions. City governments have been reluctant to embrace a program that its residents could perceive as dangerous or reckless, Batts told a group of people with deer problems in Holly Springs last week.
But Batts said other methods of population control, such as poisoning, transferring deer to other areas and deer birth control are not as cost-effective or successful as hunting can be.

The NCBA was a driving force behind getting the Urban Season established and here is what Ramon Bell the president of the NCBA had to say.

Bell says urban deer hunting doesn’t present any safety hazard. City officials specify what areas can and cannot be hunted safely. Populated, busy areas are off limits. And for suburban homeowners concerned about hunting in their backyards, hunters would need written consent from individual property owners to hunt on their land and must pass a certification program offered by the Bowhunters Association to be eligible.

Cities and towns will have to address the issue of controlling wildlife within their limits and the costs associated with that. Urban Bow Season is a safe solution and can help keep things in balance.