August 01, 2023 / By mobanmarket
ARLINGTON, VA — Arlington’s Department of Parks and Recreation hosted a community forum Tuesday night that filled the gymnasium at the Lubber Run Community Center with residents who had widely different views on the management of deer in the county.
Despite strong opinions on all sides of the issue, the discussion among parks department staff, wildlife consultants and residents remained civil, with most agreeing to disagree on deciding whether there is a deer problem in Arlington and, if there is a problem, how to address it.
Adam Segel-Moss of the Arlington Department of Parks and Recreation served as the facilitator of the forum, setting the ground rules at the outset on how attendees should demonstrate respect for each other.
As an icebreaker at the start of the forum, Segel-Moss invited members of the audience to share what words come to mind when they see a deer.
The first attendee who raised her hand said she feels lucky to live near deer. The next attendee had a different perspective, calling them, “plant-eating monsters.” Another resident called them “sweet, gentle creatures.”
In response to the audience’s thoughts on deer, Segel-Moss said, “There’s clearly a wide range of emotions and impressions of deer, and they’re all fair.”
The community forum was held to discuss options that Arlington could pursue to control the deer population in the county, including hunting and sterilizing deer and fencing off parks to control deer movement.
As part of the county’s deer management project, consultants estimated in 2021 that Arlington had a herd of whitetail deer numbering 290, or 13 deer per square mile, a number considered below the worrisome threshold of 20 deer per square mile. At Tuesday’s forum, though, wildlife consultants noted these 290 deer are concentrated in wooded park areas of the county that exceed “healthy” levels.
READ ALSO: Animal Welfare League Backs Non-Lethal Approach To Deer In Arlington
Along with the in-person community forum, residents can take an online survey through Tuesday, July 18 to share their thoughts on the four lethal and non-lethal methods under consideration by the parks department.
Several attendees at the community forum said they favored professional sharpshooting or archery hunting to kill deer in park areas across the county, or a combination of both. Others supported the option of using surgical sterilization of deer to control their population in Arlington
Jay Boulanger, president of White Buffalo Inc., the consulting firm hired to examine ways to control the county’s deer population, said that surgical sterilization would cost between $900 and $1,500 per deer.
A recently released deer browse assessment conducted by White Buffalo recommended that the county conduct a deer management plan for county-owned natural land parks and offered management options to consider, including professional sharpshooting, surgical sterilization, public archery hunting where permissible, fencing entire parks, or hybrid approaches.
Other attendees at Tuesday night’s forum said that deer in Arlington are native animals that are being scapegoated and are not doing any harm. Humans have caused far greater harm to Arlington’s natural environment than deer, they said.
Last week, the Animal Welfare League of Arlington spoke out against the lethal options under consideration by the county to control the local deer population.
“While there is no denying that deer can alter our forests, non-lethal options exist that can deter deer and pose less danger to the general public,” Samuel Wolbert president and CEO of AWLA, said in a July 5 statement.
AWLA also said it disagrees with the DPR’s premise that the county has “too many deer.” Determining a “healthy carrying capacity” of deer in an area “is a political judgment that is not rooted in biology,” according to the league.
Some attendees at Tuesday night’s forum suggested that the Arlington parks department approach the issue of deer in county parks on a case-by-case basis, determining which park lands are seeing the most degradation through deer eating trees and other vegetation. According to the parks department, a deer can eat 5 to 7 pounds of plant matter per day.
In terms of the proposed methods to kill deer in Arlington, Boulanger said he is not aware of a safety incident involving a human or a home from the use of a sharpshooter. The sharpshooters sit up in trees with their rifles that have suppressors, which deaden the noise.
“It’s still fairly loud, but not like a real gunshot going off,” he said.
The deer that are shot and killed can then be taken to a deer processor, where the deer gets turned into venison and then donated to local food banks or shelters.
If the county decides to use sharpshooting or surgical sterilization, or both, to reduce the deer population, ordinances would need to change in the county to allow the discharge of a firearm or the use of a dart rifle to tranquilize a deer to take it to be surgically sterilized.
“For these techniques to be used in the future, there would have to be a change in code,” Boulanger said. “And that’s possible. Counties and other municipalities have done this in the past.”
For the controlled archery hunting option to kill deer, the parks department would need to be careful about where it takes place because unlike the sharpshooting option, which targets deer in the head, these deer are being targeted in the heart and the lungs.
“The deer do run off before they expire. And they have to be tracked and picked up by the hunter and taken away,” Boulanger said.
According to state law, a hunter cannot discharge a bow within 100 yards of a dwelling, sidewalk, street, or roadway, which would make it difficult to use in large parts of Arlington.
Archery hunting, however, is already being used to kill deer on private property in Arlington. Army Navy Country Club, for example, has used archery hunting to control the deer population on its property since 2012. Since the program began, 97 deer have been killed on the golf course by archery hunting, according to Boulanger’s presentation.
The parks department is currently in the community engagement phase of its deer management project. Segel-Moss said the county has already received 1,700 responses to its online survey.
The county currently does not have a specific end date for its deer management project. The current timeline is to finish gathering feedback through the current round of engagement by July 18 and then come back with a follow-up opportunity for public engagement this fall or winter.
Once it is completed with the project, the DPR will present its draft recommendations for deer management in county-owned parks and a monitoring program to the Arlington County Board.
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