The Real Life Bambi

The Real Life Bambi:

He’s not Prince of the Forest

If you think he’s cute now, wait until you see the garden…

                Over the past few years Morgantown, WV has added a few thousand residents to its population, as well as approximately 1400 urban deer. Since the more wooded areas are being developed for residential purposes the deer’s habitat has been diminished to the point where they literally live in our backyards. Measures are being taken to try to control the urban deer population, and an urban deer hunt is starting up again this fall season.

            Imagine you’re driving down a well-driven local road after sunset and all of a sudden you see a deer calmly watching you from the side of the road. You stop the car, and the deer meanders across the street as if it lives there. Chances are that it probably does. Morgantown residents from various parts of the city continue to complain about how deer live in their backyard and eat up all their vegetation outside. Not only do they eat the lovely flowers in the front yard, but the deer make a feast on the gardens in residents’ backyards. On several morning occasions, I’ve walked outside my house and found several deer on my front walk and backyard. To be honest, they aren’t that cute up close.

            In the summer of 2011, the Morgantown City Council approved an ordinance to begin an urban deer hunt to attempt to lower the deer population. The ordinance allowed people who took specialized courses and received their urban hunting licenses to be a part of the hunt. Other rules for the 2011 Urban Deer Hunt included the following:

·         Receiving a city permit after taking a special course on how to hunt in the city

·         Hunters could only kill two deer per year, but the first deer had to be a doe.

·         All deer must be shot from a tree stand. No deer stalking.

·          After killing the deer the hunters can choose to either keep the deer or donate the meat to a local food shelter. The City of Morgantown agreed to pay for the meat to be processed.

After the first year of the urban hunt, 48 deer were killed and 18 of them were donated to local food shelters in the Morgantown area. There were no complaints about the hunt.

            In 2012, Morgantown City Council approved a revised urban deer hunt, allowing hunters with special licenses to hunt from several designated posts and kill up to seven deer per season. During the week of the hunt in September, the urban hunters donated 543 pounds of venison to the local food shelters. The hunt will continue until December.

           

-C