Dec 17, 2014 2 min read

For a number of years, Mt. Lebanon has been battling a deer population problem – in that there are too many deer in the municipality. In 2012, a deer crashed into Stout Flooring Design Center on Castle Shannon Boulevard. A deer study counted 342 deer – 57 per Mt. Lebanon square mile – during a flyover in February of 2013. Another survey a year later counted just 196.

There is a whole sub page dedicated to deer on Mt. Lebanon’s website.

The amount of deer-related incidents in Mt. Lebanon – car accidents, deer in residents’ yards, or dead or injured deer on roads – has steadily increased. When the municipality’s animal control unit is dispatched to each incident, it costs Mt. Lebanon money.

In September of this year, commissioners announced they had earmarked $68,000 unassigned funds for deer management. Sterilization – at $1,000 per deer – was among the ideas pitched, but research determined that in order to be effective, 90 percent of the deer population would have to be culled in the initial effort.

So, commissioners came up with a plan to hunt the deer – in public areas. Beginning Dec. 26, Mt. Lebanon will hold a controlled archery hunt. The Mt. Lebanon Deer Management Archery Program will be conducted by specific, licensed bow hungers and will take place in Bird, McNeilly and Robb Hollow parks, as well as on the Mt. Lebanon Golf Course in an effort to reduce the number of deer-related car crashes. Residents will be notified to when the hunting will be taking place in specific locations, and bows will be shot from elevated tree stands as a safety precaution.

Allowing hunting in such public places does pose a risk, and we trust that Lebo officials have weighed that risk with the risk of more deer-related car accidents.

If this doesn’t drastically reduce the deer population in Mt. Lebanon, we have to wonder what – and what amount of money – will.