Does Bethel Park have a deer plan?
In the Aug. 12 issue of The Almanac, Don Harrison reported the number of deer harvested by archers in Bethel Park for the last 19 years. This is only a numbers report. It does not mention a management plan with goals and/or data to manage the overly populated borough.
Was a wildlife management consultant contacted to survey the borough? Have “road kill” records been kept? Have vehicular crashes with deer been properly recorded and reported by the crash victim? And property damage reports? And has the Pa. Game Commission granted a permit for a late winter deer hunt for the borough?
How many hunters hunted in the borough in 2014 and how many were successful? I believe in addition to Whitetail Management, anyone with a valid hunting license can hunt in the borough.
How many hunters where in the field and how many hours were recorded by Whitetail Management, and at what cost to the borough?
I had asked the borough manager for a copy of the 2015 Deer Management Report months ago. He has failed to respond. Perhaps he could conduct a survey of residential vegetation damage to map deer “hot spots” in the borough and add this information to a written report for public review.
What I have heard from the borough to date is that the borough has a passive program at best. There are no goals, quota, or guesstimates for the size of the herd. Perhaps this borough manager can learn from the efforts recently formalized in a written plan by Mt. Lebanon.
During the past three weeks I missed hitting four deer and came close to being rear ended by the driver(s) behind me.
Richard Chongaway
Bethel Park