Pa. Game Commission needs to get involved
At a recent Mt. Lebanon commissioner’s meeting, a lady from the North Hills offered to donate a $1,000 to sterilize one deer, i.e. a doe. Perhaps she could be equally generous and donate to the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance to support research seeking a cure to save a population. CWD has been found and is in this commonwealth’s deer herd.
Roadway signage was also mentioned at the meeting. Perhaps donations could be accepted for additional signage, i.e. “Be alert for panic stops!,” “Don’t swerve left and crash with your neighbor,” “Don’t swerve right and kill a pedestrian,” and “Be aware of wild, free ranging deer.”
“Deer resistant landscaping” was mentioned a few times as a control method. It is no secret that deer resistant vegetation is survival food to be eaten when everything else is gone during a long winter.
Perhaps it is time for the Pa. Game Commission to establish an “Office of Urban and Suburban Deer Management” to oversee a non rural area instead of allowing individual townships and boroughs to address this problem piecemeal. And through the Pa. Game Commission, archery/hunter instructional programs could be initiated for residents to harvest a renewable wild and natural resource.
Richard Chongaway
Bethel Park