Bowhunters get ready to hunt deer in Mt. Lebanon
Mt. Lebanon’s latest effort to reduce the deer population starts Sept. 19.
The municipality has contracted with White Buffalo Inc. for professional deer management services, with a bow hunt that will coincide with the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s archery season for deer in its wildlife management unit that includes most of Allegheny County.
White Buffalo, a Connecticut-based wildlife management firm, has vetted the hunters who will participate.
“We screen for responsibility, time commitment and experience,” Jody Maddock, founder of the deer management organization Whitetail Associates, told Mt. Lebanon commissioners at their most recent discussion session.
Maddock, who is serving as project manager for White Buffalo, said participants were given a proficiency test using situational targets.
“We need to see if the hunter is going to make the right decision,” he explained.
Among the requirements for hunters are insurance, the signing of a general release, completing a bowhunter education course and being subjected to checks on criminal background and game law violations.
Shot distance will be a maximum of 15 years, Maddock said, and antlered deer can be harvested only after three antlerless ones have been taken.
Hunting will take place Monday through Friday on private properties for which the owners have given permission, along with six municipally owned locations: Mt. Lebanon Golf Course, the conservation district off Connor Road, and McNeilly, Robb Hollow and Twin Hills parks. Police officers will be the only hunters permitted on municipal property.
Maddock said White Buffalo has identified about 18 “property groups” – areas in which multiple owners have given permission to hunt – and that about six of those will be ready for the first day of archery season.
He does not have a quantity of deer that are supposed to be taken.
“To me, the goal has to be this year of making sure this program is going to be continued and sustainable,” he told commissioners.
The commission’s stated goal is to reduce the number of deer-vehicle collisions in Mt. Lebanon within five years.
“We finally are moving forward with the first step of a comprehensive deer management program and it looks as if we eventually will have a multi-pronged approach,” said Susan Morgans, municipal spokeswoman.