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Archers to return to Mt. Lebanon for deer hunt

By Luke Campbell 3 min read
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To continue to strive toward reaching the goal of reducing the number of collisions between vehicles and deer, Mt. Lebanon commissioners unanimously voted Aug. 9 to authorize a contract with White Buffalo Inc. for an archery hunt.

The program, which will start Sept. 17 and end in late January, was a component of last year’s archery and sharpshooting hunt that removed more than 200 white-tailed deer across the municipality.

During Tuesday’s meeting, opponents of municipally organized deer hunting brought up how there was a significant spike in deer-vehicular crashes in the first six months of this year. The 47 reported collisions exceeds the total for 2015.

Such numbers added more fuel to the fire of those who consider the deer management program to be unsafe, according to resident Stacey Chick.

“Calling this a safe program is fallacious,” she told commissioners.

Police Chief Aaron Lauth clarified that not only is the program safely organized, but clearer information about hunting has emerged.

“We didn’t have any incidents that raised safety concerns,” said Lauth. “One of the things we were able to realize was being able to get a better grasp on how many people are out there hunting that we may not have known in the past. There are several people doing this, anyway, in certain parts of this community, mainly on private property. I believe that the way we communicated last year was done effectively.”

Despite harsh criticism from most of the residents in attendance, the 4-0 vote in favor of renewing the program – Kelly Fraasch, commission president, was not in attendance – was supplemented with reasoning by several commissioners as to why the decision was made.

“Deer culling is not fun,” said Commissioner Steve Silverman. “It’s not an action we take lightly. It’s an ongoing process.”

Commissioner David Brumfield echoed those comments by saying that even with concdrs about the rise in accidents, that represents a small sample size and is no reason to abandon the archery program.

Lauth said that nearby municipalities Upper St. Clair and Peters Township saw similar spikes during their first year of implementation, but numbers have been lower in years since.

The Mt. Lebanon program is expected to see a boost this year because of more familiarity of the area from the archers, who will be the same as in 2015, according to Lauth.

This year’s archery program with the nonprofit wildlife management company White Buffalo Inc. will be less expensive than last year, with costs totaling $9,000.

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