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Community Corner

Hunters Hungry for Area Deer

Part III: County wildlife biologist, residents go on the record about deer

The Fairfax County Deer Management Program began in 1998 as part of a County Board of Supervisors effort to control deer on public parklands, a population that is in the early stages of "eruption," according to the 2009 County Report on the Environment. 

While officials estimate that 75 percent of deer are hunted on private property, this program includes public managed hunts, police shooting, and a stringent archery program to reduce deer within 11 public parks across the county.

The archery program is open to non-profit bow hunting groups that qualify with the county's lottery program. This year, 13 groups qualified. In order to meet program qualifications, archers must possess a Deer Population Control Permit and liability insurance and sign a non-professional service contract with the county. 

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Applicants are tested by designated Fairfax County police staff. In order to qualify, archers must hit a nine-inch target ("vital area") at 20 yards three out of three times. In addition, qualifying archers attend a two hour site-specific safety briefing. Processor business cards are county-required to ensure no carcass waste.  

As Master Conservation Police Officer within the Virginia Department of Game and Fisheries, Randy Grauer enforces hunter compliance with state law. His duties include responding to citizen complaints about hunter trespassing and ensuring adherence to firearm and ammunition regulations.  

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The County-required 9 inch target, he explains, is a method of ensuring a humane and immediate blow to the deer's "vital area," the heart and lungs. 

"A well-placed arrow can kill as quickly or more quickly than a bullet," he says, remarking that an excellent bow-hunter can consistently hit a target of two inches from 20 yards or more on 6 out of 6 attempts. 

Grauer stresses that a close range shot to the "vital area" will often kill a deer within 30 seconds.  

This, he suggested, is likely the origin of the expression "dead on your feet."  

Most local hunters this writer spoke with were reluctant to talk about these issues and would not go on the record.

Scott Martin of Clifton, however, is an advocate for Second Amendment rights who is running for the 39th District's state senate seat. 

At a campaign fundraiser, Martin refuted the notion that bow or rifle hunters are endangering the public in any way.  

He said the hunters he knows shoot "only at close range and would rarely take aim from a distance beyond 30 yards because it greatly reduces the likelihood of killing and retrieving the animal." 

Both Grauer and Martin discussed the rising threat of deer to local residents. 

With continued development across Fairfax and surrounding counties, "deer are being forced into smaller areas," said Grauer. 

County officials estimate that adult deer eat more than six pounds of vegetation a day: nearly 2,400 pounds a year. 

With browse lines becoming more evident, and with the parkland having been eaten "under story," he says deer are forced to feed from creek bottoms, parks and yards.  

The county's 2009 Report on the Environment noted that deer have started to eat typically "non-preferred" species from private property.

While pharmaceutical birth control for wildlife populations exists, it is currently illegal within the Commonwealth. 

Fairfax County's Wildlife Biologist Victoria Monroe says wildlife birth control is expensive and its efficacy remains untested within the local deer population. 

With more deer, less wild space and less hunting, Grauer says deer and humans are forced into more frequent encounters. 

"There's nothing to get rid of them, except a human or an automobile," he said.

Grauer and Martin both said that a veteran hunter can fill home freezers with venison early in the season.

Both assert that there is a strict ethical understanding among hunters that "nothing goes to waste." 

"Hunters for the Hungry" is a non-profit voluntary agency that raises money to have deer meat processed by local butchers.

That meat is then distributed via a "food pantry on wheels" to churches and families in need.

Martin says local venison is far superior to the meat available in grocery stores, stating that "this meat is unprocessed, lean and antibiotic free."  

Archers who have received County-approval are permitted to hunt dawn to dusk Monday through Saturday from Oct. 16, 2010 throough Feb. 12, 2011. 

Read parts I and II of our series on deer in the area and .

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