The Game Commission this week took steps to propose additional strategies for controlling deer herds in more urban areas.

Board of Game Commissioners gave preliminary approval to a regulatory change to allow homeowners associations and nonprofit land-holding organizations to apply for a Deer Control Permit under the same process provided for political subdivisions, such as boroughs and townships.

"In developed landscapes, lower deer populations result in fewer deer human conflicts," said Carl G. Roe, Game Commission executive director. "And, although we prefer to use hunting to manage deer populations, hunting is not always feasible in an urbanized setting due to safety zone restrictions. We must, therefore, consider alternative herd reduction tools for communities to address their growing deer populations.

"Recognizing that urban deer issues do not always affect an entire township or borough, the Board is proposing to expand the list of authorized Deer Control Permit applicants to include homeowners associations and nonprofit land-holding companies. This does not change the requirements of the review process, but it does make this tool available to more groups experiencing unacceptable levels of deer-human conflicts in developed areas."

The Board must approve the proposal at its next meeting, which is scheduled for October 24, before it can take effect.

The Board also gave final approval to a regulatory change to allow hunters in special regulation areas counties (Allegheny, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia) to harvest more than one deer at a time without first tagging previous harvested deer, provided all deer harvested are lawfully tagged immediately thereafter.

This change is part of the agency's continuing efforts to find solutions to the high deer-human conflicts in these urban counties. For all other areas, hunters must continue to tag the first deer harvested before attempting to harvest a second. This measure will take effect for the 2008-09 deer hunting seasons.

For more information, visit the Game Commission’s Deer Management webpage.

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6/27/2008