Suburban hunting programs to increase
A recent change in urban deer management regulations has forced two AlleghenyCounty municipalities to increase public hunting access. But not by much.
Mt. Lebanon and Fox Chapel are the only communities in southwestern Pennsylvania that are licensed by the state Game Commission to conduct deer management culls. To remain eligible, both communities have changed the structure of their controlled archery hunts to include more public participation.
A controlled hunt uses designated licensed archers who generally target does in season. It is not the same as a cull, the extraregulatory killing of deer by contractors hired to shoot a predetermined number of animals, often over bait.
Last year, the state Board of Game Commissioners officially redefined “public hunting” to make hunting available to the general public and not limited to “an individual or class of individuals, solely by virtue of their public employment.” The new wording ended the practice of using local police or other municipal employees as part of a controlled hunt.
In July, the commission voted to require municipalities applying for cull permits to provide more information verifying that public hunting has occurred in deer-control areas. The updated document requires the hunters’ names, hunting license numbers, dates and other details.
Under the new policy, recruiting license-holding volunteers for positions in controlled hunts can be considered public hunting. The regulation does not enable independent hunting on public or private property without landowners’ permission. Municipalities own their public parks.
To remain in compliance with their cull agreements, Mt. Lebanon and Fox Chapel will staff their controlled hunts with vetted archers from the general public when the early antlered and antlerless archery season opens Sept. 21 in Wildlife Management Area 2B.
When Mt. Lebanon commissioners voted to allow controlled archery hunts on public property, in a program initially managed by White Buffalo, they insisted that police officers would be among those drawing the arrows. In 2018, commissioners agreed to pay pest control company Suburban Wildlife Management Solutions $8,000 per year to manage its controlled hunts. Ian McMeans, Mt. Lebanon’s assistant manager, said the company has been instructed to comply with the new regulations and use only vetted volunteer civilian archers.
“We empowered our management program ... to conduct a screening process for archers who are potentially interested. [Suburban Wildlife] will assign people as needed to particular areas,” said Mr. McMeans. “We don’t dictate means or methods, how many get assigned or how the management firm staffs certain areas.”
The company draws volunteers from a roster of applicants. Inquiries should be directed to wildlifeman-agementsolu-tions@gmail.com
Since deer control resumed in Mt. Lebanon in 2015, the municipality has spent about $41,500 on controlled archery hunts and $218,000 on annual rifle culls by White Buffalo. Mr. McMeans said there have been no hunting-related shooting injuries or damage related to the controlled hunts or culls.
To the north, Fox Chapel has used culls since 1992 to remove some 3,000 deer, according to police Chief David Laux. About $5,000 annually is spent on the deer program, which he said has helped save the municipality’s forest understory, protect gardens and reduce deer-vehicle collisions.
Mr. Laux and another officer conduct firearm culls on public and private land with the owners’ permission. Civilian archers have always been included in Fox Chapel’s controlled hunts, in which vetted, licensed archers harvest deer in season on public and private properties. In 27 years, he said, the only negative incident associated with the program was a hunter’s heart attack.
The new regulations require non-municipal employees to be included in the archery hunt. Mr. Laux can be reached at dlaux@fox-chapel.pa.us. “Hunters can contact me and I’ll put their name on the list, but I’ll tell you we have about 400 names on it now,” he said.