Deer Bowhunters Allowed in Pittsburgh Two City Parks Starting Saturday

[FakeNoose]

Pittsburgh Magazine link: https://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/deer-bowhunters-to-put-skills-to-the-test-in-two-city-parks-starting-saturday/

Saturday, Sept. 30, marks the beginning of archery deer hunting season in Pennsylvania, along with the City of Pittsburgh’s pilot Deer Management Program. City Council recently approved an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help cull a growing deer population in two city parks – Frick Park and Riverview Park. Studies have shown there are at least 500 deer in Frick Park alone.

Pittsburgh’s exploding white-tailed deer population is spreading ticks and Lyme disease, becoming traffic hazards and devouring the gardens of homeowners who live near the parks.

Thirty Allegheny County archers were chosen last week from among hundreds of applicants, following a tough accuracy test.

City officials have assigned each hunter to a designated area in each park. They are required to kill a doe first and donate the meat to a local food bank program, such as Hunters Sharing the Harvest. Hunters are then able to bag as many white-tailed deer as they have tags for. Deer are not to be cleaned inside park limits.

- more at link -

This is GREAT news for me. I live a couple of blocks from Riverview Park on the upper Northside and we've been overrun with deer for the past several years. I can't even grow my daylilies anymore because the deer just chomp them down to stumps. It's their free salad bar every night.

For as long as I can remember there's been no deer hunting allowed within the city limits anywhere in Pennsylvania. City and state parks have always been off limits for deer hunting, only in carefully controlled state gamelands and private property that has no "Posted" signs. This will bring in a new era, I hope.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

1. Well, we'll see.

[jimfields33]

2. I'm glad for this too. Too may deers hitting cars resulting in deaths of innocent people.

[underpants]

3. Needs to be done. I'm sure they have experienced people on it.

That’s a lot of meat for food programs.

[FakeNoose]

6. Yes that's an added plus

[Karadeniz]

4. I find bowhunting repugnant.

[FakeNoose]

5. Maybe, maybe not

It's definitely a safer sport than shotgun hunting.

[laurieu]

8. I do too

but it's safer than having someone shooting off a shotgun inside of a city park. I remember seeing deer just yards away from Forbes Avenue near CMU, an accident waiting to happen.

[FakeNoose]

10. Oh yes, Frick Park is over that way

... and the deer are mostly a nuisance and a safety hazard.

[Wonder Why]

7. I just got the one with the Red nose! Oops! Reindeer don't count?

[twodogsbarking]

9. There are way too many deer in Pa.

[sl8]

11. A nit - that's not a picture of Pennsylvania whitetails.

It's a photo of Japanese sika deer

[FakeNoose]

12. Doesn't matter

This article is published in Pittsburgh Magazine, and I also read about it in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. So the story is real and it's happening today. By the way I have deer in my yard and down my back hill almost every day.

[sl8]

13. I don't doubt you or the story in the least.

I'm not sure why you took it that way.

I just thought it was a little odd, or a little lazy, of the paper to use a photo of an Asian deer species rather than a photo of whitetails. It's not like pictures of whitetails are hard to find.