JUN 4, 1:07 PM

NPS Plans To Expand Deer Hunts To More Parks, Citing Overpopulation

Jacob Fenston https://twitter.com/JacobFenston



A deer buck with early antlers on the C&O Canal in Maryland, just north of D.C.

Mike Maguire / Flickr

Fifty years ago, it would have been no easy task to find a white-tailed deer in the District of Columbia. The hoofed ruminants, native to North America, were hunted to near-oblivion by European colonists. But in recent years, an overabundance of deer is threatening local ecosystems, according to the National Park Service. NPS is proposing to expand deer culling operations into more parks in D.C. and Maryland, including Anacostia Park and Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens.

“We’re trying to protect and restore our native plants and forest,” says Megan Nortrup, an NPS spokesperson. ... “Deer are causing a lot of damage; they’re eating tree seedlings that would be the forest of tomorrow. So they’re impacting not just plants, but all the other creatures that live in the forest,” Nortrup says.

NPS has been conducting regular deer hunts in Rock Creek Park since 2013. But this practice of killing cute, furry native fauna has always been controversial. The Rock Creek deer management plan was delayed by a lawsuit, and protested by neighbors and animal rights groups. ... But NPS officials say the deer management program in Rock Creek Park has been so successful, they want to replicate it in other local parks.

In D.C., the new areas to be targeted include most of the national parkland east of the Anacostia River: Anacostia Park, Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, Fort Mahan Park, Fort Dupont Park, Fort Davis Park, Fort Chaplin Park, Fort Stanton, Fort Greble Park and Shepherd Parkway. ... In Maryland, NPS wants to cull deer in Fort Washington Park, Fort Foote Park, Piscataway Park, Oxon Cove Park, Harmony Hall Park, Greenbelt Park, and Baltimore-Washington and Suitland Parkways. ... NPS is holding a virtual public meeting on the proposal on June 15, when it will make full details of the plan available to the public. Public comment will be accepted online through July 15.

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