Deer Population Management
Managed Deer Hunts | Park Police-based Sharpshooting
Managed Deer Hunts
Montgomery County Department of Parks, in order to reduce and maintain deer populations in accordance with the goals of the County’s deer management plan, conducts managed deer hunts in select parks during the Fall and Winter.
Programming is designed with public safety being paramount. Managed hunting programs are directed and supervised by the Department’s Wildlife staff and participants are required to follow strict safety and procedural guidelines. Safety buffers are established to meet and exceed State and County ordinance and hunting sites are selected to use terrain, distance, and habitat to enhance safe weapons discharge. Many sites are inspected and approved by the Montgomery County Department of Police.
Weapons discharge is directed into the ground and/or other suitable backdrops, and in many cases, hunting from an elevated position is required to ensure that hunters’ have a suitable backstop. A variety of harvest strategies have been employed using all weapons legal in the county. However, most programming requires participants to utilize rifled shotguns to harvest deer. On dates when managed hunting is occurring the park is closed to the public.
Managed hunts were implemented in the county in the Fall of 1996 and have occurred annually ever since. To date, the Department has conducted managed deer hunting programs in nine county parks with exceptional results. Currently, managed hunts are being conducted on eight county parks annually.
To learn more about the Montgomery Parks managed deer hunting programs, please click here to review Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) regarding deer population management being conducted on County parkland. If you are interested in learning how to become involved as a participant in the lottery based managed deer hunting program, please click here for pre-screening information.
2008– 2009 Managed Deer Hunts Dates
Coming at the end of the summer!
Managed Deer Hunts | Park Police-based Sharpshooting
Park Police-based Sharpshooting
Montgomery County Department of Parks, in order to reduce and maintain deer populations in accordance with the goals of the County’s deer management plan, conducts Police-based sharpshooting in select parks during the period of January through March.
Deer population reductions are conducted from Sunset until Sunrise while the parks are closed to the public. Programming is designed with public safety being paramount. Police-based sharpshooting programs are directed and supervised by the Department’s Park Police Division and Wildlife staff. Park Police Officers participating in this program have received extensive training and certification and utilize the most advance equipment and techniques available. Weapons discharge is conducted in a safe manner with safe backdrops identified prior to firing.
Deer are removed safely, humanely, and discretely. All deer harvested during such programming are donated to the Capital Area Food Band for distribution to the regions charitable organizations.
Police-based sharpshooting was implemented in the county in the spring of 1999 and has occurred annually ever since. To date, the Department has conducted Police-based sharpshooting programs in ten county parks with exceptional results. Police-based sharpshooting is being conducted annually, and the Department continues to investigate expanding efforts to parklands in need of deer population reduction.
To learn more about the locations where Police-based sharpshooting is occurring in the county, and the locations where the Department has proposed implementing this program during the up-coming year see the list below.
Police-based sharpshooting locations in Montgomery Parks
- Agricultural History Farm Park (Derwood)
- Black Hill Regional Park (Boyds)
- North Branch of Rock Creek Stream Valley Park (Derwood)
- Northwest Branch Recreation Park (Aspen Hill)
- Rock Creek Regional Park (Rockville)
- Wheaton Regional Park (Wheaton)
- Woodlawn Cultural Special Park (Sandy Spring)
- Northwest Branch Stream Valley Park Unit #7 (Sandy Spring)
- Rock Creek Stream Valley Park Unit #7 (Aspen Hill)
Check back at the end of the summer for new proposals for Police-based sharpshooting to be implemented during winter 2009.
Date of last page updated: September 2, 2008
