Deer Culling in Lower Merion

Rachael Metz
Staff Writer

As many of you may have heard, a planned deer shoot began in Lower Merion Township just a few weeks ago, with the aim of reducing Lower Merion’s deer population by 100 deer, eventually shooting (no pun intended) to cut down the deer population by 576 within the next several years. The cull is intended in part to reduce car-deer collisions within the township, and the risk of Lyme disease, which is carried by deer ticks. The deer recommendations for suburbs are up to 10 deer per square mile, while in Lower Merion, there is an estimated 60 deer per square mile. Officials determined that the best way to deal with the excess deer in Lower Merion is to allow professional sharpshooters from the United States Department of Agriculture to organize a structured culling of the deer in order to thin out the population. A two-person team of one shooter and one spotter from the USDA, along with two Lower Merion officials, shot deer on baited fields within the township on private land, from 9pm to 5am throughout the week of November 16th. Throughout the week, they went to about twenty-five designated sites around the township, with night-vision equipment and silencer-equipped rifles. A thermal-imaging camera was also used to see the heat from the deer, then the team used infrared equipment to lighten the area so they would be able to see the deer without startling them. Each night, the team hoped to shoot up to twenty deer, whose meat was donated to food banks the following week. After the first week, 1,600 pounds of venison was donated to CityTeam Ministries of Chester, a place that provides shelter, food, and other services to those in need.
Within the first week of the cull, Lower Merion police Lt. Bernard D’Amour witnessed 71 shots fired and 71 deer went down. After each deer was killed, the USDA cleaned up the spot and took the deer back to the truck to be examined for the USDA’s records and the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s records. Information was collected about the age of the deer, the amount of body fat on it, and any diseases or injuries it had before it was killed. The USDA employees are also biologists.
According D’Amour, who oversaw the culling, safety of residents was the top priority throughout the whole thing. The sharpshooter and the spotter were elevated in the back of a USCA truck so that any shots that were off target would go towards the ground. D’Amour said he knew of only one phone call to the township reporting the sound of a gunshot. Whenever the team would pull into a location and saw any type of human activity, they would leave and more on to the next area.
In the coming months, officials will look at factors such as the number of deer still getting struck by cars and reports of Lyme disease to determine the scale of the problem still existing in the township. The special permit that Lower Merion Township received from the state for the culling is valid until the end of September 2010. The township is not allowed to shoot any bucks under the permit – only does and fawns.
Another four nights of deer culling will take place toward the middle of December. Locations of the first deer cull are being studied and new locations around the township are being sought out. D’Amour encourages citizens that are interested in their property being a part of the cull to call him to have someone come out and survey their property. In the past few weeks, he has had several phone calls from people who are interested, but a few have had concerns about how the culling was being done. Many may think that there are a bunch of guys with rifles just marching through the woods randomly shooting deer, but as said above, there is a small, supervised, professional culling team of a shooter and a spotter, the Lower Merion Township animal warden, and that’s it.