Fairfax County wants to use treats such as molasses-smothered oats to lure deer into the cross hairs of police snipers, part of an effort to curb an overabundant population of the animals in county parks.
The county has for years sent SWAT team sharpshooters into some larger parks at night. They perch from a tree stand or specially adapted vehicle, spot the deer through thermal imagers or night-vision goggles and kill them, said Fairfax County wildlife biologist Earl Hodnett.
The Board of Supervisors will vote today whether to ask state game officials for the authority to use bait, which will help in smaller parks where space constraints make only a few areas safe for shooting.
The move is part of a strategy to bring down the growing number of herds of deer that cause an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 car collisions a year, spread ticks and disease, and decimate woodland vegetation. A 125-pound deer needs to eat about 6.5 pounds of plant life each day, or 2,370 pounds a year, according to a 2007 report by the Fairfax County Environmental Quality Advisory Council. Some parks, such as Colvin Run Stream Valley, “are quite small” and only offer one or two spots for a sniper, Hodnett said.
“Our chances of finding a deer standing on that spot are pretty slim,” he said. “In terms of efficiency, or cost per deer, we’ve tended to just ignore those parks because, logistically, it wouldn’t work.”
With bait, though, a deer can be attracted to one of the key spots.
There is no countywide deer estimate, but Hodnett said some parks have seen populations of more than 400 per square mile. The county’s goal is to trim the herds to 15 to 20 deer per square mile, small enough to prevent serious environmental damage.
Fairfax County has been struggling for years with the boom in deer numbers, which the 2007 report called a “serious overabundance.” The problem, the report said, stems from loss of predators, the decline of recreational hunting in the latter half of the 20th century, and development pressures that have forced the deer into narrow protected “islands.” All deer shot under the program are processed and distributed to the needy.
