Department of Parks Approves Deer Management for Sligo Creek

Montgomery County parks department approved a deer management program in Sligo Creek Stream Valley Park Golf Course.

As part of the program, specially trained Park Police sharpshooters will lethally remove deer from the park.

The Park Police-based sharpshooting activities will begin at night from 5:30 pm until sunrise throughout January to March.

According to an official release, the department was asked to implement a deer management program by community groups, individuals, and the Montgomery County Council due to the increasingly adverse impacts of the burgeoning deer population on local neighborhoods including an increase in deer-vehicle collisions, Lyme disease from deer-borne ticks, and damage to the natural ecosystem of Sligo Creek Stream Valley Park.

Native plants are being browsed heavily, dying with no chance to reproduce, and birds and other animals that rely on a balanced ecosystem are disappearing.

Parks wildlife ecology staff investigated deer densities in Sligo Creek Stream Valley Park between Route 29 and Arcola Avenue annually beginning in 2007.

Current estimates show that 140-181 individual deer use these parklands; this density is over four times higher than recommended for the area. It was determined that the Sligo Creek Golf Course was the best location to begin reducing deer populations.

The new program was proposed in October 2011, and the Department accepted public comments regarding the proposal through Nov. 10, 2011, receiving 151 responses from area residents. Seventy-four percent of respondents were supportive of the program.

Concerns regarding safety were raised during the comment period. In order to ensure the public is aware of park closures and sharpshooting operations, the Department will post yellow and black “Park Closed” signs around and throughout Sligo Golf Course.

Notices of closures will also be posted on the Montgomery Parks website. Park Police will patrol the park during these operations to ensure public safety and safe weapons discharge.

“Park Police has been utilizing sharpshooting as a method of deer population reduction in Montgomery Parks since 1999, safely and effectively when traditional hunting is not practical or legally possible,” Department of Parks Wildlife Ecologist Bill Hamilton said. All deer harvested from the program will be utilized to feed the hungry throughout the Capital area, including in Montgomery County.