Chapel Hill Bowhunt

There can be little doubt that there are more white-tailed deer living in our midst than is healthy for either them or us.

Onthe plus side, they're very pretty, and we still get a little chargewhenever we happen upon creatures we still consider wildlife. In recentyears, though, they have become so numerous and accustomed to sharingtheir neck of the woods with us that they're about as wild as thesquirrels that poach our birdfeeders (which some of the deer do, too).

Anddeer are far more dangerous and destructive than squirrels. Almost20,000 car-deer collisions were reported in North Carolina last year.And, as many homeowners know, Bambi never met a hosta he didn't like.

Acall has gone up in some quarters to address the deer problem byallowing limited bowhunting within the Chapel Hill city limits —specifically, in the Mount Bolus neighborhood, where a petition wascirculated among residents asking the town to explore solutions to thedeer population there.

The state has a program, the Urban ArcherySeason, which specifies a five-week season in January and Februaryduring which participating municipalities can allow bowhunting in areasthat would normally be off-limits.

Sixteen municipalities havethus far joined the program, the closest being Pittsboro. None of themare as large or densely populated as Chapel Hill. The last Urban Deerseason resulted in 83 deer being killed. That's 83 out of an estimatedstatewide deer population of 1.1 million. The biggest city in theprogram, Smithfield, recorded just two deer killed.

FULL STORY

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