Ridgefield Approves 5 Properties for Controlled Deer Hunt

RIDGEFIELD, CT — The Board of Selectmen has approved five open space properties for the town's controlled deer hunt, the News-Times has reported. The properties total nearly 200 acres.

The five hunting sites and their approved weapons are:

• Keeler Court, 26 acres: archery hunting only
• Stonecrest/Ridgefield Brook property, 34 acres: archery and shotgun hunting
• The Ledges property, 26 acres: archery and firearms hunting
• Colonial Heights, 19 acres: archery hunting only
• Ridgebury Farms, 94 acres, archery hunting, and possibly shotgun and muzzleloaders, contingent upon approval of the Ridgefield Police Department

Hunting season in Connecticut began earlier this month, but Ridgefield's season will not begin until roughly mid-October, and run to the end of January.

The new schedule is a compromise put forward by the Conservation Commission and the Deer Committee that reduces the properties hunted each year.

The compromise calls for five open space properties per year to be hunted, chosen from a master list of 15 spaces. Hunting would then be cycled through the remainder of the properties at a rate of five per year, on a three-year cycle. Hunting would never exceed more than two hunters per parcel for the duration of the season.

For more, see the News-Times.