Parks Added to Controlled Deer Hunt

With a deer population four times the size the area can support, six parks in Silver Spring and Olney will be added to this winter’s controlled hunt, according to Montgomery Parks officials.

The expanded program includes the following park sites:

· Martin Luther King Jr. Recreational Park and attached segments of: Paint Branch Steam Valley Park, Units 5 and 6

· Paint Branch Neighborhood Park

· Pilgrim Hill Local Park

· Tamarack Neighborhood Park

· Valley Mill Special Park, and

· Red Door Store Historical Cultural Park.

Park Police-based sharpshooting will take place from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Jan. 10 to Feb. 28 when the parks are closed to the public. Information about the hunts will be posted on signs throughout the park, on the Montgomery Parks’ website homepage and communicated via Park Police patrols.

All deer harvested in the parks will be donated for consumption at local soup kitchens.

The parks, located in Silver Spring and Olney, have been selected to address damage caused by an increasing population of deer, including deer-related automobile accidents, damage to natural resources, and increased potential of communicable diseases such as Lyme disease.

Recent estimates within the Paint Branch Stream Valley Park, Units 5 and 6 indicate the deer population is nearly four times the recommended density for an area this size. The decision to add these parks to the deer management operations was made after review of resident complaints and input, parks officials said.

The additional park sites are among 37 parks in the Montgomery Parks’ system that will have managed deer hunts during the fall 2014 – winter 2015 season. Dates and locations for upcoming hunts are listed below.

Lottery-Based and Cooperative Managed Deer Hunting Programs

[Parks Closed from Sunrise – Sunset]

December

5 – Hoyles Mill Conservation Park (Boyds)

6 – Woodstock Equestrian Park (Beallsville)

9 – Little Bennett Regional Park (Clarksburg)

10 – Little Bennett Regional Park (Clarksburg)

11 – Little Bennett Regional Park (Clarksburg)

12 – Little Bennett Regional Park (Clarksburg)

16 – Blockhouse Point Conservation Park (Darnestown)

17 – North Germantown Greenway (Clarksburg)/Great Seneca Stream Valley Park (Gaithersburg)

19 – Black Hill Regional Park: 10 Mile Creek Segment (Boyds)

19 – Bucklodge Forest Conservation Park (Boyds)

19 – Little Seneca Stream Valley Park (Boyds)

20 – Hoyles Mill Conservation Park (Boyds)

January 2015

2-Bucklodge Forest Conservation, Little Seneca Unit 1 and Ten Mile Creek (Boyds)

3 -Hoyles Mill Conservation Park (Boyds)

9 -Woodstock Equestrian Park (Beallsville)
10 -Hoyles Mill Conservation Park (Boyds)
23-Bucklodge Forest Conservation, Little Seneca Unit 1 and Ten Mile Creek (Boyds)
24 - Hoyles Mill Conservation Park (Boyds)

Park Police-based sharpshooting locations 2015
[Parks Closed January 10 – February 28, from 6:00PM – 6:00AM, Monday-Friday]

· Agricultural History Farm Park (Derwood - including attached segments of Rock Creek Stream Valley Units 12 & 16)

· Black Hill Regional Park (Boyds)

· Cabin John Regional Park (Bethesda)

· Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Park (Silver Spring)

· Needwood Golf Course (Rockville)

· North Branch Stream Valley Park Units 2 & 3 (Norbeck)

· North Branch Stream Valley Park Unit 4 (Olney)

· Northwest Branch Recreation Park (Aspen Hill - including Layhill Local Park in Wheaton)

· Northwest Branch Stream Valley Park Unit 7 (Norwood)

· Northwest Golf Course (Wheaton)

· Paint Branch Stream Valley, Units 5&6 and attached Paint Branch Neighborhood Park, Pilgrim Hills Local Park, Tamarack Neighborhood Park and Valley Mill Special Park (Silver Spring/Colesville)

· Red Door Store Historical Cultural Park (Olney)

· Rock Creek Regional Park (Rockville)

· Rock Creek Stream Valley Park Unit 2 (Bethesda/Chevy Chase)

· Rock Creek Stream Valley Park Unit 7 (Aspen Hill)

· Sligo Creek Golf Course (Silver Spring)

· Wheaton Regional Park (Wheaton)

· Woodlawn Special Park (Sandy Spring)

Tenant-based Managed Deer Hunting Program
Park is closed to public access year-round

· Goshen Recreation Park (Goshen)

The deer management program began in 1996 in response to resident concerns about the increasingly adverse impacts of the burgeoning deer population on local neighborhoods.

To learn more the department’s deer management program, visitwww.ParksDeerManagement.org.

»Photo of white-tail deer from the Montgomery Parks website.