One of the major stumbling blocks in suburbia where deer are exceeding carrying capacity is locating land to hunt on wether it be state, town or privately owned.
Constantly in the news we read about more and more people being infected with tick borne diseases such as lyme or babeosis, or people getting into accidents trying to avoid hitting a deer or their landscape being devasted shortly after its been planted. With all of these major issues affecting peoples lives its amazing that many, many hunters throughout the nation continue to have difficulty in finding land to on, that they can call their own, even if its only for a season.
Because of the education many towns have provided to landowners, I have seen a huge acceptance of the bow hunter as a means to control deer populations, I also have seen a growth in the Whitetail deer herd. Most towns still struggle with the answer of how do we control this growth and even reduce the herd. Many home owners are not aware of the rules and regulations of bow hunting.
If bow huntng is the means of deer control towns wish to follow then much more education should be directed at the land owner. Newspaper and on-line communication is much needed. If every resident of Fairfield County knew of programs available for their use, a percentage of them would educate themseleves and possibly allow hunting on their property. If by educating the residents of Fairfiled County, 20% were to allow hunting, then the towns would gain much more acceptance for allowing hunting on more town properties.
If bow hunting is the path towns wish to take in the control of deer then much more land has to be accessible to the hunter, and many more hunters are needed. Residents know there are many problems associated with the abundance of deer, educate them on solutions they as landowners can take to help the town deal with this problem. Residents should know such programs as FindAHunter.com and HunttoFeed.com are there for their use. The towns have educated their residents about the problems associated with deer populations, now they must educate them about the solutions and hope the residents will want to help the towns.
