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NEWS RELEASE

September 10, 2007

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Department of Recreation & Parks Announces Deer Management Program for 2007-2008

ELLICOTT CITY, MD – The Howard County Department of Recreation & Parks has announced its fall/winter schedule of managed deer hunts. The hunts will be held again this year in an effort to help maintain a stable, balanced white-tailed deer population in our parks where deer grazing has been shown to reduce biodiversity and habitat quality.

The managed hunts will include a combination of bow and shotgun hunting. Hunting hours are from dawn until 12 noon, and each park will be closed for all other uses during this time. In areas where neither bow nor shotgun hunting are suitable, the department will be reducing the deer population utilizing highly-accurate, noise-suppressed firearms by specially licensed and qualified shooters. All such special shooting operations will take place only during evening hours when parks are closed to public access. As an additional precaution, Parks’ staff will secure those sites to make sure the public does not enter during that time. The hunting schedule is as follows:

Alpha Ridge Landfill
- sharp shooting: February 5 (evening)

Blandair Park
- bow hunting: October 17; November 7, 14, 28; December 5, 19; January 9
- sharp shooting: March 18 (evening)

Daniels Mill Overlook
- sharp shooting: September 25; October 16, 30

David Force Park
- bow & shotgun: October 25; November 15; December 6, 11; January 8; February 14, 21

Gray Rock Openspace
– sharp shooting: September 18; October 2, 23

High Ridge Park
- bow & shotgun: October 22; November 26; December 17

Middle Patuxent Environmental Area
- bow & shotgun: October 29; November 5, 12; December 10; January 7, 28

Rockburn Branch Park
- sharp shooting: January 22; Febreuary 12; March 4 (evenings)

Schooley Mill Park
- shotgun hunting: October 18; November 29; December 20; January 24, 31

Timbers of Troy
- sharp shooting: January 15; February 26; March 11 (evenings)

Worthington Park
- sharp shooting: October 9; February 19; March 25 (evenings)

Since deer population reduction programs such as the hunts above are not possible in many areas of the county, the Department of Recreation & Parks has developed a Deer Management Reference Manual to help homeowners and gardeners live in harmony with white-tailed deer. The manual, which is available in all county library branches, contains information on the use of deer repellents, fencing to protect crops and property, how to avoid deer-auto collisions, and Lyme Disease prevention. There is also information about the county’s deer management program available on the Recreation & Parks website at http://www.howardcountymd.gov/RAP/RAP.

The Department of Recreation & Parks and the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension Service will also arrange to have experts on the topic speak to homeowner associations, schools or other groups. Other Recreation & Parks’ deer management programs include an effort to reduce ticks on deer through the use of “Four-Poster” devices which deliver an approved pesticide to deer attracted to a feeder baited with corn. Developed by the US Department of Agriculture, the devices have been shown to reduce tick populations by 90% or more.

For more information on the deer management program, call Recreation & Parks at 410-313-4700.