Hunter
8/6/19
Maybe the fourth time will be the charm.
The Iowa City city council will vote on a new deer reduction proposal that they hope the state Department of Natural Resources will give a green light to.
The Council has proposed various configurations, each including the bringing in of sharpshooters to cull the deer population. The Iowa National Resource Commission has rejected three different versions, saying that they didn’t include meaningful local hunts.
In a meeting with the Commission last month, the city was told if they propose four such local bow hunts, each lasting at least 30 days, the plan would be okayed.
The Press Citizen report that after the first bow hunt, the city will be required to submit a report to the NRC with an aerial assessment of deer density, the number of licenses sold and percent killed, and the number of car accidents with deer and property damage complaints.
The city believes that there are as many as 80 deer per acre in some areas, and have determined they would like to drop that to 25. The DNR has said that density should be closer to ten per acre if the goal is to protect vegetation. However, the Council will vote on the proposal with the 25 figure at tonight’s meeting.