Urban Bow Hunting Alert

The Blandair Foundation is disappointed that the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks has not been forthright in disclosing the real and potential negative aspects of bow hunting for deer in urban areas such as Blandair Farm. Since the Blandair Foundation's Division of Wildlife Research and Land Management possesses this information, we feel that it is our civic duty to inform the public of these negative features.

Even for well-trained and experienced bow hunters, it is rare that an arrow strike will produce the instantaneous death of a deer. Most frequently, deer hit by arrows die slowly from blood loss. Between the time a deer is struck by an arrow and the time it takes its last breath, it is not unusual for the deer to have moved a considerable distance from the location where struck, often leaving a blood trail. In addition, bow hunting is relatively ineffective in reducing the deer population compared to alternative methods available in rural areas.

One can discern three negative features of bow hunting in areas that are near residences:

Many reasonable people will wince at the news that the overwhelming majority of deer killed in bow hunting do not die instantaneously. They will think that the method is inhumane.
In an urban area, there is the potential that wounded deer will leave blood trails across neighboring residential property and that they may even die there. In addition, neighboring property owners may encounter the odor from decaying deer corpses lying nearby in thick cover on open spaces.
There is a high probability that the social and environmental problems caused by overpopulation of deer will continue indefinitely if bow hunting is the only method of population reduction.

The Blandair Foundation wants to alert the public to these potential problems and believes there may be a superior alternative to bow hunting for reducing deer populations in urban areas. This alternative requires that hunters are carefully screened and follow stringent rules. The hunters will use new "quiet" ammunition in scope-mounted 22-caliber rifles to shoot deer through the brain. In 2002, we informed the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks, through a communication to the Blandair Planning Committee, about the negative aspects of urban bow hunting for deer and that we had a potentially better alternative to propose. For the current hunting season, the Blandair Foundation proposed that Blandair Farm be the site of a test to compare the results of this method with those of bow hunting in regard to relative humaneness and effectiveness. Blandair Farm would have been an ideal place to make this comparison, since it is completely surrounded by residential development and a bow hunt had already been scheduled. Unfortunately, the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks refused to cooperate with our proposal.

The County's efforts to use the increasingly popular sport of archery to manage its burgeoning deer population is doomed to failure because archery is not an efficient method of deer population control. The County should not confuse deer population management with deer hunting for recreation. Those are separate but overlapping management objectives. Unfortunately, archery is not the panacea the County would like to have for controlling an overpopulation of deer. Wildlife management is more complex than that and our precious public lands deserve to be treated accordingly.

Howard County residents, especially those near Blandair Farm, are urged to report their experiences, both positive and negative, from this season's county managed deer hunt to the Howard County Department of Recreation and Parks, or to the Howard County Executive, with copies to the Blandair Division of W R & L M, c/o Dr. Al Geis, P. O. Box 71, Clarksville, MD 21029. Since the County Government is depending on voluntary public input, such response should be appreciated.

Contact information: Dr. Aelred Geis, currently at 410-531-5300, ext. 2461.

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Please call (888) 845-8974 for more information.
You may also e-mail Byron Hall, Chairman of the Foundation.