Deer hunting in parks starts Sept. 10
Deer hunting season starts in Fairfax County parks on Sept. 10 and will run through Feb. 18, 2023.
The county’s deer management program allows qualified hunters to use archery to reduce the deer population in designated parks.
The 2022-23 deer program allows archery in these parks in the Annandale/Mason District area:
• Accotink Stream Valley Park (656 acres)
• Americana Park (4)
• Deerlick Park (19)
• Eakin Park (72)
• Eakin Community Park (33)
• Holmes Run Stream Valley (80, not including Luria Park)
• Lake Accotink (407)
• Lillian Carey Park (54)
• Long Branch Stream Valley (90)
• Mason District Park (80)
• Roundtree Park (61)
• Sally Ormsby Park (40)
• Wakefield Park (161)
According to the county’s wildlife department, the deer population needs to be reduced to help prevent deer-vehicle collisions. Also, deer are hosts for tick-borne diseases, such as Lyme disease. Over-browsing by deer degrades forest habitats.
Archers are allowed to hunt deer in the approved parks Monday-Saturday beginning 30 minutes before sunrise and ending 30 minutes after sunset.
Parks will remain open during deer season.
Hunting is conducted from elevated tree stands. The tree stands must be located at least 100 feet from the park property line and 50 feet from an established trail.
Archers must pass a criminal background check, demonstrate superior marksmanship, and comply with Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources requirements for licenses, permits, and hunter safety education.
Archers must wear a deer management program identification badge and display a parking permit on their vehicle.
Deer hunting is not allowed on private property without permission from the owner or tenant.
In addition to the archery program, the Fairfax County Police Department conducts sharpshooting operations at night in certain parks. During 2022-23, sharpshooting events will be scheduled between November and March.
Sharpshooting will be allowed in designated parks, including Green Spring Gardens, Bren Mar Park, and Turkeycock Stream Valley.
4 responses to “Deer hunting in parks starts Sept. 10”
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I hunt deer with a MK2 and will be setting up a free clinic teaching immigrants how to harvest deer this way. It’s a great way to give back by thinning the overpopulation of deer, and welcoming our new neighbors with free food and life skills.
Jim = someone with serial killer behavior bringing out serial killer behavior in others in our community. No thank you. Stay away from innocent animals.
How many years has this program been in place and have there ever been any injuries? It does seem dangerous to park users – just avoid wearing a brown jacket in the parks or letting your dog off-leash on the trails (looking at you Mason park dog owners and Green Springs dog walkers).
We, the residents and tax payers, must speak up: Wake up residents of Fairfax County! This “deer management program” has been going on for 5 months every single year in our parks since the 1990s and deer-vehicle collisions continue to go up in Fairfax County, particularly near these parks that are bowhunted in every year! Please ask VDOT to send you deer-vehicle collision data over the last several years so you can see this with your own eyes. Most of the deer-vehicle collisions are occurring within 1 mile of the parks where this “deer management/bowhunting takes place”. What a surprise considering they are baiting our poor native deer then shooting them with arrows which will never kill a deer immediately, so they will flee and run into roads, running for their lives. To make matters worse, when you clear out an entire park/an entire niche surrounding deer will enter the parks and have twice or three times as many resources so there will be an increase in twins and triplets in the future, hence an increased population! Fairfax County needs to look at science and data, including VDOT DVC data and we the taxpayers must speak up to stop this madness. I already called the chairman of Fairfax County to voice my opposition to these horrific bowhunts. Why is it that Fairfax County is allowing wealthy developers to enter our area, buy massive lots and absolutely clear out every last tree to build residential or commercial housing, yet we blame the deer for walking in their natural habitat and trying to survive the madness humans have created? VDOT has offered the construction of wildlife passages that allow our wildlife to safely cross roads in our areas, such as culverts and overpasses/underpasses, but our tax money clearly isn’t going towards this. Also, these deer form a protective barrier between you, your dog and Lyme Disease! Here is an article from the British Deer Society, they are clearly doing more research than those in charge of these ridiculous and disgusting bowhunts: https://bds.org.uk/information-advice/out-about/lyme-disease-ticks/ Please also see what Arlington County is doing out of respect for the native deer in their county- I have so much respect for Arlington County and am so ashamed of Fairfax County. These bowhunts were started because we had bowhunters in charge of our parks starting back in the 1990s, so much corruption- residents must speak up. https://www.awla.org/animal-control/is-there-really-a-deer-problem-in-arlington-county-a-comprehensive-look-into-deer-wildlife-management-in-arlington-county/