Some History of the Brewing Problem Whatever one' s view regarding the deer, there is no doubt the population and boldness of the deer grew tremendously since the about the mid 2000s. Certainly one often sees the same groups of deer that move around, but it became common to see 8 or 10 at a time in a yard. Deer were essentially never seen in the neighborhood until the 2000s.
Some folks speculate that development of the woods around Rio Road and the construction of the John Warner Parkway have led to the increased presence of deer in our neighborhood. Whatever the case, these "beautiful, graceful animals who bring natural wonder to our doorsteps" / "pests who eat our plants, leave dropping, put our cars at risk, and bring disease-carrying ticks into our neighborhood" -- arrived in force.
The neighborhood held a number of discussions about the deer, including a formal meeting in 2012 with a deer management expert from the Dept of Game and Inland Fisheries, who talked about options for mitigating urban deer issues.
City Council heard a lot about the deer issue but dodged seriously discussing it for a number of years. By 2016, Council started having the issue formally on the agenda and getting information about options. By March of 2017, Council was moving toward reducing the population through lethal means, and they got a report about options and what other communities have done in that regard. (click here for full report)
In April of 2017 Council voted in favor of using lethal means and instructed staff to move forward with planning and implementation ($50,000 has been set aside for the purpose). See below
The Latest Deer News:
The City Continues to hire hunters annually to cull our deer population and the deer meat is donated to feed the hungry.
2021 and 2022 Report of number of deer taken and locations (click here)
In February of 2019 the City again hired hunters to thin our City's deer herd but they came away with fewer deer. There are still a lot of deer in our neighborhood and some neighbors have suggested that we may want to try to get the City to more deliberately target "our" deer population. Indeed, upon questioning about the details of the hunt the at the end of 2019 the City produced the attached report which shows most of the deer were taken from Penn Park and very few from our Meadow creek stream valley area (click here). Of course, there is no doubt that deer in Penn Park do flow into the City. Nevertheless, the Penn Park hunting also no doubt benefits Dunlora residents more than City residents and consequently we have requested the City in 2020 and beyond to have the hunters more deliberately target deer further inside City limits.
2/12/18 City Announcement
"CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - The City of Charlottesville will be working with a wildlife management specialist to implement a deer management operation that will begin in February and end in March 2018. The operation comes as a result of an action of City Council and in response to numerous and sustained complaints about hazardous driving conditions, health concerns stemming from Lyme disease, landscapes being impacted by an overabundant deer population, and the health of the local herd. "
The operation did indeed take place in City of Charlottesville parks during nighttime hours and it went smoothly. As planned they took 125 deer during the hunt. The deer meat was donated to an organization that processes it and gives it to the underprivileged. Nevertheless, even right after the cull we still had sizable deer groups appearing around the neighborhood. Afterwards the City Managers office stated that they do plan to make culling the herd a regular event.
General questions about the deer culling can be directed to the City Manager's office. The City Manager's Office can be contacted via telephone at 434-970-3101, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.