The agenda for Monday's Commission meeting has been posted on the municipal website. The commissioners will be approving more "sharpshooting" for 2017.
John Bendel is introducing the following action item:
Consideration of a contract for a white-tailed deer management program utilizing sharpshooting.
The Municipality has been developing a multi-faceted deer management program. Mt. Lebanon has an archery program that utilizes trained and licensed volunteer hunters to remove deer on private and public property. The archery program will continue through January 28, 2017. The Municipality desires to follow-up on the archery program with sharpshooting under a PA Game Commission political subdivision permit. This activity would occur from February 1, 2017 to March 31, 2017.
The Municipality received a proposal from White Buffalo, Inc., to provide deer management sharpshooting services. The municipality has also received a Deer Control - Political Subdivision Permit from the Pennsylvania Game Commission permitting this activity. White Buffalo’s proposal contains two options: one to remove up to 100 deer at a cost of $83,477 or an option to remove up to 150 deer at a cost of $132,038.
Recommended Action: Move to authorize the execution of this agreement with White Buffalo, Inc., for the removal of up to 100 deer at a cost not to exceed $83, 477, subject to the approval of the Manager and the Solicitor.
Here is what we know. Or don't know.
- Tony DeNicola finished earlier than expected this past March. He couldn't find any more deer.
- Mt. Lebanon went to the Court of Common Pleas over the privilege of killing deer in Twin Hills Park, a 25 acre property owned by Mt. Lebanon which is situated in Scott Township. Mt. Lebanon won, but there were restrictions including the use of sharpshooting in Twin Hills. Either Mt. Lebanon honors that agreement, or Mt. Lebanon goes back to court for the use of high powered rifles in Twin Hills.
- Archers have killed half as many deer this year, even with the additional 25 acres in Twin Hills.
- The archery program concludes on January 28, 2017.
- The commissioners will not have an official count of kills until February.
- Either there are bogus accident reports being filed with MLPD, or we have sloppy bookkeeping. The numbers don't add up. Increased reported collisions vs. lower accidents vs. fewer dead deer pick ups.
- We do not know what type of bait or system that White Buffalo will use to distribute the bait. I was told that Tony's bait is proprietary. Evidently, Tony owns the patent on corn and apples. I thought God held that patent. Allegheny County Health Department is ready to fine Mt. Lebanon since ground feeding is not permitted.
2 comments:
I haven’t been paying much attention to recent developments in the deer issue, so forgive me if this question has already been asked and answered: Has there been any official explanation of the apparent increase in deer vs. car crashes since the deer culling began in September 2015?
According to the municipality’s own statistics, it looks as if deer collections by animal control and reported deer vs. car crashes are both up. That second link is to a graph I compiled from police reports and the municipality’s deer incident report. Looking at it, you can see that car crashes from all causes (in blue) are also up but only slightly, not enough to explain the increase in reported deer vs. car crashes (in red).
No, Tom. No official explanation. Ever. We don't have the right to know anything about this covert operation.
Elaine
Post a Comment