Arlington County, Virginia, has a whitetail deer population that’s out of control.
In December 2021, the county commissioned a study that determined its deer population far exceeds healthy levels. The problem is so dire, the Democrat-led county even launched a Deer Management Program to address the situation.
“White-tailed deer are native to Arlington, belong here, and are an essential part of the ecology. However, when there are too many deer, they can harm the environment by eating certain plants faster than they can grow back and will compete for food which can lead to malnourishment, disease, and increased mortality rates. Arlington does not have enough predators for deer, so the deer population can grow too quickly and upset the balance of nature,” the management program’s website reads.
There are four proposed management strategies being considered: sharp-shooting, citizen hunting, sterilizing or building fences. Sharp-shooting and sterilization would require state permission and are expensive and ineffective, respectively.
Therefore, local politicians would be wise to recommend citizen hunting - modeling nearby Fairfax County’s urban bowhunting problem- as the top solution.
The Animal Welfare League of Arlington (AWLA), naturally, disputed the December 2021 study and is actively engaging in a disinformation campaign to stop management altogether. The AWLA claims deer are being unnecessarily targeted by the county and blamed for destroying understory. They claim factors like climate change - not an overabundance of deer - is to blame. Laughable.
This has prompted the Arlington Forestry and Natural Resources Commission, (FNRC), a frequent partner of AWLA, to break from the organization.
In a letter defending the county’s proposed deer management plan, FNRC urged the Arlington County Board of Supervisors to deny AWLA’s misinformation and proceed.
“The Commission also understands that deer management can be an emotional issue, with strong opinions on both sides of the issue. That is why it is so important that the discussion and the public education efforts be firmly grounded in facts, not emotions, supported by the best scientific research,” the letter said. “It is especially unfortunate, therefore, that the Animal Welfare League of Arlington (AWLA) has been publicizing incorrect and misleading information about deer management. The FNRC has been a strong supporter of AWLA in the past, and the Commission is reluctant to criticize such an important community organization. But in this case, the FNRC believes we have no choice. In keeping with the key mission elements in our charter, the FNRC has a civic duty to point out and formally object to the disinformation from the AWLA, which could cause serious harm to the County’s natural resources.”
The letter debunked AWLA’s claim that hunting will harm other flora and fauna, adding, “AWLA states that “that hunting deer can negatively impact other animals such as snakes, salamanders, amphibians, and many invertebrates.” Not true. All the evidence, including numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies, shows the exact opposite: Deer overpopulation has devastating effects on the songbirds, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and other creatures that depend upon the understory habitat that over populations of deer destroy.”
Deer Sterilization Programs Don’t Work
Deer sterilization programs have been experimented with before–and with little to no success.
Famously Staten Island - one of five New York City boroughs - attracted a lot of attention for launching their program in 2016. Last year, the town claimed their vasectomy program cut the deer population by 30%. But there’s more to the story than meets the eye.
“It’s an incredible waste of money, and it disappoints me that any municipality would take this on,” Cornell University Professor Jim Tantillo said to MeatEater about NYC’s program. “The ethical question is whether these folks are being honest about their motives. They’re spending $6 million on deer vasectomies, which strikes me as an elaborate form of virtue-signaling that lets them tell everyone how much they care about animals.
In 2013, Fairfax City, Virginia, approved a deer sterilization program by a 5-1 vote. It was the first Virginia town to approve such a program. But as expected, it was discontinued after 2018 due to lackluster results.
The Wildlife Society published a report in 2016 that concluded “surgical sterilization on female deer was unsuccessful in lowering a population of overabundant deer.”
“Our study does not bode well for the many well-meaning urban and suburban communities in North America experiencing negative deer impacts who wish to pursue nonlethal control techniques,” said Jason Boulanger, lead author and University of North Dakota assistant professor of wildlife ecology and human dimensions. “Surgical sterilization is also an expensive undertaking, costing up to $1,200.”
Whitetail Deer Aren’t Endangered and Must Be Managed
Will Arlington-dwelling deer be driven to extinction if hunting is approved under the Deer Management Program, as AWLA claims?
No. That’s blatant misinformation.
If deer aren’t managed, there will be rampant overbrowsing (which decimates native plant species and young trees), more deer-vehicle collisions, Lyme’s disease cases, and plenty of ruined gardens, for instance.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an authority on wildlife conservation, publishes the Red List of Threatened Species and deemed the white-tailed deer’s conservation status to be of "least concern.”
Whitetail deer populations have exploded nationally–including here in northern Virginia. You can thank conservationists like hunters for bringing them back.
Per the most available Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) data, there are between 850,000 to one million whitetail deer found throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The only danger these deer face is from animal rights activists who aren’t following wildlife science and lean on emotion.
Cooler heads must prevail in Arlington County to authorize a hunting season. Pray we don’t see deer vigils here anytime soon.