As Montgomery Parks launched the last of its previously scheduled managed deer hunts Monday, the agency also announced it will likely be expanding the program to part of Rock Creek Park in Kensington.
Montgomery Parks, part of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), will take public comment on the expansion proposal until Nov. 18. It also hopes to add part of Muddy Branch Stream Valley Park in Darnestown to the deer management program.
The Kensington deer hunt would take place in Rock Creek Stream Valley Park between Stoneybrook Drive and Connecticut Avenue.
Park Police sharpshooters would conduct the hunts at night when the park is closed throughout the winter.
Montgomery Parks has long organized managed deer hunts in an effort to stop the overpopulation of deer in the county, which county officials have said leads to deer-vehicle collisions and more cases of Lyme disease.
This year, for the first time, Parks enlisted members of the public for a crossbow deer hunt. That elicited a lawsuit from a Bethesda woman who is a member of the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
Lawyers from PETA said hunting deer by crossbow, as opposed to rifles, could leave deer shot by arrows alive and in intense pain for long periods of time. A Montgomery County Circuit Court judge denied the group’s motion for a temporary restraining order to stop the hunts and the program began last month in parks located in Gaithersburg and Potomac.
Comments about the proposal to expand the program to Kensington and Darnestown can be posted on the Parks deer management website.
