Heinz Wildlife Refuge, Plagued With Too Many Deer, Has a Hunt Set This Weekend

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Some of the hunters at the Heinz Refuge 2019 deer culling. Image via Heinz Wildlife Refuge.

Hikers at the Heinz Wildlife Refuge in Tinicum beware. The refuge is closed to the public Thursday, Oct. 22 through Saturday, Oct. 24 for the second annual archery deer hunt, writes Victor Fiorillo for phillymag.com.

This year’s hunt is twice as big, with 40 hunter slots available. The hunters will be at the refuge this weekend, one weekend in November and two weekends in December.

It’s all designed to cull the overpopulated herds of deer in the park.

Not everyone’s on board. Some don’t like the idea of killing animals in a wildlife refuge.

But there’s just too many deer, says Heinz Wildlife Refuge deputy manager Mariana Bergerson.

The refuge’s 1,000 acres has 74 deer per square mile. Between 20 and 38 deer per square mile would be better for a healthy ecosystem.

“Managing the deer herd is so important,” she says. “The deer no longer have natural predators here, so the herd is too large and they overbrowse on trees and shrubs, which prevents other wildlife from eating it.

More deer also encourages  disease to spread more easily around the herd.

And less deer means less car collisions.

Read more about this scheduled deer hunt at Philadelphia Magazine.

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