Deer Population Down in Lower Merion, Culling Will Continue

While progress has been made, efforts to reduce the deer population in Lower Merion should continue, the U.S. Department of Agriculture advised in a recent report.

At Tuesday's Board of Commissioners meeting, police superintendent Michael McGrath outlined the USDA's findings on the culling program the township launched in 2009. 

According to the study, deer density has decreased 30.17 percent in the township since 2008, dropping from 58 deer per square mile to 40.5. While this marks an improvement, for suburban areas like Lower Merion, the target density is much lower. The USDA says the township should shoot for 10 deer per square mile.

Diminishing the deer population to this level will be difficult, McGrath acknowledged. In the report summary, the superintendent wrote that culling to the target density will be complicated by the high number of low-acreage private parcels in the township. The effort, though, will continue.

“The recommendation is to continue the culling to bring our deer density levels lower,” McGrath told the Main Line Media News. “We are scheduled to do a deer culling this year and we are intending to put it in our 2014 proposed budget.”

The techniques to locate and remove the deer are quite sophisticated. After getting consent from the owners of the properties in question, four-man mobile teams consisting of two members of the Lower Merion Police Department and two marksmen from USDA Wildlife Service are deployed up to six nights a year.

Safety is paramount: all the hunting takes place between 9 p.m. and dawn—when deer are out in large numbers and residents are mostly indoors—and the rifles the team uses shoot "frangible" bullets, which fragment upon entering the deer to reduce the likelihood of pass-through.

(For a more detailed explanation of the culling program, download the Department of Agriculture's full report here or read check out a 2011 Ardmore Patch story on the culling effort here.)

According to the Main Line Media News, McGrath said that, in general, Lower Merion home owners are supportive of the program, which has resulted in the removal of 387 deer since 2009.

“We have some people who don’t want us to do it on their properties but as you see from the numbers we are getting an increase in the number of properties involved in the program,” he said.