Hunters will aim to reduce deer numbers in Suffolk park

SUFFOLK

Three or four days a week, Robert Taylor III finishes his farm work, grabs his rifle and sets out to defend his crops.

Deer patrol, he calls it.

The animals are thick in and around Lone Star Lakes, a city park that is partly leased for farming. So thick, he said, that he and his assistants have taken out more than 100 of them over the years.

"They'll eat everything you plant if you don't," he said.

Reinforcements are coming. This fall, the city will close the park to the public and open it to hunters.

As many as 16 hunters a day will be allowed deep into Lone Star Lakes on six dates in November.

The city hopes they will thin the deer population more effectively than farmers have been able to do with permits that let them protect their fields most of the year.

For years, the forested 1,094-acre park and its 11 lakes have provided a refuge from which deer can venture and forage adjoining fields.

"That's the breeding ground. We're the feeding ground," said Philip Edwards, one of three farmers who lease park land for crops.

The deer may have reached the biological limit of what the park can support, as evidenced by spots where vegetation has been stripped up to 4 feet high, said Glen Askins, regional wildlife biologist for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

The crop damage, meanwhile, is measured in the thousands of dollars. To get an idea of how quickly it can accumulate, assume an acre of soybeans will bring in $360. Then consider that deer can "completely destroy acres after acres of beans," Edwards said.

"Deer damage just costs us a tremendous amount of money in a year's time," he said.

Farmers who lease land at Lone Star Lakes have been able to use year-round damage control permits to kill deer in those fields since 2007. That helps the farmers but doesn't have much of an impact on the larger problem in the park, Askins said.

The permits also lead to a lot of wasted meat, Taylor said. Time-strapped farmers shoot many deer in hot weather, when the meat goes bad fast, he said.

So the conservationist in Taylor is thrilled to see the fall hunt happen.

"I can't tell you how many deer we've killed over the years on damage permits, but it's disgusting," he said.

City Councilman Joe Barlow said he pushed for the hunt, partly to stem that waste of meat. His borough covers the park, and his son leases some of the city land there for farming.

John Ruggiero, park ranger sergeant, said he has sought a fall hunt for years. Studies had to be done, he said, as well as consultation with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Ruggiero said it will provide a rare opportunity for local hunters. "Unless you're a member of a hunt club or own your own land, you just don't hunt in Suffolk because everything is privately owned," he said.

The hunt will be split into four days for shotguns and muzzleloaders, two days for archers. A total of 188 hunters applied for one or both hunts. The application deadline was Aug. 28.

The idea won't be popular with everybody, Taylor said. The heavy deer population is a draw for some.

Joan Odom, who lives near the park, said last week that she was unaware of the upcoming hunt. She said the city should have done a better job of informing residents about it.

"It's real shocking. It really is," she said. "You'd think you'd get a little more advance notice."

Next door, her mother-in-law, Betty Odom, said she was fine with the hunt. She's counted as many as 29 deer at one time in the field outside her home, although this spring marked the first time they hadn't eaten her azaleas.

Dave Forster, (757) 222-5563, dave.forster@pilotonline.com