
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 21, 1991                   TAG: 9102210486
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HIGHER LIMITS EXPECTED FOR VA. DEER HUNTERS/ DAMAGE INCREASES AS ANIMAL

Virginia will have to expand hunting limits on deer because a record harvest by hunters failed to keep the population in control, state game officials said.

Complaints about deer damage in rural and urban areas are at an all-time high, they said.

The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries discussed proposals to expand deer hunting limits at public hearings in Marion, Lynchburg, Staunton, Williamsburg and Falmouth during the past nine days.

"The overriding theme of the hearings is that we've got an abundant population of deer statewide," said Jerry Sims, assistant chief of wildlife. "We have to be thinking about more liberal bag limits and opening up the season."

The wildlife division staff will write its recommendations Thursday and Friday and present them during another public hearing in Richmond next month, Sims said.

Hunters killed 160,411 deer during the past season, a 20 percent increase from the previous season, which also was a record.

To keep the population in control, hunters need to kill about 200,000 of an estimated statewide herd of 750,000 deer, Sims said.

One of the primary reasons for the complaints about deer eating and damaging crops and shrubs is that there was a shortage of acorns in the woodlands last year, Sims said. "The deer were forced out of the woods to feed."

Farmers said the deer in their alfalfa, corn and soybean fields and their apple and peach orchards were literally eating away profits. Nursery owners said deer were eating ornamental plants.

"Corporate centers in Fairfax County had a severe problem with deer eating all the shrubs," Sims said. The problem also was acute at some large estates and parks that prohibit hunting, he said.

At the Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge the deer are destroying habitat that will take years to recover, he said. Other hotspots for deer complaints were Botetourt, Pittsylvania, Halifax, Frederick and Clarke counties.

The proposals the game department are considering include allowing hunters in problem areas to kill two deer a day rather than one, kill more does and kill bucks as well as does on a Damage Control Assistance Program tag.

The General Assembly is considering a bonus deer license for hunters that pay a surcharge, Sims said.

by CNB