By Sean P. Ray | Managing Editor

OBSERVATORY HILL — As part of ongoing efforts to reduce the deer population in Pittsburgh’s parks, a targeted harvesting program was piloted in Riverview and Frick parks to further bring down the herd numbers of the animals.

The targeted harvest was performed in March following the completion of the 2024-25 archery-controlled program. The archery program, which was launched during the 2023-24 deer archery season, permits certain archers to hunt deer in Pittsburgh parks, and is run by a collaborative effort between the City of Pittsburgh and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Unlike the archery program, which is open to any hunters who possess enough accuracy skill to qualify, the targeted harvest was undertaken by USDA-contracted marksmen who are trained to hit a 1-inch target at 100 yards multiple times.

“In consultation with our partners at the USDA, we have decided to introduce a pilot targeted harvesting program in the hopes of shrinking our deer population,” said Lee Schmidt, director of Pittsburgh Public Safety, in a press release. “We are grateful to the USDA for their continued expertise and guidance as we expand our program to ensure a healthy deer population.

The targeted harvest resulted in the culling of 76 deer from Riverview Park and 60 from Frick Park, totaling 136. All deer harvested were donated to local food pantries, amounting to 21,760 meals, according to the city.

Comparatively, 19 deer were successfully brought down in Riverview Park during the most recent archery program. A total of 199 deer were hunted during that program’s 2024-25 run. Participating hunters are required to take a doe first and donate that doe to a food bank program, resulting in 14,720 meals donated during the season.

Erica Heide, a senior park ranger with Pittsburgh Park Rangers, explained that the reason Frick and Riverview parks were chosen to pilot the targeted harvests was due to their difference in size. Riverview is one of Pittsburgh’s smallest city parks, while Frick is one of the largest.

In addition, both parks are believed to have some of the largest deer populations in the city. While the exact populations are unknown, Heide said the city knows it is overpopulated with deer due to metrics such as the number of deer-vehicle impacts, lack of undergrowth in city parks and the presence of invasive plant species in the parks.

For example, Heide said that there were 513 deer corpses picked up by Pittsburgh Animal Care & Control in 2020, the majority of which were from vehicle collisions. Comparatively, there were only 140 deer picked up in 2004.

The city indicated the targeted harvesting is unlikely to be a long-term program, the press release saying the archery programs alone are “usually sufficient to maintain the population in successive years.”

“(The archery is) very much a program that will never go away,” Heide said.

In its press release announcing the targeted harvesting, the city said the program would go after deer which would have “the greatest impact” on the population. Heide explained this meant going after the weakest deer in the herd, such as those who are malnourished or potentially diseased. She said that while the program is aimed at reducing the deer population, the city still wants the remaining deer herd to be healthy. An overabundance of unhealthy deer could result in the spread of disease through the herd.

As such, the targeted harvesting involves going after deer that hunters in the archery program would usually avoid shooting, Heide explained.

The targeted harvests were performed overnight while the respective parks were closed. Heide said there were no “public safety incidents” during the harvests.

“So overall, we would consider it a success just based on how safe it was,” she said.

Alison Keating, chair of the Deer Committee for the Friends of Riverview Park, said the organization supports the targeted harvests supplementing the archery program, and praised the herd reduction efforts.

“I think it’s great,” she said. “We understand that it costs more money, but we are so far behind on managing the deer that we need to utilize this special program to remove more deer faster from the dark.”

Keating said she feels the targeted harvests will likely occur for the next “three-to-five years” before allowing the archery program to entirely take over managing the deer population.

She acknowledged that some people strongly oppose the hunts. During the 2023-24 archery hunts, The Chronicle received two letters to the editor from residents regarding the hunts, one expressing opposition while the other suggested non-lethal methods to prevent the deer from eating native plants.

The City of Pittsburgh released these two harvest reports for the archery program (top) and the newly-introduced targeted harvesting (bottom). Across both programs, 95 deer were culled from Riverview Park Images courtesy of Pittsburgh Park Rangers

“I understand where those folks are coming from,” Keating said. “I myself am a vegetarian. The reason why those avenues aren’t pursued is because they’re either ineffective or extremely expensive, or can actually be harmful to the deer.”

Further, Keating said such removals are illegal under the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Travis Lau, communications director for the Game Commission, confirmed that people are not allowed to tranquilize and remove a deer from its habitat.

Reasons for the hunts

While a part of nature, the large crowd of deer in Pittsburgh’s parks causes numerous ecological problems.

Heide said deer most prefer to eat native plants. With no natural hunters reducing their numbers, this results in the growing deer herd devouring all native plants they can reach, allowing invasive species to grow in their place.

In situations where no new plants replace the eaten native ones, this loosens the soil, leading to heavier erosion and more frequent landslides.

Additionally, because there is only so much native vegetation to go around for an overpopulated deer herd, many of the deer are not eating nearly enough to keep themselves properly fed.

Also, as mentioned before, a larger deer herd results in more impact with vehicles, resulting in damage to automobiles and injuries for drivers.

For more information about the Deer Management Program, visit engage.pittsburghpa.gov/deer-management-program.