Protest ends deer hunt behind homes in Lower Makefield. Here's where the hunt will go on

Lower Makefield Supervisor James McCartney had heard enough.

Representatives of 43 families who live in the Yardley Run community near a township-owned tract of land didn't want a bow and arrow deer hunt behind their back yards.

Halfway through their comments at the board's meeting Wednesday night, he suggested to his fellow supervisors that the hunt not be allowed in the tract that also borders Newtown Township. They agreed.

Hunting to go on in other locations in Lower Makefield, Upper Makefield

But the archers' hunt will go on in other wooded areas in the township as well as in Upper Makefield.

Members of the Big Oak Whitetail Management Association (BOWMA) have been bow hunting in Lower and Upper Makefield since 2009 to reduce the numbers of deer in their area.

It is the only organization that is allowed to hunt antlerless deer in the two townships. They are not paid by the townships for culling the herds, but are allowed to take all the deer they harvest. They will be allowed to tag almost 100 deer, according to Pennsylvania Game Commission regulations.

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This year, they received unanimous approval from the Lower Makefield supervisors in May to hunt, dawn to dusk, Monday through Saturday from Sept. 16 to Nov. 24 and from Dec. 26 to Jan. 27 in several township locations, including the woods at Makefield Highlands Golf Course and in the wooded area of Memorial Park.

Hunting will also be allowed on Sundays, Nov. 12 and 19. The township website states this will not interfere with the normal golf course operations or with access to the park.

Other locations are at Buck Creek, Ellen Tract, Faytol Tract, in the wooded area between the Lower Makefield Municipal Building, at Patterson Farm, at the Snipes Tract and near the Taylorsville Road Park & Ride.

And at Five Mile Woods off Big Oak Road, the wooded park will be closed to public use Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday each week during the hunting season except Thanksgiving. It will remain open Sundays, Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays.

In Upper Makefield, they are allowed to hunt in four township owned properties that are not "active parks," said Assistant Manager Judy Caporiccio, as well as on private land if they get the permission of the residents.

She said hunting will be allowed until Jan. 27 at a township site on River Road near Puddletown Road, at the municipal complex, at a property off Walker Drive and at the firehouse property on Taylorsville Road.

Pros and cons of deer hunt in Lower Makefield presented

The residents of Yardley Run were concerned about their children using the wooded area behind their homes to get to the neighborhoods in Newtown that also back up to the woods. While the minutes of the May meeting note that the hunters have $1 million in insurance, a physician who attended the Wednesday meeting said he didn't think that was not enough to cover an accident in which someone was struck by an arrow.

Residents also were concerned that they were only given a few days notice of the hunt and noted that the hunters would have to have their permission to go on their private property to follow a deer that might be wounded but not killed by an arrow.

Todd Huber of the BOWMA group said Wednesday that the hunters are fully trained and use tree stands so they are close to the deer they want to harvest. He said the hunt helps curtail the deer population and the group has done this each year since 2009 "without incident." He said they are not allowed to hunt within 50 yards of an occupied structure. "We follow all the rules," he said.

Supervisor John Lewis pointed out that too many deer along roadways leads to traffic accidents and they can carry the tick that causes Lyme Disease and related illnesses and destroy gardens and vegetation that other wildlife need to survive. "We have never had an issue. It's a very successful program with no cost to the township," he said.

Township Manager David Kratzer said later the hunts at Memorial Park and the golf course have been going on for years and they are posted so people know to stay out of the wooded areas.

Police Chief Ken Coluzzi reported that in 2019, there 123 incidents in which deer were found dead by roadways but no driver was there to report an accident and 28 reported accidents involving deer. Last year, there were only 62 deer found dead and 15 accidents, so culling the herds is helping, he said.

A resident asked if the deer could be given drugs to make them infertile, but Huber and Grenier weren't sure if that would work.

Huber said the hunters are required to give their first deer killed to the Hunters Sharing the Harvest organization to provide meat to needy families.

A mother said having a hunt 85 days a year in the woods off Lindenhurst Road would prevent the neighborhood children from using the woods for play, and witnessing injured deer from her home would be distressful to her and her family. She thanked the supervisors for denying the hunt at that site. "I could protect my children from witnessing such trauma," she said.

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Grenier, who led the meeting because Supervisor Chair Suzanne Blundi was absent, said the board would work with the township to establish guidelines and provide more notice to residents about future hunts. Colin Coyle, who was appointed to the supervisor board following the resignation of board Chair Fredric Weiss, was also absent from the Wednesday meeting due to illness.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Lower Makefield, Upper Makefield welcome archery group to cull deer herds