TRURO, N.S.
Non-firearm hunting will be permitted in the Truro watershed beginning Monday in an effort to reduce the area’s growing deer population.
Hunters must register prior to heading out to the area and only bows and cross bows are permitted to be used.
“It will be opened up as a general hunt for everybody with a valid license who’ve qualified for archery and cross bow hunting. No rifles,” said town CAO Mike Dolter.
Motorized vehicles such as ATVs are not permitted and hunting is not allowed within any of the trails that extend from Victoria Park.
“We’ve excluded all the trails in the park and we’ve created a fairly hefty buffer zone around them as well, so that people know clearly,” Dolter said.
Access to the hunting area through the park is not permitted.
“With the buffers that we’ve got established everybody should be safe. And in fact they shouldn’t be in any of our work areas either,” he said.
“We’ve already let our staff know that anybody that they find that is in there hunting should have a copy of this permission that we’ve given them and if they don’t then they will be asked to leave the area.”
Everyone hunting in the watershed area is required to register with the town at the Douglas Street Recreation Centre. They will receive a permission slip as well as a detailed map and GPS coordinates of the permitted hunting zone along with a list of conditions they have to meet while they are in the area.
That information is also available to the general public to
ensure that everyone has a clear understanding of the hunt zone.
A recent survey indicates the urban deer population is estimated to be at least double the rest of Deer Management Zone 107, which includes the South Colchester and East Hants.
That over population has resulted in residents having to deal with property damage, vehicle collisions with deer and increased fears of tick-borne Lyme disease.
The town said in a news release that the population problem is further complicated by many residents who feed the deer, which artificially sustains a number of large pockets of the animals but which ultimately is an “extremely unhealthy” practice for them.
In that regard, the town will be providing information to educate the public about not feeding deer, through a series of signs that will be placed strategically in most abundantly populated areas as well as throughout Victoria Park. The areas that will be opened to hunting are being signed at all likely assess points to ensure that hunters are aware that they are required to have town permission to hunt. Signs will also be placed to indicate where hunting is not permitted.
Dolter said this is the first step in a process that will see the monitoring of the deer population over the next
three to five years to determine how it is trending. The goal is to have the urban deer population within town boundaries fall in line with the rest of Deer Management
Zone 107.
Whether hunting within the watershed area will be permitted in future is to be determined in conjunction with the Department of Lands and Forestry. After three years of data have been collected, the situation will be assessed to see if further steps are required.
