BALTIMORE — Shooting down deer in Baltimore parks - it's a process the city will start in just a few days.
But first, some neighbors had questions.
For 27 years, Baltimore has dealt with far too many deer.
Final meeting held before the plan goes into place. Hear from neighbors below:
"It's very dire. We're anywhere from 1.7 to 21.1 times too many deer than what's recommended," said Shane Beohne, Wildlife Conservation Analyst with Baltimore City Recreation and Parks.
Now the city is doing something about it, launching a deer management program.
Baltimore will partner with USDA sharpshooters to help reduce the animals' population.
Beohne said it's important to make sure the deer don't continue to endanger plants in the area.
"It's important for us to do that. It's important for us to reduce the number of deer vehicle collisions we have in the city each year, it's important for us to limit the likelihood that folks come down with something like Lyme disease, and it's also important to reduce economic damages that people are experiencing on their own personal properties," he told WMAR-2 News.
The process will start on March 9 and end on April 9.
Personnel will begin operation at 4 p.m. and end around 7 a.m.
Deer will be culled at three parks; Gwynns Falls-Leakin, Herring Run, and Druid Hill.
Thursday, Boehne presented the plan to neighbors living near Herring Run.
As WMAR-2 News left the meeting, more than three deer were grazing right across the street, showing the need for the plan.
However, some residents like Jonathan Lowe had some concerns about the process.
"I live on park side which borders where they're going to be doing the shooting. My main concern was making sure this was done with public safety in mind," Lowe said.
Boehne set his mind at ease.
"We're gonna have basically a security perimeter set to minimize likelihood that people can get inside of the park during operations."
Shooters will be 150 yards away from any occupied structures like homes and schools.
Lowe also worried about the plan to donate the venison to the Maryland Food Bank to be eaten.
"I like the parks in Baltimore. I do know they do struggle with water quality and that was my concern on how that would affect the health of the deer."
While the city is not required to test the meat, it's up to the discretion of USDA and the meat processor to look for symptoms and abnormalities.
The process will start at Gwynns Falls-Leakin park and then move to Herring Run park, then ending at Druid Hill park.
