• These are experienced, fully vetted archers who passed a difficult archery exam.
• There is a 50-yard safety zone surrounding occupied structures, this includes playgrounds and OLEAs.
• The average bow can only travel 40 yards. Archers often avoid taking risky shots over 30 yards to ensure accuracy.
• Archers are shooting downward from their tree stands. They will not be shooting upwards or anywhere they cannot see the final destination of their bow.
• Here is a great resource on hunting injuries from the PA Game Commission. Please note it’s not exclusive to archery: https://www.pgc.pa.gov/HuntTrap/Hunter-TrapperEducation/Documents/2022%20HRSI%20Report.pdf
• Hunters generally do not want to be in a highly populated area for the safety of others and the success of their hunts. Most will be off-trail.
• See Resources (on this page) for the Notice Flyer posted in the parks.

Maintaining a healthy deer population is critical to both the park’s health and deer herds' health. The large deer population has exasperated their food source, limiting native vegetation's ability to root and regenerate. With no natural predators we are seeing an increase in car-deer collisions, relentless damage to our ecosystem, and unnatural aggression toward pets and people.

Not doing anything to control the deer population will result in an even greater number of vehicle-deer collisions. In Pennsylvania, about 50,000 deer are killed annually on PA Streets. In 2018, Pittsburgh's Animal Care and Control picked up 335 deceased deer, and in 2021 Animal Care and Control removed 510 deer. Additionally, the deer numbers are growing faster than the habitat can support them. In urban settings, this can result in starvation as food sources grow scarcer. Deer populations double every 2-3 years at an exponential rate.

During Allegheny County's Archery season. These dates are:

• Saturday, September 30 - Saturday, December 9*
• Tuesday, December 26 - Saturday, January 27 (2024)*

*Excluding Sundays

The main goal of this pilot program is to control the City's deer population, and requiring a doe first best helps us meet that goal. A doe reaches breeding age at 6 months, and 98% of mature does can breed every year.

A doe can produce one to two fawns each year and occasionally triplets. 85% of births are twins and triplets.

GonaCon is the single-shot multi-year immunocontraceptive approved by the EPA and is not currently registered for use in Pennsylvania.

Additionally, fertility control is often employed in conjunction with deer herd reduction techniques and will not help reduce the already overpopulated herd size.

All archers must stay 50 yards (150 feet) away from occupied structures including schools, playgrounds, and homes. The USDA will assign all archers a specific zone where they are allowed to hunt.

Of the City's five regional parks, Frick and Riverview Parks face the largest unregulated deer herds due to the limited roads and lack of predators in the parks.

Pittsburgh Parks must be posted to prohibit any unauthorized hunting to align with PA Game Commission standards. This allows for Conservation Officers to enforce any unwanted and unauthorized hunting.