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Fairfax County details archery, managed hunts and sharpshooting used to control deer
Summary
Catherine Edwards of the Fairfax County Police Department outlined the county's Deer Management Program methods—archery on parklands, limited managed firearms hunts, and targeted sharpshooting—explaining safety screening, training and site rules that keep parks open during operations.
Catherine Edwards, wildlife management specialist with the Fairfax County Police Department, opened the webinar with an overview of how the county reduces deer numbers on public lands. She said the program uses methods approved by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources and that “archery is the primary management method used in Fairfax County for deer herd reduction.”
Edwards described program safeguards: archers undergo a criminal background check and additional qualifications beyond state licensing, must complete International Bowhunter Education Program training, and pass bow‑accuracy qualifications. Hunting on county parkland is limited to screened, assigned archers; parks remain open to the public while strict safety protocols are in place. The county restricts tree‑stand placement and hunting near boundaries (no stands within 100 feet of a property line and 50 feet of established trails); archers must identify targets with 100 percent certainty and shooting from the ground is prohibited.
Managed public firearms hunts follow similar screening and check‑in procedures and are limited to designated areas where firearms are allowed. Nighttime police‑led sharpshooting occurs when parks are closed and uses elevated, static positions with night‑vision and thermal equipment under a Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources kill permit; harvested deer from sharpshooting are donated to food banks. Edwards emphasized incident reporting, required hunt logs (dates, times, shots, observed deer, biological data), and that any deviations must be filed as incident reports so program managers can monitor compliance and safety.
