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A proposal to use sharpshooters to cull the deer population in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and Harpers Ferry National Historical parks is still open to public comment an opportunity some local hunters took advantage of Tuesday night.

Superintendents Kevin Brandt of the C&O Canal and Tyrone Brandyburg of Harpers Ferry attended the informational meeting to present the plan "in a succinct way," and to give people an opportunity to ask questions and get further information.

The plan was developed because of the damage too many deer can do to natural vegetation as well as to the overall health of the deer population itself, Brandt said.

Recent National Park Service programs to cull deer have been completed at Antietam and Monocacy National battlefields, and Catoctin Mountain Park.

Brandt said the problem is that deer feeding on vegetation is resulting in the loss of forest areas in the parks.

"It would be a bigger job of regenerating the forest without culling" the herd, he said.

Brandt said the park service monitors vegetation to see whether to cull the herds, and does deer density counts in some areas.

But hunters attending the meeting said they don't think there are as many deer as the park service believes. And if there are, why not let local hunters take care of the problem?

Among them was Washington County Board of Commissioners' President Terry Baker.

"I'm obviously here in opposition to bringing in sharpshooters to the C&O Canal," he told Herald-Mail Media, particularly in the western part of the county.

Baker said he believes there are fewer deer there than in previous years.

"This was the first year in 15 years that I haven't harvested a buck on my own property," he said.

Baker called the proposal to hire sharpshooters "appalling."

"Why do I want to waste taxpayers' money when we have our own sportsmen" who could hunt the deer, he asked.

Fellow hunters Keith Weller of Hagerstown and Tom Drury of Cearfoss agreed. Both hunt on property near the canal, they said.

"We're seeing fewer (deer) all the time," Drury said.

Where they once filled feeders every week, now they fill them every month, they said.

"We talk to a lot of people," Weller said. "Everybody's saying the same thing."

But Brandt said culling operations on the canal would be far away from Washington County, at least for a while. And it wouldn't involve that many deer.

He said the park service would target the Gold Mine track in the Great Falls area in Montgomery County.

"The science tells us that taking out 50 in the first year will greatly improve regeneration of the forest," Brandt said. "We won't rush to do other areas."

Brandyburg said about that many would likely be culled from the Harpers Ferry park, in the areas of Maryland Heights in Washington County and Bolivar Heights in Jefferson County, W.Va.

Another meeting is scheduled Wednesday night from 6 to 8 at the Stephen T. Mather Training Center in Harpers Ferry.

A final meeting will be conducted from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center in Potomac, Md.

The White-tailed Deer Management Plan and Environmental Assessment is available online, and comments on the plan will be accepted through May 16.

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Hunters oppose Md. and W.Va. parks' deer-control plan - Herald-Mail Media