INFORMATION REQUESTED BY CITIZEN GROUP OPPOSING HUNTS• Specific number of deer harvested in 2011, with reports of weight, sex and estimated age;• Specific number of turkey harvested in 2011;• Specific reports of traffic accidents caused by deer in the area of Enterprise South Nature Park;• Specific reports of non-automobile property damage caused by deer in the area of Enterprise South Nature Park;• Reports of methods used to determine a census of the wildlife in the park, and the census made, if any;• If reporting observations about the deer’s feeding areas, and photographs of examples of the types of observations made;• The number of acres available for deer and turkey hunting in Tennessee and the proportion that Enterprise South Nature Park represents relative to the overall available acreage;• Other methods employed in Tennessee for culling an area overpopulated by wildlife where hunting is not deemed an acceptable method, for safety reasons or for any other reason, and the efficacy of such methods to reduce the overpopulation;• Any efforts made by TWRA in the time that has elapsed since the previous hunt to explore other methods of managing the ecosystem or population of wildlife in Enterprise South Nature Park.Source: Letter to Hamiton County officials
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency wants to hold two deer hunts in Enterprise South Nature Park this fall.
“Right now we will be recommending to continue the hunts there,” TWRA game biologist Ben Layton told Hamilton County commissioners Thursday. “We’d like to kill or harvest a few more antlerless deer.”
The commission contracts with TWRA to manage the deer population on county land.
He said the hunts are necessary to control deer population in the park and surrounding areas. The hunts, which date back to as early as 1978, began when the U.S. Army asked TWRA to control population on the former Volunteer Army Ammunition site that now has become the nature park.