So why is it anytime the WP or NYT reports on anything gun related, all government agents are Seal Team 6 level shooters and all civilian gun owners can barely hold a gun without shooting a child or puppy? I doubt Department of Agriculture biologists spend 6 hours a day honing their tactical shooting skills.

Several federal agencies help oversee the hunts, which are conducted by biologists who are highly-trained firearms experts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture at times when the park is normally closed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr- ... ge%2Fstory

culannmac wrote:So why is it anytime the WP or NYT reports on anything gun related, all government agents are Seal Team 6 level shooters and all civilian gun owners can barely hold a gun without shooting a child or puppy? I doubt Department of Agriculture biologists spend 6 hours a day honing their tactical shooting skills.

Several federal agencies help oversee the hunts, which are conducted by biologists who are highly-trained firearms experts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture at times when the park is normally closed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr- ... ge%2Fstory

If they are in a city park I imagine they are using bow and arrows.

So, they are shinning deer at night?

Rock Creek Park is a forest in the middle of an urban area. Aside from road kill there is no check on the deer population.

A long time ago when I lived in suburban Chicagoland, I knew a 3 square mile preserve, known locally as Busse Woods, like the back of my hand. At one point the powers that were decided, correctly, to restore ( leave the creek alone and no longer support drainage) a wetland. Sensible flood control actually and that was the plan. It also created a meadow...lots of deer food surrounded by woods. Ideal deer habitat.

The deer population spiked. They ate anything they could find. Winter hikes showed me that any twig on a living tree within deer reach was gone.

So back to Rock Creek....you cull the herd or let them starve.

Back to OP..biologists with sniper training? Sloppy journalism.

Little city near me has a park surrounded by residential. They have a drawing to take the number of deer the experts say to cull. Archers only and a proficiency test has to be passed to get into the drawing for a blind. Fact: a given piece of ground will only provide enough food for a finite herd for a finite time. When the food is gone, the deer die, or the herd starves, gets sick and is hurt for years. 20 deer for a year, 50 deer for 6 months and every garden in the area gets hit by hungry deer.

People pay to hunt this park, as opposed to the state paying professionals to hunt it. And the herd thrives.

My brother was a cop in a third tier suburb with a high deer population. Cops were trained with sniper equipment and shooting lanes set up. The person who complains the most about their flowers getting eaten is also the person who gets bent out of shape when you shoot Bambi in their backyard and leave a gut pile near by.

i wish i could have participated in DC when I lived there. about the hows and whys:

- the deer population in rock creek is something like 20 per square mile, mostly because its a major migration route. not uncommon to see deer swimming across the potomac.
- they put dudes on flatbeds with night vision and infrared and suppressors, plus others in the forest. basically, these are federales who get some live fire training with all their gizmos using deer as targets
- the land is federal parkland, so the city and the public has no oversight
- blue-haired protesters show up every year decrying the violence, demanding that does be given birth control instead.
- the venison goes to food kitchens in the area
- there's a public culling program in Virginia for bowhunters, but even they have to be super secret due to people complaining about hurting bambi.