Your federal tax dollars are hard at work yet again. This time in southern Maryland and Virginia, where local deer herds have boomed to irrational numbers and threaten the sites of 3 major Civil War battlefields that haven’t been in use since the 1860’s. Perhaps it’s delusional to think our 14.4 trillion (and growing) deficit will ever shrink.

The National Park Service has recently been holding several public meetings in both the states of Maryland and Virginia in hopes of solving the issue of over-browsing whitetail deer on 3 protected Civil War battlefields. The deer, which have been preventing forest regeneration by browsing on the areas seedlings and saplings, have an “estimated” herd size that’s 4 to 10 times higher than the land can sustain.

The agency wants to consider the usage of sharpshooters to control the booming deer population, but wants public opinion before they begin. Since 1995, Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania, has used sharpshooters with success to counter its overwhelming deer herd. 

It’s not that we’re against controlling deer herds here at the Hunting Network, (on the contrary) but wouldn’t it be more fiscally responsible to let the hunting public help control the deer within our park systems for a small fee than pay sharpshooters with taxpayer’s monies?

You decide - tell us how you feel. Log On to Facebook and tell us what you think about the government’s decision to use sharpshooters (paid through our tax system) instead of local hunters (whom could pay a small fee) to control wild whitetail deer populations.