Warsaw Deer Task Force is recommending another deer-reduction effort in the city limits for the 2009-10 hunting season.
The task force met Thursday night at Warsaw Police Department to identify possible nuisance and reduction zones.
The proposed reduction effort is being overseen by an animal nuisance management committee consisting of Mayor Ernie Wiggins, Warsaw Police Chief Perry Hunter, Deer Task Force chair Jeff Grose, and DTF members Matt Dick and Steve Foster.Warsaw City Council must approve an ordinance and resolution to allow trained archers to hunt in proposed reduction zones. If the council approves the reduction effort, archers will be selected after a training date at WPD by a management committee.
All applicants will be required to take and pass a background check and shooting proficiency test by shooting a paper plate target as in previous years.
The task force set an Aug. 22 date from 1 to 6 p.m. at WPD for a DTF training date. Applications for archers interested in participating in the reduction efforts will be available Monday at WPD.
If the council approves the hunt, it will be the fourth year for the effort.
The first year for the effort was in 2006 when 15 archers harvested 18 deer.
In 2008 there were 44 archers who qualified to participate in the reduction efforts, but only 41 participated with 22 archers being successful in harvesting deer.
There were 38 deer taken by the 16 archers who participated in the efforts in 2007.
The task force is again recommending to the council reduction efforts take place in Spring Hill Addition and the area around Kosciusko Community Hospital.
The task force also approved submitting a recommendation for the council to review the possibility of investigating additional possible nuisance zones and possible reduction zones.
The proposed nuisance zones, if approved, are divided up into three districts.
Proposed district one is Boggs Industrial Park, west of the Warsaw Street Department on West Market Street, and property west of Madison Elementary School.
Proposed district four is the area west of Logan Street, north of Rozella Ford Golf Course, and south of Winona Avenue.
Proposed district five is the area west of Country Club Road.
Grose said he, Wiggins, and Dick will need to contact adjacent property owners by phone or e-mail to see if they would be interested in allowing the areas to be reduction zones.
"The nuisance zones will not be reduction zones if adjacent property owners and the city council do do not agree with them being designated for the deer-reduction efforts," Wiggins said.
The task force also discussed a fine for hunters who are not qualified or part of the DTF deer-reduction effort who hunt in the nuisance or reduction zones.
The task force is recommending a $200 fine for a hunter who is not a DTF member who is hunting in a nuisance zone. They also are proposing a $500 fine if a non-DTF member hunts in a nuisance zone.
Dick said Warsaw was classified as an urban zone in the 2009-10 Indiana State Hunting Regulations.
Urban status allows for the harvest of an additional four antlerless deer (one buck and three doe).
Urban season will open Sept. 15 and run through Jan. 30.
Kosciusko antlerless quota will be up to eight antlerless deer for the 2009-10 season.
A deer task force hunter can harvest up to 14 deer (up to two bucks) this season.
"We want to make sure the reduction efforts is safe, effective, and that the residents are comfortable with it," Grose said.
