An ordinance passed by the Highland City Council last week will make this municipality the first in Utah to allow bowhunting inside the city limits, though it is unclear when archers will have their first shot at deer.

In recent years, deer have become problematic in yards, roadways and in public parks in and around Highland.

“We’ve had numerous complaints from residents of deer eating shrubbery and gardens,” Ritchie told the Provo Herald newspaper last week. “Several years ago we had a bad winter and they came down from the mountains and never went back. Now we’ve raised large herds of deer here in the city and they don’t know anything different.”

Located about 30 miles south of Salt Lake City, Highland has been working with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources for more than a year because deer hunting of any kind within the limits of a city will first require a change to state law.

Under Highland’s new ordinance, archers would qualify for city-issued permits, and hunt only from elevated treestands. Deer killed would be donated to the local food bank.

Utah Division of Wildlife Resources regional supervisor John Fairchild confirmed his agency is working with Highland to find a suitable strategy for controlling deer numbers, but said there were many details to be finalized before the first hunt could take place.

“But there are a lot of details that would have to be worked out because currently there is not a provision in state law for us to do that,” Fairchild told the Provo paper

Source: The Archery Wire