The city of Ames is taking action to reduce the Ames deer population by allowing urban bowhunting in Ames.

“We’ve had complaints from some people of having 10 to 12 deer in their yard every night, and a few cases where deer went through open sliding glass doors into residences,” said Chuck Cychosz, Ames Police chief. “This issue has been building for some time.”

The areas where hunting will be allowed are the wooded property south of Hunziker Youth Sports Complex, the property north of the landfill in east Ames, South River Valley Park, the western fringe of the Carroll Marty Disc Golf Course in Gateway Park and the Homewood Golf Course.

The fact that no deer were harvested from the disc golf course presents the question: Do we really need hunters so close to a popular recreation spot for students?

“We wanted areas both high in deer and low in people. The chief really tried to find areas with the least amount of conflict between deer and people,” said James Pease, associate professor of natural resource ecology and management.

Cychosz said he wanted to listen to the public concerns and put them into his plan.

“With the park areas, including the disc golf course, we worked with the parks department to determine any concerns that people might have,” he said.

The hunt at the landfill, the park and the disc golf course began Oct. 12, and has a set of rules to regulate hunting.

“Since the disc golf course is rarely used by students in the morning, we are allowing the hunters to hunt until 10 in the morning, but after that, no more hunting there,” Cychosz said.

Also, while addressing the City Council at its meeting on Oct. 9, he said “hunters have to be 85 feet from any trails, and there can be no shots longer than 75 feet.”

Those rules, coupled with the rule that hunting only occurs on the western fringe of the course, present the question: Why bother including the course in the hunting area?

“The thing is, land like that is both where deer like to habituate and where we like to put parks,” Pease said. “Also, since they like to live around streams, and the city has a number of streams that flow into the Skunk River, it’s a continuous corridor of deer. The number of deer in an area can shift really quickly.”

Those worried about being stuck with an arrow while trying to sink a Frisbee putt, however, have nothing to fear.

In addition to the above rules, Pease said that to do an urban hunt, hunters must have gone through a series of safety courses and tests.

“A lot of bowhunting is urban, and there hasn’t been a single case of someone getting stuck with an arrow, so no one at either golf course is going to have an arrow through their chest,” he said.

Pease said the main reasons for this are that most bow shots are made slowly, to make sure the shot is clear, and from elevation, to make sure the arrow doesn’t go too far if they miss.

Also, no hunter shoots at just a sound. There has to be a visual of the deer, he said.

These main procedures, coupled with the fact that most disc golfers won’t be venturing 85 feet into the woods before 10 in the morning, should ensure an arrow-free round of disc golf.

“Programs like this have been successful in other cities in Iowa, so we’ll see what happens here,” Pease said.

Last year, the city created an Urban Deer Task Force to discuss the deer issue and try to develop a solution. They approved urban hunting last year, but at the end of the season, only three deer were harvested, all at Homewood Golf Course.

“The problem we had last year was we didn’t start early enough,” Pease said. “We also didn’t get enough hunters interested because of the late start.”

Pease has been a wildlife specialist for many years, with experience in rural, urban and suburban areas. He was asked to be on the task force based on his experience with deer.