The City Council discussed new areas for deer hunting to manage the population in their meeting Tuesday night.

“We started getting complaints last year of citizens seeing damage to their plantings,” said Chuck Cychosz, Ames Police chief. “Some areas had such a concentration of animals that it detracted from the quality of life, so we set up the Urban Deer Management Program,” he said.

The program, started last year, involved an experimental urban bowhunting season in the park system in Ames. The season wasn’t as successful as people had hoped.

“I don’t think the three deer harvested last year was a very good start. We need to see if this system will be more successful,” Cychosz said.

Revisions have been made to help increase the number of deer harvested. The main areas that will allow hunting will be the wooded property south of the Hunziker Youth Sports Complex, the property north of the landfill in East Ames, the South River Valley Park, the west timber fringe outside the disc golf course in Gateway Park, and the wooded area around the Homewood Golf Course, which is where all three dear were harvested last year.

“We were looking for locations both desirable to hunters, and that had much less use from other people,” Cychosz said.

Those who are worried about getting shot with an arrow while golfing have nothing to fear.

“People can’t hunt until after the course is closed, and hunters can only hunt 85 feet from any paths or trails, and their shots can’t go any further than 75 feet,” Cychosz said.

Another part of the deer management program is a proposed ordinance on deer feeding. The ordinance stated that intentionally feeding deer would be a municipal infraction. This was designed to keep deer from being intentionally attracted into neighborhoods, where they can become a nuisance or hazard.

“We see this as an educational tool. We want to talk to the people feeding deer and get attention out on this topic,” Cychosz said. The Deer Management Program has been approved for a first reading at the next meeting.

The council also discussed a motion about the planned fireworks display on the Friday of Homecoming Week. The main concern was the noise level.

“There are people in Ames aside from the students at the university, and we have to think about them as well,” said Riad Mahayni, 4th Ward councilman.

The Homecoming Central Committee reassured the council that steps were being taken to reduce noise levels.

“We’ve gotten rid of the cluster bombs – the fireworks that really boom and wake the neighbors – and we’ve tried to spread news of this event, so that people know this is coming,” said Adam Theis, co-chairman of the Homecoming Central Committee. “We’ve also set the fireworks to be a smaller gauge, so they don’t go as high, and the trees and buildings absorb more of the sound waves,” he said.

The motion to allow the fireworks was approved.

“This didn’t come with a recommendation of action, so we just wanted to make sure it was OK with the staff,” said Jami Larson, 2nd Ward councilman.