At a meeting of the township Environmental Advisory Council, officials from the Pennsylvania Game Commission and United Stated Department of Agriculture said hiring a sharpshooter or bow hunter to kill deer is one of the most effective ways to reduce a deer herd.

The decimating of landscaping, flowers and shrubbery, the presence of deer ticks and contracting Lyme disease by grandchildren have been concerns of residents, especially those living in Lehigh Parkway North in western Salisbury.

In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s a new concern.

“Last year, deer were tested and had COVID,” Carey Furlo, wildlife biologist, United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services, said at the Nov. 17 township Environmental Advisory Council meeting in the municipal building meeting room.

“It’s too early to draw conclusions. Could COVID come from animals to humans?” Furlo asked, adding, “There’s a lot of research planned with deer and COVID.”

Furlo was invited to address the EAC by Salisbury Township Assistant Township Manager Sandy Nicolo, who chairs the meetings.

Also invited to the EAC meeting was Tyler Barnes, Pennsylvania Game Commission. Southeast Region State game warden, Lehigh County.

“Southeast Pennsylvania has some of the highest-density in the United States of deer,” Furlo said.

“They live in maternal units,” Furlo said.

“What we recommend is that you maximize hunting,” Furlo said, adding, “You reduce deer population by harvesting deer.”

To control the population, it’s advantageous to kill the doe, or female deer.

“We do a lot of deer mitigation,” Furlo said. “When the population is high, people call on us for deer mitigation,” Furlo said.

Pennsylvania’s 2021 regular firearms deer season began Nov. 27 and continues through Dec. 11.

One problem in Salisbury is that, although the township has hundreds of wooded acres, a lot of it is in proximity to residences.

Don’t expect a scene from “The Deer Hunter,” the 1978 movie about Vietnam veterans hunting deer in the vicinity of a steel-mill town in Pennsylvania.

Hiring a sharpshooter or bow hunter is an option to control deer.

The residents of a neighborhood would need to be in agreement to hire a rifle or bow hunter.

“If you have a neighbor and they can agree with neighbors, we set up a program partnering the hunter with the landowner,” Furlo said.

Fencing a property is another way to control deer, if the fence is high enough.

“Eighty percent of deer won’t ever attempt to jump over an eight-foot fence,” Furlo said.

“I wouldn’t want a fence higher than four feet,” Jane Benning, chair, EAC, said.

“Then you won’t keep deer out,” Furlo said, adding, “Deer can clear a six-foot fence.

“Deer are going to seek high-value areas. They’ll eat anything if they’re hungry enough,” Furlo said.

“They eat rhubarb leaves,” Benning said.

Barnes dispelled some recommended techniques to control deer.

“Pepper spray is not a viable solution,” Barnes said.

Nicolo said he would follow up with township commissioners about a possible deer management program.

Complaints about foraging deer brought out Salisbury Township residents to the Aug. 23, 2018, Salisbury Township commissioners meeting.

The complaints by Lehigh Parkway North residents included mention of a female homeowner who was feeding deer.

At the EAC meeting, it was noted complaints about deer in the Parkway residential area seem to have subsided.

“The woman who was feeding the deer moved to Florida,” it was said at the EAC meeting.

“Maybe that’s why the complaints have decreased,” quipped a member of the audience.

The EAC is next scheduled to meet 7 p.m. Dec. 15 in the meeting room, municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave.