Deer season is already open in one part of Botetourt County, but it appears no one is taking advantage of the early opportunity.

The Town of Buchanan asked to be included in Virginia’s urban archery season earlier this year, and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries made the addition effective with the current season that opened September 1 and runs through October 5 when the regular archery season opens. Bow hunters can continue to hunt in the town limits during regular archery season and the firearms seasons— essentially keeping the urban season open until January 5.

Several property owners in the town supported the effort as a way to try to control the population and the damage from deer/vehicle collisions and their interest in gardens and landscaping.

Collisions with deer particularly on Main Street (US 11) and Rt. 43 have been a challenge for years.

Despite the interest in adding Buchanan to the 46 other towns, cities and urban counties that have urban archery seasons, Town Manager Jason Tyree was not aware of anyone in town who has opened their property to the archery season. Town Council stipulated that property owners wishing to allow urban archery hunting on their property must notify the town of their intent to do so.

No hunting is allowed on town property.

Just how much impact it will have on vehicle and garden damage seems to depend on participation across the various jurisdictions that have the season.

As an example, Bedford County had the highest deer kill in Virginia last year (7,301 deer checked), while the Town of Bedford had just five deer checked through the urban archery season.

The Town of Clifton Forge had three deer checked and the City of Covington 11— both surrounded by Alleghany County. The City of Salem had nine checked, the City of Lexington 19, the City of Radford 35 and the City of Roanoke 36.

While the designated urban archery season is designed to control the doe population since only does (antlerless deer) can be harvested, in several communities more than half the deer taken in the incorporated areas were bucks, which means they were taken during the regular hunting seasons and outside the designated urban archery season.

The is the Town of Buchanan’s first year participating in the urban archery season. When it adopted regulations so it could be included in the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ program, Town Council added several other rules that go along with the statewide rules. The town rules also included:

• Hunting is restricted to properties of 1/2 acre or greater and with written permission of the property owner, which must be carried by the hunter at all times when hunting within the town.
• The discharge of archery equipment is not permitted within 100 feet of any dwelling, street, sidewalk, alley or public place.
• A hunter discharging a bow shall take reasonable care to ensure the arrow does not cross any property line and enter any property on which the hunter does not have permission to hunt.
• Hunting is only permitted from elevated positions of at least 10 feet.
• Hunters must obtain permission from neighboring residents to track or retrieve a deer from that property.