Alert:
The Fairfax County Deer Management Program, approved by the Board of Supervisors in 1998, is overseen by the Fairfax County Police Department and the Fairfax County Wildlife Office. The program operates across more than 100 parks within the Fairfax County Park Authority and aims to address the overpopulation of local white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) on public lands. Management methods include volunteer archery, managed shotgun hunts and selective sharpshooting in designated parks, all conducted under strict oversight to ensure public safety.
The program's primary goals are to control deer populations on public lands, protect human health and safety, reduce environmental damage from deer over-browsing, conserve biodiversity and maintain healthy deer herds.
An adult white-tailed deer can consume up to 8 pounds of vegetation daily. An overabundant deer population can harm natural ecosystems by over-browsing native plants, which reduces food and shelter for other wildlife species. High deer densities are often marked by a visible browse line in the forest, where vegetation is sparse from ground level up to 6 feet, and bare forest floors with little or no native ground cover.
To support the Deer Management Program and monitor the effects of deer overpopulation on forests and wildlife, Fairfax County Park Authority ecologists track 557 browse plots across 62 county parks. Each plot is surveyed every four years to assess browsing levels on native woody plants, with annual scores recorded to analyze browsing trends over time. These scores and trends help evaluate deer-related impacts to the environment and guide management decisions.
The Natural Resources Branch of the Fairfax County Park Authority works closely with the Wildlife Office to support the Deer Management Program. Natural Resources and Wildlife Office staff conducted deer population surveys using Infra-Red cameras to monitor deer densities in parks throughout the county until 2023. The infrared camera population surveys were cancelled in 2023 due to the detection of Chronic Wasting Disease in Fairfax County. Staff are investigating new methods for estimating deer densities in county parks to ensure deer population metrics continue to be tracked and used to help guide management decisions.
In October 2022, the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources confirmed the first case of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in Fairfax County in a male deer harvested on private property in Vienna. Since 2019, the Wildlife Office has proactively tested deer harvested in the county's Deer Management Program to address concerns about CWD. A Natural Resource Ecologist assists the Wildlife Office with the sampling and testing of harvested deer from the county program. Over the past several years, the Wildlife Office has submitted more than 1,200 samples for CWD testing. All test results to date from deer harvested on county parkland have been CWD prions "not detected."
Hunting and trapping of wildlife is prohibited in Fairfax County Park Authority parks. See the Park Authority Regulations, §1.10 Hunting and Trapping.
The lone exception is written permission as part of the Fairfax County Deer Management Program, managed by the Fairfax County Police Department. Only hunters that have gone through this screening and selection process with the Fairfax County Police Department may hunt within the designated parks.
To report suspected illegal trapping or poaching, please contact the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, contact information below.
You can also report Wildlife Violations to the Fairfax County Park Authority by calling 703-324-8594 or emailing ParkMail@fairfaxcounty.gov.
To report a wildlife violation to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR), you can call the Wildlife Crime Line at (800) 237-5712, email WildCrime@dwr.virginia.gov, or text DWRTIP plus your tip to (847) 411. You can also submit a tip online at this link Submit Online Wildlife Crime Tip.
When reporting a violation, try to include as much information as possible, such as:
Or use this link for online reporting.