Deer walk around a pile of tree stumps in a Vienna yard (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)
For Vienna deer: be warned, if you see a pile of corn on the ground in a Vienna park later this year, keep an eye out for marksmen in the trees above you.
At a work session with the Vienna Town Council on Monday (July 14), Fairfax County police explained a memorandum of understanding agreed to in April that will allow the county’s deer management program to “conduct operations” in Vienna.
Police said they will not Bambi any deer on private property, but they will set up traps to kill deer in parks around Vienna near private homes.
Fairfax County Police Department Major Dana Ferriera said Vienna doesn’t have the multitude of crashes involving deer that typically necessitate deer management, but that many dead deer found around Vienna roads indicate the program is necessary.
“We had one of those last year,” Ferriera said, “but we did pick up 32 dead deer carcasses along roadways in Vienna. That’s pretty significant for four square miles.”
Sgt. Eric Powell noted that if deer populations are a problem in Fairfax, they’re probably a problem in Vienna as well, pointing to deer sterilized in Fairfax found dead on the roadside in Prince William County.
“Deer do not recognize jurisdictional boundaries,” Powell said. “There’s nothing to keep them from being in the town or being in the county.”
Given that police are only set up to cull deer for five nights, it might take several seasons to make an impact on Vienna’s deer population, according to Powell.
“If we start seeing lower numbers, we’ll curb operations in the future,” he said.
Police said the operation will be safe to the non-deer public. All shooters are Fairfax County police officers with thermal imaging scopes. The shots are taken at close range, roughly 25-40 yards from the target. The shooting will be in public parks, but police warned that it could occur near houses.
Town Councilmember Sandra Allen said she still has concerns about gunfire in close proximity to Vienna residents.
“These are residential areas with kids, I want to make sure that they don’t get hurt,” Allen said.
There was no formal vote on whether to move forward with the deer management program, but an informal vote on the council found the majority in support of it.
The Town of Vienna has considered allowing hunting to manage the local deer population for years, with council members previously discussing the possibility of amending the town code — which prohibits bow-and-arrow shooting — back in 2010.
The subject was revived last fall in a column for the town’s monthly newsletter by Councilmember Chuck Anderson, who suggested that it was time for Vienna to look at its available options for managing deer and controlling invasive species.
The town council then reached out to Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn with a request that Vienna be included in the FCPD’s deer management program. The request was approved in December 2024, and the council adopted a new town code ordinance on April 28 to allow sharp-shooting by specially trained police officers or licensed contractors as a means of managing deer.
The town council also adopted a prohibition on feeding deer and other wild animals.
Fairfax County allows deer hunting via sharpshooting and archery during a season that typically lasts from fall through the winter. During the 2024 season, 773 deer were killed as part of the program, most of them by volunteer archers.