Sharpshooters will help reduce the burgeoning population of white-tailed deer this winter at several national parks in Maryland and West Virginia by participating in a managed program with wildlife officials in which they will hunt the animals at night. The venison will then be donated to area food banks.

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       The culling operation will happen at Catoctin Mountain Park, Antietam and Monocacy national battlefields, and at Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and Harpers Ferry national historical parks, according to the National Park Service. The hunts are expected to take place at Harpers Ferry from Jan. 1 to March 31, and at the other parks from Feb. 1 to March 31.

       Park service officials said in a statement the operation is being done to “protect and restore native plants, promote healthy and diverse forests, and preserve historic landscapes.”

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       The sharpshooters will work at night when most of the parks are closed, and parts of the parklands will be closed during the hunting, officials said. There will also be “extensive safety measures” in place to protect the parks’ neighbors and visitors when the hunts are underway, according to park officials.

       Managed deer hunts have become a way of dealing with the growing herds at national parks, including at Rock Creek in D.C.

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       When possible, National Park Service officials said, the meat collected in the hunts will be donated to local food banks. Last year, more than 6,500 pounds of venison were donated to food banks from similar deer removal programs done by the National Park Service.

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       Amy Bachman, the director of procurement at DC Central Kitchen, said that her group has been participating with the National Park Service for the decade by taking culled venison and that it is helpful to serving her organization’s clients. This year, she said, DC Central Kitchen expects to get about 1,000 pounds of venison from the coming hunts and plans to use it for venison chili or Bolognese sauce that is sent to area shelters and nonprofit groups.

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       “It helps make sure we have variety, and we’re providing a nutritious meal to all of our clients,” Bachman said. “We’re doing meals every single day, 365 days a year, so any donation means less protein we would have to purchase.”

       Plus, she said, this year it is particularly helpful with supply chain disruptions and higher food prices.

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       Maryland Food Bank spokeswoman Joanna Warner said her organization expects to get some of the venison culled in the coming year during the National Park Service’s operations.

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       “Proteins are typically the most expensive and hardest food item to come by,” she said, and with donations down from pre-pandemic times, the donation of venison is helpful and appreciated.

       For parklands, officials said the managed removal operation is necessary because deer damage crops that are “a key component of the historic setting in historical and battlefield parks.”

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       Megan Nortrup, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service’s deer management, said white-tailed deer are having a big impact on forests in these states, as they eat a lot of tree seedlings that help in the forests’ regeneration.

       Since the national park system has implemented its deer management programs, it said it has had a reduction of deer numbers. At Catoctin Mountain Park, there has been a 13-fold increase in seedling density over the past 12 years since a deer reduction plan has been in place, officials said.

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       Brian Eyler, a game mammal section leader at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, said the hunters are well trained and approved to shoot the deer, and since hunting deer is prohibited in national parks, it is necessary to run a managed time to thin their population because they will breed and then “spill into the surrounding areas” where they disrupt the habitat, serve as hosts for Lyme disease and pose a hazard to motorists.

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       Eyler said wildlife experts estimate the deer population is about 225,000 in Maryland and has been steady at that level for the decade. Regulations that allow hunters to harvest more deer and extend the hunting season have helped to keep the population in check.

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       He said deer eat tree seedlings and shrubs and “consume everything in a forest,” a pattern that is “detrimental to all the other wildlife.”

       Eyler said one of the main reasons the deer population has become so large is a lack of predators.

       “Man is the only efficient predator anymore of deer,” he said, adding that hunting was the best tool. “Bears, coyotes and bobcats may take fawns, but humans are by and large the only predators of deer.”