July 18, 2006Urban archers lose an advocateRoanoke city officials have been reluctant to participate in Virginia's urban archery program, even though the program could be an effective and economical part of the city's efforts to deal with its problem whitetail population. Chances that the city will change its course just got slimmer. Joe Schupp, the one guy who made any effort to get the city to consider urban archery, just called to tell me he's moving to Texas in August. I met Joe a few years ago. He was on a citizen's committee appointed to study the deer problem. He's a bowhunter and hoped that could be part of the deal, although he was smart enough to understand that it wouldn't totally solve the city's problem. The committee got the city to realize they had to do something, and so far that something has been sharpshooters. They're expensive, but they're working. I don't see nearly as many deer in the city as I did three or four years ago. Of course that's just anecdotal. Deer-car collision data will tell the real story and I need to look into that. Even after his work on the committee was done Joe kept pushing for urban archery. He didn't get it done, but he got city leaders to listen, and that was a pretty big step. Each year the number of localities participating in urban archery is growing. Without Joe fighting here in Roanoke, I think we're stuck with only sharpshooters for the foreseeable future. |
About this blog
While growing up in rural Southern Oregon, Mark Taylor developed a passion for the outdoors while he and his younger brother tagged along with their father on fishing, hunting and camping adventures. Graduating from Northwestern University in 1988, Taylor spent four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy based in Norfolk before moving into journalism. After five years writing about the military for a Norfolk-based publishing company, he became the outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times in 1998. He lives in Roanoke with his wife and twin daughters. .....Advertisement.....
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