MORGANTOWN — For the second consecutive year, a record number of deer were harvested during Morgantown’s annual urban archery hunt.
The 134-day 2024-’25 season concluded Jan. 31 with a total of 143 deer killed. That number includes 32 antlered bucks and 111 antlerless deer.
The total narrowly tops last year, when hunters took down 142 deer. Prior to that, the record stood at 137 since 2013.
A total of 43 deer were donated, providing 1,353 pounds of ground venison to local feeding programs. So far, urban hunters have donated more than 14,500 pounds of meat over the 14-year life of the program.
Most importantly, organizer Rick Bebout explained, the hunt maintained its perfect safety record.
He said the hunters serve as the eyes and ears for both property owners and the wider community.
“This year, our hunters assisted the Monongalia County deputies with some trespassers on some county property that borders a west run property that we have access to. They helped WVU police with folks driving four wheelers on WVU property illegally, as well as a gentleman hunting with a rifle on one of the WVU farms. This individual also stole some of our hunters’ property, so that’s still being investigated,” Bebout said.
“Probably the one closest to me as a Norwood resident, we were able to work with the city of Morgantown’s police department, and they were able to cite a gentleman for hunting with a rifle in the city illegally.”
The two most successful locations for hunters this time around were the Morgantown Municipal Airport property and the WVU Dairy Farm, which saw 16 and 15 deer harvested, respectively. Other hot spots included South Point Circle (9); Green Bag Road property 1 (8); Green Bag Road property 2 (7); WVU West Run Farm woodlot (7); WVU Arboretum (7); Deckers Creek-Sabraton (7) and BOPARC White Park (7).
All told, 83 deer were harvested off those nine properties. There were 22 properties included in the hunt, including the four major BOPARC properties – Dorsey’s Knob, Krepps, Marilla and White parks.
“Since we don’t have natural predators and since we have a lot of deer and they keep multiplying, your services are always needed and make a big difference,” Deputy Mayor Jenny Selin said. “We love our deer, but just not so many.”
Information and applications for potential hunters as well as interested property owners can be found at morgantownwv.gov by following the “Residents & Visitors” and “Urban Hunt” links.
