Drivers are used to dodging traffic when they drive through the center of Highland, but a new law will have them avoiding an unexpected danger: bows and arrows. The city recently passed an ordinance which makes it legal for licensed hunters to bow hunt deer within city limits.
“It can be a problem,” said Melissa Wright, a Highland homeowner. “They can decimate your trees.”
If you have a garden, you’re probably no stranger to a deer visit every once in a while. But in Highland, those visits have become more and more frequent. Recent weather patterns have forced deer out of the mountains and into the valley to forage for food. So much so that the normally docile visitors have become a nuisance.
“We can move deer back to the mountains and that’s our goal,” said Highland Mayor Lynn Ritchie.
But some people remain skeptical and are worried about safety, especially for their children.
“You just don’t know. There’s some things that are even outside control of a hunter,” said Don Nicol, who is concerned for his children’s safety under the new law.
Mayor Ritchie insists that the ordinance is not as dangerous as it sounds.
“Very safe,” said Ritchie. “It’ll be done very quietly to where many citizens won’t even know that it’s occurring.”
The new law says that for hunters to shoot on private property they must have permission.
Another Highland homeowner, Emily Rowberry, added “I don’t necessarily want my kids to watch them. But yeah I’d let them”
