Some local hunters are getting their Legolas on: it’s bow hunting season.
Fairfax County kicked off its annual archery program for qualified bowhunters this past weekend to help control the local deer population.
The program started on Sept. 6 and runs through Feb. 14.
The culling is allowed on 100 properties around the county, including two sites newly added for the 2025-2026 season: 40 acres owned by the Board of Supervisors in the Franklin Farm area along Fairfax County Parkway and the 15-acre Kemper Park (10206 Garrett Street) in Oakton.
“Last year, 547 deer were harvested through the use of archery by hunters in the county program,” the police release said. “The archery program accounted for 91% of the total deer harvests in the Fairfax County Deer Management Program.”
According to Fairfax County:
Qualified bowhunters with superior skill, ethics, and experience are able to efficiently and discreetly hunt deer in areas where firearm use is restricted or prohibited, or not an effective or sustainable deer management tool.
Authorized archery hunting is conducted in partnership with the Fairfax County Park Authority, Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, and other public landholders. All archery activity is closely monitored by the Fairfax County Police Department with assistance from the Park Authorities.
Qualified archers can apply for the program online.
Participation in the archery program has declined since peaking in the mid-2000s, the county’s Environmental Quality Advisory Council noted in its annual report for 2024, which recommended expanding where hunting can occur.
The Vienna Town Council agreed this summer to allow sharpshooting in the town by Fairfax County police officers to control the local deer population.
The Fairfax County Police Department has specially trained officers who are authorized to shoot deer at select parks when they’re closed to the public. Conducted from November 2025 through March 2026, this year’s sharpshooting program will feature Northside Park and the former mulch yard on Beulah Street as its first sites in the Town of Vienna.
Other sharpshooting sites will include Lake Fairfax Park in Reston, where the archery season will end early on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025, according to the county.
Police say parks will remain open to the public during the archery program:
Fluorescent orange signs are posted in parks where hunting is authorized. Hunters can only take shots at deer from elevated tree stands; hunting from the ground level is prohibited in county parks. Tree stands must not be located closer than 100 feet from property lines or closer than 50 feet from established park trails. Archers are not allowed on private property without permission by the owner or tenant. Archers are approved to hunt at assigned sites Monday through Saturday during legal hunting hours, 30 minutes prior to sunrise until 30 minutes after sunset. No hunting is allowed on Sundays in county parks.
No bystanders have been injured by an archer hunting deer anywhere in Virginia since the state began tracking hunting injuries in 1959, according to the FCPD.
