Following a bump in the number of deer in Iowa City, city officials opened applications for the city’s urban bow hunt, which will help determine if a professional sharpshooter will be brought in for 2026.

In late February, Iowa City contracted White Buffalo Inc., a nonprofit organization focused on the conservation of native species and ecosystems, to perform a drone survey of deer in northern Iowa City.

The survey revealed an alarming 480 deer present in the 4.8 square mile survey area, an increase from the 382 found in a 2023 helicopter survey. The city noted in its 2024 deer management annual report that such a jump may be due to the advantages drones have over helicopters, such as the ability to fly lower and slower.

“That puts us right about 100 deer per square mile in those areas that were surveyed, which is a pretty dense population number,” City Manager Geoff Fruin said.

The finding puts Iowa City at four times its 25 deer per square mile target.

Deer-related car collisions cost Iowa City residents involved in the accidents a total of $121,400 according to the report. Smaller incidents such as  deer eating bushes and trampling lawns were also a source of frustration for residents.

This fall, Iowa City officials  open applications for the 2025-2026 urban bow hunt season, a crucial step in Iowa City’s deer management program, which aims to lower deer density in the city.

Licensed hunters who are approved by the city are allowed to track and harvest deer on city-owned and private property as long as the land meets guidelines, such as being at least 150 feet away from roads, buildings, parks, trails, and other developments.

The bow hunt season lasts from Sept. 20 to  Jan. 10, 2026.

“We hope to continue to grow the program and continue our track record of providing a safe experience for both the participants of the program and the non-participants of the program,” Fruin said.

Results from bow hunt seasons have been steadily improving over the years, with last year’s 2024-2025 season culminating in 44 deer killed and harvested for their remains, 12 more than the previous year, according to the 2024 deer management report.

But a steady hunting climb might be too slow to meet and address resident complaints. Fruin said as the urban deer population has grown over the years, so too have calls and emails demanding action to curb the growing presence of deer.

“We’re trying to make sure that the areas in which we are allowing hunting can also be the same areas in which we have some of the higher complaints,” he said. “That’s a difficult match to make because oftentimes the complaints and the accidents are happening in very densely populated areas of the city.”

This bow hunt season will determine the future of the program, namely, if the bow hunts are enough to quell deer overpopulation.

The Iowa City City Council updated the program in 2024 to include nonlethal solutions, such as public education on how to adopt deer repellent landscaping, which uses methods such as installing fencing and planting “unattractive” gardens with strong scents, plants with fuzzy or hairy leaves, and prickly grasses. The update added five more years of urban bow hunts, and, if deer numbers called for it, the possibility of a professional sharpshoot between 2026 and 2029.

The last professional sharpshoot was carried out in 2019 by White Buffalo Inc’s Ryan Rodts, senior wildlife biologist for the nonprofit, who worked as the project supervisor on the sharpshoot.

“Over the last five years, in the face of [professional] hunting, recreational hunting, the population’s increased about five-fold over what it was when we finished in 2019,” Rodts said. “So, you’re going to have a population that’s way above the threshold of what’s likely the social carrying capacity.”

White Buffalo Inc. also exercises nonlethal methods including fertility control, which reduces animal populations by preventing them from reproducing. But as Rodts points out, cities can be reluctant to adopt such a plan due to cost.

“It’s probably at least twice as expensive as doing lethal deer management,” he said.

White Buffalo harvested 500 deer from the 2019-2020 sharpshoot. All of the remains were sent to their processor in Solon and distributed to charitable organizations across the state such as Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry.

Fruin said before the city can assess the need for a 2026 sharpshoot, it needs to get through this year’s bow hunt season, which is less than a month away. The program will continue to educate the public on nonlethal deer repellent strategies.

Heather Sander, an associate professor in the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of Iowa, assessed the effectiveness of such nonlethal strategies to curb the deer population.

“I think those strategies make a difference in reducing [deer and human] conflict, but they don’t really solve the problem,” she said. “The big issue is we have an awful lot of deer, and browsing vegetation isn’t the only conflict we see from them. Vehicle collisions tend to be a big one.”

Sander suggested structuring landscapes away from busy roads, which can often create fragment habitats, disorienting deer as they try to run to the next green space ahead. Paired with the previously mentioned gardening strategies, Sander said being very mindful of where green spaces are placed can help deer and residents in Iowa City coexist.

“[Deer] don’t distinguish between public and private green spaces,” she said. “So backyards, ravines, those are all habitats to the deer. They don’t go, ‘Oh, this isn’t a park, I’m just going to step away.’ They don’t even recognize the difference.”