Ridley Creek State Park

For self-described animal lover Lynne Ciampoli, the deer grazing in the fields of her neighborhood bordering Ridley Creek State Park are "beautiful and fascinating" visions to watch. But the 83-year-old resident of White Horse Village also knows what damage deer can do. "When you hear of people hitting deer and being injured, and cars sustaining damage . . . something has to be done," said Ciampoli, whose daughter and son have both had collisions with deer. To that end, park officials this week announced that archers who pledge to adhere to Pennsylvania Game Commission rules can begin hunting in selected portions of the Delaware County park from Sept.

Forty deer were killed yesterday in the last of three scheduled buckshot- only hunts at Ridley Creek State Park, bringing the season's total kill to 231, authorities said. Park manager John Graham said the first day of hunting saw the largest number of deer killed, with lower numbers killed on successive hunts as the deer became more wary. "The deer know how to hide," he said. "We have to give them credit for learning, too. " Before the first hunt, Graham estimated the park's deer population at 500. The reduction of 231 deer still leaves the herd above the 100 that park officials have said can be supported on the park's 2,600 acres.

This week's snowstorm has forced the cancellation of the deer hunts that had been scheduled for today at Ridley Creek State Park and the neighboring Tyler Arboretum as part of a continuing effort to reduce the herd. They were to have been the third deer hunts this season at the properties in Edgmont and Middletown Townships. In the first two - Dec. 8 and last Friday - a total of 173 deer were shot at the state park. At Tyler, 55 deer have been killed this season either by archers or during two shotgun hunts that coincided with the state park hunts.

Tom Zurlo (right) with one of 91 deer bagged yesterday during a buckshot- only hunt for antlerless deer at Ridley Creek State Park in Edgmont. Supervisor Jack McGeehan (left) logged the deer while Zurlo's brother Charles watched. Zurlo was one of 200 hunters, selected through a lottery system, who took part. Another hunt is scheduled for Jan. 19.

The Civil War, or one version of it, flared up again this weekend in Ridley Creek State Park. Union and Confederate "troops" camped in the park Saturday and yesterday and "battled" in the park on both afternoons. Civil War buffs portrayed the soldiers while modern-day visitors had a chance to chat with them and see what life on the battlefield was like 125 years ago. The event was staged in cooperation with Historical Military Impressions.

The state Department of Environmental Resources and the Pennsylvania Game Commission have scheduled a three-day hunt next month to decrease the deer population at Ridley Creek State Park in Edgmont Township. During a regular meeting Wednesday night of the Edgmont Board of Supervisors, Chairman Elmer "Chip" Miller 3d said the hunt had been scheduled for Dec. 19, 20 and 21 at the 2,600-acre park, which is bordered by parts of Upper Providence and Middletown Townships. William C. Forrey, director of the DER's Bureau of State Parks, wrote in an Oct. 18 letter to the township supervisors that "the deer herd at Ridley Creek State Park continues to cause a number of auto accidents and damage to crops and ornamental foliage, not only in the park, but on nearby private property as well.

Hunters drove out of Ridley Creek State Park in Delaware County yesterday with 116 dead deer tied to their rooftops or packed in their pickups. Many of them headed down West Chester Pike and into Philadelphia. The hunt, the first of three to cull a deer population that has ballooned partly because of increased homebuilding in the suburbs, saddened animal lovers. Members of the Fund for Animals held a vigil at a park entrance Sunday, urging the use of wildlife contraceptives to control a deer population estimated around 500. There is room only for 80 to 100. Vigil participant Priscilla Cohn, a philosophy professor at Penn State University's Ogontz campus and director of an organization called Pity Not Cruelty, said a viable wildlife contraceptive, PZP, has been used to control the deer population on Fire Island, N.Y., and wild ponies on Assateague Island, Md. Cohn also is on a committee trying to cope with a deer population explosion in Lower Merion.

Among the nearly 950,000 hunters who traipsed into the Pennsylvania woods last week was a 37-year-old commercial photographer from Phoenixville, Matt Romano. This has been quite an autumn for Romano. On Nov. 19, the Saturday before Thanksgiving, he shot one of the biggest black bears bagged by anyone in the state this year, a 679-pound behemoth that measured 71/2 feet. On Monday, the first day of the antlered-deer season, he went back to the wilds of Sullivan County, where he had killed the bear, and this time felled the best buck of his life: a handsome 10-pointer weighing on the order of 150 pounds.

Any night now, the blood will flow again in Valley Forge National Historical Park, and hundreds will ultimately die. Deer, that is. The park is set to begin its second annual deer-culling operation, in which U.S. Department of Agriculture marksmen with rifles and night-vision goggles take aim at deer lured to baited sites. Citing safety concerns, the park won't disclose the dates of the shootings, only that they would occur between November and March. Last season, sharpshooters took out 600 deer, and the park aims for 500 this time, said Kristina Heister, the park's natural-resource manager.

For self-described animal lover Lynne Ciampoli, the deer grazing in the fields of her neighborhood bordering Ridley Creek State Park are "beautiful and fascinating" visions to watch. But the 83-year-old resident of White Horse Village also knows what damage deer can do. "When you hear of people hitting deer and being injured, and cars sustaining damage . . . something has to be done," said Ciampoli, whose daughter and son have both had collisions with deer. To that end, park officials this week announced that archers who pledge to adhere to Pennsylvania Game Commission rules can begin hunting in selected portions of the Delaware County park from Sept.

Controlled, all-day hunts to reduce whitetail deer populations will close Tyler State Park on Tuesday and Ridley Creek State Park on Wednesday. Hunters were chosen by random drawings last month and must use buckshot to kill antlered or antlerless deer, a spokeswoman for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources said. Car accidents and observed damage to plants and to forest regeneration on and around the parks were used to set the numbers of hunters: 125 at Tyler, 200 at Ridley Creek.

If you have ever wondered what was behind the doors of those historic houses in and around Ridley Creek State Park in Delaware County, you can satisfy your curiosity Dec.10 at the first Friends of Ridley Creek State Park holiday house tour. Twelve buildings will be open to visitors, including the stables, Hunting Hill Mansion, and the Pennsylvania Colonial Plantation. Most of the houses on this self-guided tour are along Ridley Creek Park and within easy walking distance from each other, said Carol Rubin, a tour organizer.

Changes in game regulations for New Jersey and Pennsylvania were proposed or considered this week, and a controlled deer hunt was scheduled at Norristown Farm Park in the fall. And yesterday, officials announced the start of engineering design for a bike trail along an inaccessible section of Pennypack Creek that will connect Fairmount Park and the Delaware River. The small section of pathway will loop through meadow and past wetlands on the south side of the creek, providing public access to the Delaware.

The idea of inoculating deer is pure idealism Let me respond to Barbara Riebman's Feb. 21 commentary, "Agency a detriment to deer," in which she proposes that the latest formulation of the contraceptive PZP be used to control the deer population: If all the deer hunters in Pennsylvania traded in their deer rifles for dart guns, it still would not be effective. The Pennsylvania Game Commission reported that the hunting harvest of female deer for 2003 was 322,620 and the total deer harvest was at 464,890.

To borrow a phrase from a Rolling Stones song, members of the Chester County Trail Club walk "a moonlight mile" - literally, that is. Every month during the full moon, the club meets at Downingtown's Struble Trail for a hike up and back along the Brandywine River, a 61/2-mile outing that in the winter starts about 7 p.m. In summer, the moonlight walks begin at 8:30 p.m. Founded in 1970 by a small group of outdoor enthusiasts, the club now...

Tyler Arboretum and Ridley Creek State Park will be closed to the public on Dec. 8, when more than 200 hunters will attempt to cut their deer population in half. Officials estimate that more than 200 deer roam the park - double its capacity. "Deer produce very well here, and their only predator is the automobile," said Jack Graham, director of the park. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, about 10,000 drivers in Southeastern Pennsylvania will hit deer this year.