116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Iowa City continues deer management efforts amid population growth
City will request a sharpshooting season with data from drone survey
Jan. 7, 2026 5:30 am, Updated: Jan. 7, 2026 7:16 am
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IOWA CITY — A year and a half into its five-year deer management plan, Iowa City is continuing to work toward a target deer population of 25 animals per square mile. But a drone survey — and reports from residents — on the north side of the city shows there are nearly 100 deer per mile.
As a part of the management plan, the city will collect additional data on deer numbers, expand its urban bow hunt program and it will go back to a state board to request permission to conduct a professional sharpshooting season this year.
Additionally, city officials said they are continuing their non-lethal deer management strategies, which include public information on fencing, repellent, landscaping and driving reminders to avoid deer collisions.
City conducts drone survey to request sharpshooting season
Iowa’s Natural Resource Commission, the state board that reviews deer management plans, rejected the city’s request to be allowed to conduct a sharpshooting season in 2024.
A sharpshooting season is when a city conducts a localized deer hunt, often hiring professional sharpshooters to control overpopulation. Iowa City conducted a sharp shoot in 2019-2020, hiring White Buffalo Inc., a professional wildlife management organization.
Rather than allow the sharpshooting season in 2024, the commission directed the city to continue with its urban bow hunt program and collect additional data on deer population before requesting another sharpshooting season in 2026.
The city typically partners with the DNR to conduct an aerial survey to determine deer levels in a certain area. Aerial surveys are meant to provide general data on deer population, but can be influenced by factors such as the weather, food availability and overall deer movement.
An aerial deer survey could not be conducted in 2024 because of inclement weather, which means the NRC was reviewing outdated deer population data. In the meantime, city staff have continued to hear anecdotal reports of increased deer incidents.
To ensure deer data was available, the city made the decision to add an aerial drone survey to its efforts.
The city plans to submit a sharpshooting request to NRC this spring, with data from drone surveys in 2025 and 2026.
“We wanted something that's more specific to the areas where we know that there's more deer, and a drone survey allows us to have an independent source of data that we can also use to verify it. … last year was our first year. We do plan on doing it again this year, and really it's to inform our conversations with the DNR and the Natural Resource Commission as we go back to request a professional sharp shoot,” said Assistant City Manager Kirk Lehmann.
The citywide helicopter deer survey in early 2025 found a total of 338 deer. About six square miles of the city had deer populations above the target of 25 animals per mile.
The drone survey, conducted a few days later, focused specifically on the north part of Iowa City and found a total of 480 deer within a 4.8-mile aerial drone survey zone.
“Our goal with the sharp shoot is to get the deer population down to a level where the bow hunt might be more successful at managing the population long term. The sharp shoot is really a mechanism by which we can control the population until the bow hunt is large enough to do it itself,” said Lehmann.
The last time the city had a sharpshooting season, in 2019-2020, 500 deer were harvested.
Continued expansion of city’s Urban Bow Hunt program
The city adopted its last deer management plan in 2019 after a survey in 2018 showed the urban deer population had nearly tripled since 2010.
That plan called for a year of sharpshooting and four years of bow hunting.
The first two years of urban bow hunting had five hunters participate and fewer than five deer were harvested. The 2024-25 bow hunting season included 20 hunters who harvested 44 deer.
Lehmann said he expects this bow hunting season, which began Sept. 20 and ends Jan. 10, to surpass those numbers. The hunt still has room to grow, the city has 200 approved tags from the DNR.
Dozens of Iowa cities have annual urban bow hunts to control deer population within city limits. Hunters also can hunt on private land within the city limits if they have permission.
To acquire tags for an urban hunt, hunters have to pass a proficiency test each year to make sure they can hit their targets.
In addition to participation numbers increasing, the city also has expanded the amount of land available to hunters. The city added a portion of Hickory Hill Park and Manville Heights neighborhood to the 2025-26 hunt.
Lehmann said the city is always looking to coordinate with property owners who are interested in hosting a hunter on their property. For those and other deer-related inquiries residents are directed to reach out to deermanagement@iowa-city.org.
Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com
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