Residents who live in rural communities know firsthand that they share their property with wildlife.

The Lower Valley, however, has witnessed a deer population that has grown out of control in recent years, according to local officials.

"Overpopulation can be a safety hazard," said Lance Brusco, an O'Hara Police Officer who leads the deer management program.

"On a lesser note, they browse heavily in people's yards and tend to ruin them."

Brusco promotes archery hunting as a safe way to cull the herd. In conjunction with Whitetail Management Associates (WMA), Brusco is looking for Lower Valley residents who want to participate in a township hunt this fall.

Prospective archers can try out from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday at the Northside Sportsman's Club in Warrendale.

The session is hosted by Springdale-based WMA, which for 10 years has overseen the deer management program in O'Hara, Fox Chapel and Indiana Township.

Founded in 1996, WMA works with governments and landowners to slim the deer herds in urban communities. The volunteer organization is comprised of experienced sportsmen who say their concern is wildlife conservation.

"With this area being very rural, we have a lot of problems with deer," said Brusco, who has been participating in the program more than five years. "If we didn't do this, we would be overrun by deer."

But not healthy ones, according to WMA experts.

Although development has stolen much of their habitat, deer are adaptable and they continue to flourish despite the decreased supply of food, water and space.

One deer alone needs about 12 pounds of vegetation each day but as the food supply dwindles, health suffers and disease is spread.

The WMA mission, according to its Web site, is to control the harvest of doe, antlerless female deer.

All hunters must harvest one doe before hunting a buck.

Since 1996, WMA archers have harvested about 4,200 doe from Allegheny County parks and about 198 bucks.

Locally, archers took 19 deer from O'Hara in 2007; 62 from Deer Lakes Park; 16 from Ridgehaven (Indiana Township); 12 from The Arbors (Hampton Township); 47 from Boyce Park; and 27 from Sewickley Heights.

O'Hara resident Tom Polczynski has hunted with WMA for five years. Last winter, he killed six deer, including an eight-point buck. In all, he's taken out 17 deer over the past five years.

"Hunting in the township is different that in the open woods," he said. "It's a little more challenging. You're usually looking at three or four houses in the distance but you try to be discreet."

Archers who participate in the hunts are typically not seen by residents, Brusco said. In a handful of cases, residents with large tracts of property allow hunters, but mostly they are nestled deep in township parks. That they go unnoticed is a nod to how effective archery has become in areas where traditional hunting is not practical.

"We hunt in designated areas of the parks and we're out there from dawn to dusk," Brusco said. "We're not out on the baseball fields."

About 16 hunters usually participate in the season, which runs in late fall and early winter.

Brusco said there have been no problems reported while he has participated. Polczynski said a large perk associated with the WMA program is the community donations.

Members donate the first deer harvested and every third one thereafter to the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank, with the hunters' annual dues paying the processing costs.

Since it was founded, WMA has donated more than 15,000 pounds of processed venison.