Option 1: Landowners may grant recreational archery hunting access to local hunters (check local ordinances first). We recommend this is done via written agreement between the landowner and hunter, and includes permission given, the property address, names/contact info for both parties, and signatures from both parties. A landowner may only grant hunting access to their property. If a deer is hit and runs across property lines (very common in urban areas), the hunter must get permission to recover the deer from the owner of the property the deer dies on. If the property owner denies the hunter access to recover his/her harvest, they will then be responsible for removal.
Although archery hunting is statistically the safest and most effective management technique we have in our urban areas, there are cases where hunters injure themselves by not using proper safety equipment. Many landowners chose to add liability waivers or sections where a hunter can provide proof of private insurance info as an additional layer of protection in the event the hunter is injured during hunting activities. To this point, Georgia has some of the strongest liability protections for landowners in the country via the GA Recreational Property Act, but many folks don't seem to know it exists, so landowner agreements are very common when granting hunting access. There's plenty of info on the GA Recreational Property Act you can find via Google, but here's a general run-down: https://gatrialattorney.com/georgia-recreational-property-act/
Option 2: Community-led deer management. This is a new approach that allows a community to collaborate with GADNR to structure and conduct a larger scale archery hunt, that is acceptable to the community and is supervised from start to finish by GADNR biologists and law enforcement (upon request). We will then ensure all harvests are donated to local food banks to feed families in need.
Although this approach is still in the experimental phase, we've had a lot of success early-on which has been very encouraging. This approach aims to address and mitigate all of the concerns communities typically have with granting hunting access to the general public. Here community leaders, with help from the GADNR, determine dates/times for management events, a selection process for hunters, what properties will be used, etc. This is generally done on HOA property only, but if a private landowner wants to assist by offering their property for hunting, we can work with them as well, provided their lot is large enough to safely hunt. GADNR biologists will then collect biological data, disease samples, herd health analysis, from all deer harvested before donating the meat to charity.