Joplin’s Vanishing Deer: The Cost of Urban Bowhunting
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Joplin’s urban bowhunting policy leaves a local deer herd vanished. A firsthand account of habitat loss, ordinance flaws, and community impact For 27 years, I’ve watched a small herd of white-tailed deer move through Freeman Grove Woods a 29-acre tract of wooded land nestled west of Main Street, east of South Jackson, and just south of 36th Street in Joplin. This patch of habitat, with its stream-fed ravine and quiet cover, supported generations of deer: lactating does with late-season fawns born in August and September, first-season bucks, and the kind of wildlife rhythm that families with field glasses came to cherish. But this week, the woods fell silent. The seven deer I’ve monitored in this corridor are gone. Not relocated. Not dispersed. Gone. Based on my research and direct observation, I believe they were harvested under Joplin’s 2025 urban bowhunting program, which allows unrestricted age hunting on qualifying private land with la...