Coyote hunting in Lynchburg approved by city council (2024)

Lynchburg City Council adopted a more relaxed bow hunting ordinance on Tuesday that allows the hunting of coyotes within city limits and decreases the height requirement for bow hunting from 12 feet to 8 feet.

In their unanimous vote, councilmembers also approved an amendment to the ordinance that will require property owners to apply for a permit only every two years, instead of the current annual renewal process, to allow bow hunting on their property.

The updated ordinance was originally proposed to address the large deer population in Lynchburg. At a city council work session earlier this month, Lynchburg Chief Animal Warden Ryan Ball gave a rough estimate of 10,000 deer living in Lynchburg.

But in their public discussions, councilmembers also decided to include the hunting of coyotes from elevated stands in the updates to the ordinance.

“I’ve received numerous calls of coyote concerns, especially in Ward IV. I want that to be addressed,” Lynchburg Vice Mayor and Ward IV Councilman Chris Faraldi said at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Among the changes to the proposed ordinance requested by Faraldi at Tuesday’s meeting were the inclusion of coyote hunting, the 8-foot height requirement and the two-year cycle for property owners to apply for a permit for bow hunting on their property.

“I do believe we have the processes in place to implement all three of these items — and they’re reasonable — and it would afford more people the ability to not just hunt, but protect their own property,” Faraldi said.

The updated hunting rules in Lynchburg took effect upon their adoption by city council on Tuesday, according to the ordinance.

In its recommendation, city staff had called for reducing the minimum height to discharge an arrow from a bow to 10 feet from 12 feet.

In Virginia, the average height for bow hunting among municipalities is 10 feet, according to city officials. Some jurisdictions have a minimum of 12 feet for deer hunting, while other jurisdictions, such as Martinsville, have a 7-foot minimum restriction.

The elevation limits for bow hunting are generally for urban localities that have smaller property parcels. The purpose of requiring an elevated stand is to ensure that the arrow or bullet will impact the ground and not travel beyond the intended target into other properties.

“It is imperative for hunters to know their target and what is beyond their target before shooting, and an elevated stand helps,” Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources Brian Moyer said in an email to The News & Advance.

DWR has developed model ordinances for localities to use when considering regulations for hunting by firearm or archery. For firearms, DWR recommends a 10-foot elevation, while the department does not mention a specific height for archery.

During the public comment period at Tuesday’s council meeting prior to the vote on the ordinance, Mike Troxel, who runs a Facebook group for bow hunters in Lynchburg, urged council to lower the height requirement for bow hunting to eight feet.

Troxel, who has been bow hunting in Lynchburg for 15 years, said an 8-foot requirement would allow bow hunters to shoot off a standard deck of a home.

“That would massively increase the number of properties available,” he said. “Currently, if there is not a tree, you can’t hunt the property.”

In Virginia, as with other states, there are specified dates for the hunting of deer, which varies based on the type of hunting and the area of the state where the hunting takes place. There are also limits on the number of deer that hunters can kill per year, which also varies based on where the hunting is taking place.

This year, archery deer season in Lynchburg runs from Sept. 7 through Oct. 4. In 2025, the archery deer season will run from Jan. 5 to March 30. The “bag limit” for deer in Lynchburg is two a day and six in a license year. A bag limit is the maximum number of deer a person is allowed to kill and keep within a given time period.

Unlike deer, Virginia does not have restrictions on when coyotes can be hunted during the year, and there’s no limit on the number of coyotes that can be killed. However, localities in Virginia can set ordinances prohibiting the hunting of coyotes in their jurisdictions.

Coyotes slowly migrated to Virginia and were first observed in western Virginia in the 1950s. As the nation’s populations of other top predators, such as wolves and mountain lions, declined, coyotes moved in to fill the void.

Prior to the passage of the ordinance on Tuesday, coyotes were not allowed to be hunted under the Lynchburg hunting ordinance.

Coyotes will now be allowed to be hunted only from elevated stands during daytime hours just like deer hunting. Coyote hunting will be allowed on both private and specific-approved public permitted properties. Permits will be given out by the Lynchburg animal warden’s office.

Under what passed city council, coyote hunting will only be allowed by bow, not shotgun. However, city council could revise the ordinance in the future for parcels that are 25 acres or more like it is with deer during the firearms season, Ball said in an email to The News & Advance.