Gunshots could soon be echoing across the Antietam, Monocacy, and Manassas national battlefields near the nation's capital as National Park Service personnel work to bring down populations of white-tailed deer that are far above numbers that can interfere with natural revegetation on the landscape.

Parks across the country have at times taken to culling wildlife populations to maintain some measure of ecological balance. Already, culling operations have been conducted, some annually, at parks such as Rocky Mountain, Wind Cave, and Theodore Roosevelt.

The plan approved this week for the three battlefields is intended to "protect long-term forest health and preserve the historic settings" at the battlefields. The plan calls for reducing deer populations over a number of years. An overabundance of deer is negatively affecting the resources these battlefields were set aside to preserve and protect, the Park Service said in a release. In addition to altering historic landscape composition, the deer are limiting the growth of seedlings needed to maintain forested areas over time, it added.

According to studies conducted on deer populations, deer densities as low as 10 animals per square mile can adversely impact revegetation. In 2011, however, deer densities at Antietam were estimated at nearly 131 per square mile; at Monocacy nearly 236, and; at Manassas 172, according to the Park Service.

While the agency has come up with a plan for tamping down the deer populations at the three units, "full implementation of the selected alternative is dependent on the acquisition of funding needed to support population control efforts."

The approved plan calls for sharp-shooters to be used to "quickly reduce the deer herd numbers," while afterwards a number of non-lethal methods could be used. Those might involve "fencing off crops and woodlots; changing crop configurations or selecting to substitute crops that are less palatable to deer;and using aversive conditioning to prevent some of the negative impacts of the overabundance of deer," the agency said.

You can find the final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision at this website.