Barring a court order, shots will again ring out across the landscape of Valley Forge National Historical Park beginning in November as the National Park Service embarks on an effort to cull the park's white-tailed deer population.

There are plenty of statues of George Washington around the country, but if you showed up on the Antique Road Show with this one, it would cause quite a stir. Valley Forge National Historical Park is home to one of the finest statues of George Washington in existence, but if you're looking for this piece of sculpture, it now has a new home in the park.

As urban sprawl squeezes in tighter and tighter around some national parks, it can turn some parks into wildlife sanctuaries that create their own problems. At Valley Forge National Historical Park, efforts to control a booming population of white-tailed deer have spurred a lawsuit from a group that believes a prey-predator relationship should be allowed to play out. But how realistic is that?

Too many white-tailed deer at Valley Forge National Historical Park has prompted park officials to turn to sharpshooters and birth control to tamp down and maintain a manageable population. However, since park officials have not yet found an acceptable reproductive control agent, sharpshooters will be relied upon the next four years to reduce herd numbers in the park.