The National Park Service will temporarily close some streets in Rock Creek Park, mostly between dusk and dawn, during the next several months, as part of the agency’s management of the park’s white-tailed deer population.

The schedule of road closures is not yet finalized, but it will start Nov. 16 and run until the end of March 2021. Some roads in the park that have been open to pedestrians and cyclists but not cars during the pandemic may also be affected. NPS will post signs to alert road users of the restrictions.

The main thoroughfares — Piney Branch Parkway and Broad Branch Road — will remain open. The full list of possible closures is below.

Road closures are necessary to protect park visitors and local residents while a team of Department of Agriculture biologists — all “highly trained firearms experts,” per an NPS release — “reduces” the deer population in Rock Creek.

The agency’s deer management plan says it will do its best conduct the hunt “as humanely as possible,” immediately euthanizing animals who are injured but not killed in an attempt to minimize their pain.

U.S. Park Police and local police will help to keep the public safe while the biologists hunt deer.

This all might sound a little bloodthirsty, but keep in mind: deer overpopulation can have a number of negative consequences for the park, impacting native plants and animals and preventing tree seedlings from flourishing (and thus, the forest from regenerating itself). The Park Service’s goal is to keep the deer population down to a manageable level —15 to 20 deer per square mile — so that the forest can thrive, according to the agency’s deer management plan, which was approved in 2012.

“Research has shown that vegetation damage occurs when deer populations exceed 20 per square mile,” reads the NPS press release. “Without continued management, deer populations would quickly rebound and again eat tree seedlings and other young plants.”

“The NPS continues to monitor how well plants are growing with fewer deer, and the findings will help inform ongoing deer management actions,” the release says.

This year the agency is expanding its deer management program to include offshoots of Rock Creek, possibly Melvin Hazen Park, Soapstone Valley Park, Pinehurst Parkway, Glover Archbold Park, Battery Kemble Park and Fort Totten Park, among others.

The Park Service donates the meat resulting from the hunt. Last year, the agency says, it gave 1,320 lbs. of venison to D.C. Central Kitchen to help feed hungry District residents.

Here are the possible road closures associated with deer management this winter:

• Bingham Drive NW, which is closed to vehicle traffic for a sewer rehabilitation project, will remain closed.

The NPS may temporarily close the following roads from 5 p.m. to 4 a.m.:

• Horse Stable Road NW
• Ridge Road NW, south of Grant Road NW
• Glover Road NW, south of the Rock Creek Park Horse Center

Other roads may be closed between 6:45 p.m. and 4 a.m.:

• Wise Road NW
• Ridge Road NW
• Glover Road NW
• Grant Road NW
• Joyce Road NW
• Morrow Drive NW
• West Beach Drive NW at Parkside Drive NW
• Stage Road NW
• Beach Drive between Joyce Road NW and Picnic Grove 10

The following roads are temporarily closed to motor vehicles during the pandemic. They may be closed to foot traffic and bikes from 6:45 p.m. to 4 a.m.:

• Beach Drive from Broad Branch Road NW to Joyce Road NW
• Beach Drive from Picnic Grove 10 to Wise Road NW
• Beach Drive from West Beach Drive NW to the Maryland Boundary
• Sherrill Drive NW
• Ross Drive NW