The state will be shutting down a park for an expanded deer hunt in a part of the Bay State where the deer population has ballooned in recent years.

The Department of Conservation and Recreation will close Quabbin Park in western Massachusetts for the expanded two-day controlled deer hunt next week. DCR said it’s shutting down the park “in the interest of public safety” on Monday and Tuesday (Dec. 4 and 5).

Two-day controlled hunting began in the Quabbin Reservation more than 30 years ago — with the goal of cutting the deer population in the area, and then population maintenance. An overpopulation of deer can negatively impact the long-term health of the forest and watershed.

Then in 2019, DCR proposed expanding the hunt into Quabbin Park, where the deer population had jumped. As part of this program, hunters received permits in 2019 through a lottery process.

But due to the COVID pandemic, plans for this expansion of the Quabbin hunt were put on hold. Meanwhile, DCR continued to track the deer population throughout the reservation.

“With the continued increase in deer population in the area, the plans from the 2019 expansion into Quabbin Park were revisited by the Healey-Driscoll Administration and were approved for the 2023 hunting season,” DCR said in a statement.

Rather than opening the hunt for a permitting lottery, DCR committed to honoring the previous permits issued in 2019. Seventy five of the hunters permitted in 2019 were issued permits for this year’s hunt.

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Meanwhile on Wednesday at the State House, the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources will host a hearing that includes hunting bills.

One of the bills would establish a deer population control commission. The legislation specifically notes controlling the deer population in Bristol, Plymouth, Barnstable, Berkshire, Hampden, Worcester, Franklin, and Hampshire counties.

The bill reads, “The commission shall recommend best practices for controlling the Commonwealth’s deer population and methods for assisting farmers in preventing and combating property damage caused by deer.”