Some things that you need to know about white tailed deer!

Is the white tailed deer population too overabundant in the Northeastern US?

 

 

The desire to hunt is supposedly a male dominant trait. Your average guy is not going to admit to being too afraid to hunt and bring home the bacon to a hungry family. Scarcely one of us guys is not going to admit to wanting to go out in the woods and blast the hell out of Bambi. Other guys will not want to hunt and gut out an animal out of sheer enjoyment. They would rather sit home and watch the game and not bother and save the money on gun ownership and licensing. No matter what side of the fence you sit on, the fact that deer are now roaming in our backyards can not be lied about. It is not a guys living out in the woods thing, either.

"Too Many Deer in Pennsylvania," announced a headline in The New York Times. The article went on to explain how white-tailed deer had eaten so much of the ground-level vegetation in the state’s forests that "hillsides which were once masses of rich green are now gray and barren." This may sound familiar. But it appeared Aug. 26, 1928.

The animals were scarce and almost extinct in many areas of the country in the early 1900's, so scarce that hunting was curbed, and some communities imported herds from other regions. The white-tailed species, in particular, quickly rebounded. But it wasn't until the second half of the century that the population exploded, as predators declined and human development altered the landscape. The natural predators of the deer are mountain lions, coyotes, wolves and bobcats etc. which are now largely non-existent in eastern forests

Deer thrive in "edge" ecosystems, where cut-over forests meet farm fields and the cultivated vegetation of subdivisions and office parks. As their density increases, they wipe out flowering plants, woody shrubs and tree saplings that make up the forest "understory", anything from ground level up to about six feet. While biologists say that 10 deer per square mile is all that a healthy forest can support, the population has reached 40-50 in some rural areas, with some estimates as high as 100 in a square mile in highly developed Eastern suburbs. Recent estimates put the deer population in the United States at around 30 million

 

From the East Coast to the Rockies, browsing by white-tailed deer has transformed woodland ecology, resulting in "ghost forests," as one environmental scientist called them. With the protective ground cover gone, small creatures from frogs to songbirds disappear. Invasive plants like Japanese knotweed crowd out ferns and other native plants.

If the forest floor is denuded, suburban landscaping provides a limitless feast.  Many a homeowner has spent countless hours on efforts to repel deer from nibbling on our favorite shrubbery.

While damage to the forests is the main problem caused by deer overpopulation, at least as far as scientists are concerned, other issues have mobilized local officials.

Nothing raises public concern like the deer’s role in carrying the tick that causes Lyme disease, which has spread to all 50 states.

In winter 2007-08, bovine tuberculosis was found in deer in the upper Midwest, and sharpshooters went in to reduce the herd. Wasting disease, a transmissible neurological condition the equivalent of mad cow disease, is not widespread, but states like Wisconsin and Colorado were hard hit in recent years.

With so many deer crossing roads, accidents are common. Nationwide, cars hit at least 1.5 million deer a year, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports, causing more than a billion dollars in vehicle damage.

Hunting is the main check on the deer population, and sportsmen have a strong say in local game policies. But hunters usually do not want the herds reduced, and they object to laws that require them to kill one or two does for every buck, which is prized for its antlers. At the same time, residents who want fewer deer may object to gunfire so close to their yards, roads and running paths.

Densely populated towns have tried to ease resident’s worries by hiring marksmen, who, perched high up, use bait to lure deer to a certain spot, then shoot downward. This practice is called "remote euthanasia."

In winter 2008, Maplewood, N.J., hired volunteer sharpshooters to cull the deer in a nature preserve that borders hundreds of upscale homes. Opposition was intense. At the end of the five-week hunt, 213 white-tailed deer had been killed. Because of human intervention, the range of the whitetail has actually expanded to include offshore islands, such as Block Island, RI, where seven deer introduced in 1967 grew to a herd of 700 deer by 1994.

 

Source: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/d/deer/index.html

From the East Coast to the Rockies, browsing by white-tailed deer has transformed woodland ecology, resulting in "ghost forests," as one environmental scientist called them. With the protective ground cover gone, small creatures from frogs to songbirds disappear. Invasive plants like Japanese knotweed crowd out ferns and other native plants.

Nothing raises public concern like the deer?s role in carrying the tick that causes Lyme disease, which has spread to all 50 states.

 

submitted by Bill Luther- RICKA conservation chair