What to do about too many deer

Posted 8/21/12

REGION — Anyone who drives the highways and byways of the Upper Delaware River Valley is surely familiar with the sight of a deer corpse on the side of the road, being gradually consumed by turkey …

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What to do about too many deer

Posted

REGION — Anyone who drives the highways and byways of the Upper Delaware River Valley is surely familiar with the sight of a deer corpse on the side of the road, being gradually consumed by turkey vultures or other scavengers.

It’s a sign that while once there were far fewer white tail deer in the region, today there are so many that they pose a danger to the region’s forests. One of the reasons for the rebound in population is that as farming was abandoned, forests quickly re-established themselves on the former farmland, creating the kind of habitat deer like.

At the same time as the forests were coming back, practices of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation (NAMWC) were taking hold in the Northeast and New York forests. According to Wikipedia, the NAMWC model was promoted by sportsmen who wanted to ensure that hunting and fishing opportunities would be preserved. The model “rests on two basic principles—fish and wildlife are for the non-commercial use of citizens, and should be managed such that they are available at optimum population levels forever.”

Some are beginning to argue, however, that the model, which has lead to an over-abundance of deer in too many places, is not necessarily the best one to maintain the health of the forests.

In an article posted in August 2013 (blog.nature.org/science/2013/08/22/too-many-deer), three staff members of the Nature Conservancy expressed the impact of deer on forests this way, “In our opinion, no other threat to forested habitats is greater at this point in time—not lack of fire, not habitat conversion, not climate change. Only invasive exotic insects and disease have been comparable in magnitude. We can argue about which threat is more significant than another, but no one who walks the eastern forests today can deny the impact of deer to forest condition.”

This has led to a debate in some quarters about possibly changing the way deer herds and forests are managed, and could possibly mean changes to NAMWC. Some are going so far as to suggest that part of the solution would be to allow the commercial hunting of the wild deer herd in New York State.

On April 26, there was a symposium called “The Future of New York Forests at Risk: Working toward a Comprehensive Solution,” which included foresters, environmentalists and others interested in the issue.

One of the attendees, Ryan Trapani, a certified arborist and deer steward with Catskill Forest Association (CFA), sent out a letter after the symposium, laying out some of the content from the event. In the letter he wrote, “It seems that the underlying conflict in managing deer is that we have an animal—which is owned in public trust—that is being paid for by private landowners, orchardists, farmers, forest industry, etc. on private land. In other words, those reaping the benefits are not paying for the costs of this publicly owned wildlife and its associated impacts, despite hunting fees. How can a private landowner more efficiently and sustainably address this issue? Perhaps more liberalized hunting seasons, hunting gear, rules, etc.? Perhaps freer markets or marketdiversification pertaining to forest management and hunting? Should ownership frameworks be discussed? In other countries, private landowners own the wildlife while numbers are controlled within some parameter by biologists (Sweden) with few problems. Some of these ideas are completely new to us and challenge NAMWC, but, at one point in time so was the NAMWC.”

Trapani also announced CFA will be hosting The Growing Deer Debate at the Margaretville Central School on October 31 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. He wrote, “Some of the issues brought up at last Saturday’s symposium—e.g. regulated commercial deer hunting, recreational hunting, forest management and markets—will be discussed in more detail at this autumn’s event.”

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