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Controlling deer a growing problem
22WRF
Member Posts: 3,385
Controlling deer a growing problem
Last week's extension of hunting season in Northwest Florida for antlerless deer - including does - is part of a nationwide trend.
It's needed.
Across the nation, news reports say a confluence of policies and attitudes has produced an explosion in the deer population. According to The New York Times, the whitetail deer population grew from 500,000 to 20 million during the 20th century. The result is crop damage, as in north Santa Rosa County, automobile accidents and the alteration of natural ecosystems across the Northeast, Midwest and South.
States like Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi, Michigan and Florida are doing things like expanding the antlerless hunting season and/or issuing permits to farmers to shoot deer eating their crops.
It's even bad for the deer. Overpopulation helps spread disease, such as the virulent chronic wasting disease, and can lead to starvation.
Increased hunting of female deer might be the single-most effective and reasonable method for controlling excess populations. It is why even some environmental groups, such as the National Audubon Society, support it.
In large part, people have caused the deer population explosion.
Vast acreages of commercial and private woodlands today are managed in ways that promote the growth of populations of game animals, expecially deer and turkey. In most of those areas, predators like wolves and panthers have been all but eliminated.
Where managed woodlands are adjacent to farms, as in Santa Rosa County, it is the best of both worlds, with abundant food next to managed habitat.
And as the deer populations expand in national and state forests, they can alter the woods themselves. Deer like to feed on soft, new vegetation, which means they target seedlings. In some areas entire new generations of trees have been eaten.
More, deer have shown a remarkable ability to adapt to people. As subdivisions move deeper into the woods, and regrowth restores trees and underbrush to established neighborhoods, deer overcome their fear of people and flourish. One result is severe damage to landscaping and gardens. Worse, there is a growing problem of cars hitting deer, with people being killed and injured.
Finally, years of a conservationist hunting ethic - protect does to ensure future deer populations - has worked with a vengeance. The doe population is so high that the birth rate is soaring.
Many hunters still resist shooting does - it goes against everything they were taught for many years. Most hunters today were raised with the concept of not shooting does.
But with the population of does in some places outnumbering bucks by a 10-to-1 ratio, a return to balance is needed.
Game officials say overpopulation is not yet a severe problem here yet, although some farmers will disagree. But extending the antlerless deer season from two days to seven days is a sound method of heading off future problems.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Grumpy Old Man
Don't Feed the Trolls
Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of All Those that Threaten it
Last week's extension of hunting season in Northwest Florida for antlerless deer - including does - is part of a nationwide trend.
It's needed.
Across the nation, news reports say a confluence of policies and attitudes has produced an explosion in the deer population. According to The New York Times, the whitetail deer population grew from 500,000 to 20 million during the 20th century. The result is crop damage, as in north Santa Rosa County, automobile accidents and the alteration of natural ecosystems across the Northeast, Midwest and South.
States like Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi, Michigan and Florida are doing things like expanding the antlerless hunting season and/or issuing permits to farmers to shoot deer eating their crops.
It's even bad for the deer. Overpopulation helps spread disease, such as the virulent chronic wasting disease, and can lead to starvation.
Increased hunting of female deer might be the single-most effective and reasonable method for controlling excess populations. It is why even some environmental groups, such as the National Audubon Society, support it.
In large part, people have caused the deer population explosion.
Vast acreages of commercial and private woodlands today are managed in ways that promote the growth of populations of game animals, expecially deer and turkey. In most of those areas, predators like wolves and panthers have been all but eliminated.
Where managed woodlands are adjacent to farms, as in Santa Rosa County, it is the best of both worlds, with abundant food next to managed habitat.
And as the deer populations expand in national and state forests, they can alter the woods themselves. Deer like to feed on soft, new vegetation, which means they target seedlings. In some areas entire new generations of trees have been eaten.
More, deer have shown a remarkable ability to adapt to people. As subdivisions move deeper into the woods, and regrowth restores trees and underbrush to established neighborhoods, deer overcome their fear of people and flourish. One result is severe damage to landscaping and gardens. Worse, there is a growing problem of cars hitting deer, with people being killed and injured.
Finally, years of a conservationist hunting ethic - protect does to ensure future deer populations - has worked with a vengeance. The doe population is so high that the birth rate is soaring.
Many hunters still resist shooting does - it goes against everything they were taught for many years. Most hunters today were raised with the concept of not shooting does.
But with the population of does in some places outnumbering bucks by a 10-to-1 ratio, a return to balance is needed.
Game officials say overpopulation is not yet a severe problem here yet, although some farmers will disagree. But extending the antlerless deer season from two days to seven days is a sound method of heading off future problems.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Grumpy Old Man
Don't Feed the Trolls
Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of All Those that Threaten it
Comments
PaBooger was here!
Taxation WITH representation isn't so hot, either!
Problem is, it would have to be 6 to 1 or more to make it work.
Immediately thereafter a controversy arose regarding the culling of the deer population. You would have thought aliens were sighted getting ready to take your first born! The damned tree huggers took over the topic and headed it off at the pass. The life of a human has become less valuable than that of a deer...never thought I'd live to see the day I regretted being a human?!