Panel proposes hunting on public land to combat deer populations

[WhiteFeather]

Note Humane Society of the United States is P.E.T.A.

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...WS01/901060361

Panel proposes hunting on public land to combat deer populations

The region's record-high deer population is damaging forests and hurting the health of the animals themselves, according to a new Westchester County study.

So, what's the best way to bring the deer population under control?

More hunting on public land to reduce their numbers, the three-year analysis concludes.

"We don't want to eliminate the deer, but we want them to be a complementary part of the system," said County Executive Andrew Spano, who set up the 20-person panel. "People have to see the damage that is being done by the deer and that this is a necessity, not only for the deer-human interactions, but for the whole bio-system."

In some locations, sampling counts show deer herds are six or seven times as high as experts say is healthy for the animals.

The number of deer must be quickly and significantly lowered, according to the volunteer task force of environment and wildlife experts and municipal officials who conducted the study. The panel recommends expanding recreational bow-and-arrow hunting as the cheapest way to accomplish that goal.

Not everyone on the task force agrees. Panel member Laura Simon of the Humane Society of the United States said bowhunting was not even the most efficient way to lower herd numbers and that protecting forests was far too complicated to rely on killing one species.

"We're disappointed in that recommendation because the primary issue was forest regeneration and enhanced bio-diversity," Simon said. "The recommendation to allow bowhunting on some county properties is not going to achieve that goal."

Spano convened the task force after a regional conference in late 2005 pointed to the problems posed by growing deer herds and the environmental impact of a species in which one adult can consume a ton of vegetation a year.

County officials say they plan to start with a pilot program that would allow bowhunters access to two or three protected areas on some of the 18,000 acres of county parkland.

Spano said his staff would research what county laws needed to be amended to allow that to be done by the start of hunting season in October.

Among the parks being considered are Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, Muscoot Farm, Lasdon Park, Mountain Lakes Park and Blue Mountain Park.

Spano said he also was considering using sharpshooters and baiting to cull the herds.

"Ward Pound Ridge has to be in the mix," Spano said. "The group of experts who came up here said it was the largest concentration of deer population that they had seen in the Northeast."

Members of the task force said other options, such as trapping the animals and transferring them to other areas, bringing in such natural predators as coyotes, sterilizing the deer or feeding them contraceptives, are either illegal, dangerous or too costly to be practical.

The report notes that leaving nature to take care of the problem will only guarantee reduced bio-diversity, as crucial new forest growth is destroyed, animal and plant species' habitats are lost and large-scale water sources are threatened.

"Of course people know about the impact of deer on their plants, their flowers, their gardens; deer leaping fences of 6 feet to come in and nibble," said William Greenawalt, a Hartsdale attorney who chaired the task force. "People know about accidents that are caused by deer. They don't know as much about the damage to area forests. When you go out and look, you can see such a dramatic effect. That's what we focused on."

Greenawalt, who also chairs the county Parks, Recreation and Conservation Board, said pinning down deer-density numbers exactly was difficult, but that with aerial photos, as well as surveys of deer pellet and eating paths, the numbers locally run as high as 63.7 deer per square mile in the 4,315-acre Ward Pound Ridge Reservoir, a county park.

The number in the Kensico Reservoir ran an average of 25 deer per square mile.

Experts say five to 10 deer per square mile is an "ecologically viable" level.

The report notes that this area's deer-population density was the highest observed by Pennsylvania wildlife experts during 10 years of research in forested areas from Maryland to Vermont.

Losing forest is a problem for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the agency responsible for delivering drinking water to 9 million people in the metropolitan area. Deer and forestry experts there have said repeatedly that without healthy vegetation surrounding reservoirs to prevent erosion, sediment can end up in the water, compromising water quality. The increased amount of deer feces also can potentially contaminate runoff and water sources.

In addition, the loss of smaller trees reduces some bird species, wildlife managers say.

Deer also trample plants and spread seeds in their scat that give invasive species a greater chance to flourish.

"In Mianus River Gorge where we've excluded deer, some of the areas are coming back," said Rod Christie, executive director of that preserve and a member of the task force.

"But in other areas with more impact, even if you excluded deer, the forest doesn't come back," Christie said. "There's a certain seed source there that doesn't come back. You lose a lot of bio-diversity if you wait too long."

At risk also are the animals - the denser the population, the lower the health of the herds because of competition for high-quality food, such as acorns, which already are suffering one of the smallest crops in memory.

Deer don't normally choose to dine on grass, and when the animals graze on lawns, it's a sign they cannot find anything more nutritious, wildlife experts say.

Hunters say they have seen the difference in the size of animals they have killed; in some cases, the deer weigh half of what they should for their age.

Simon, the Humane Society field director, finds the idea of reducing the number of deer to protect the species contradictory.

"Sometimes people say that deer are going to starve, therefore we should hunt them so they don't starve," she said. "That's always seemed to be a bizarre argument to me - to prevent deer from dying, let's kill them."

Simon acknowledged that there was a high density of white-tail deer, Odocoileus virginanus, in the region, but said that programs to sterilize and otherwise prevent conception have been demonstrated in other places.

"We don't support culling because rarely do we see it as really a good solution or the only solution," Simon said. "We would say, as a last resort, that if you identify a problem that can't be solved any other way, we would look at culling. But we'd want to see it done the most humane and efficient way, using sharpshooters and rifles."

Simon said solving issues in an interdependent ecosystem by "plucking out one species" isn't going to work.

"There's a bio-diversity and forest regeneration problem across the Northeast," she said. "Deer are a factor, but one of many factors. You have acid rain and European earthworm, to name a couple others. And you have humans. Human impact is the largest factor of all."

The task force spent its monthly meetings since the beginning of 2006 on detailed presentations by experts in deer management from Connecticut, New Jersey and the U.S. Forest Service.

Members reviewed scientific literature on the subject, including more than 30 case studies from as far away as Minnesota and as near as Pound Ridge.

They surveyed local and state regulations on deer and visited areas known as "exclosures," where deer are completely kept out by high fencing, to see a side-by-side comparison of their impact in the same habitat.

A 13-year-old exclosure at Lasdon Arboretum, for instance, shows full growth in the protected area and a completely denuded exterior, known in wildlife management as deer savannahs because all that's left are tall trees.

They polled town supervisors and reviewed in detail the 1991 county study on deer that didn't end up providing any specific recommendations.

The task force didn't have to travel far to see the impact.

At Ward Pound, they saw firsthand a forest study that showed that 91 percent of the area munched through by deer had not regenerated.

Success stories include Mianus River Gorge and Rockefeller State Park Preserve, where expert bowhunters have significantly reduced herds.

A conclusion from that study was clear: "The ecological cost of not achieving deer herd reduction is collapse of the eco-system."

Christie was even more to the point. Unless action is taken soon, "you just won't get these forests back again," he said. "It's that crucial."

environment|panel aims to curb record high herds, protect bio-system

Additional Facts
The task force's report
The final version of the report from the panel of environment and wildlife experts and municipal officials recommends:
- Creating a multiyear hunting program at a few county parks, including Ward Pound Ridge Reservation and Muscoot Farm.
- Reaching out to the owners of large private properties to allow appropriate hunting opportunities.
- Collecting data from hunters, homeowners and foresters, as well as aerial surveys, to assess population numbers more accurately.
- Educating the public about feeding deer - prohibited in the state - and helping local municipalities with deer-population control.
- Setting up a private-public council representing diverse groups to oversee and adapt deer-management strategies.

[PocketProtector]

Funny how science always proves out. PETA and their cohorts just don't get that their "feelings" are 180 degrees out of sinc with nature. Nature ain't always pretty. Extreme and terminal violence is a centerpiece of survival and evolution. Just the way it is.

[Buckmark.35]

"Sometimes people say that deer are going to starve, therefore we should hunt them so they don't starve," she said. "That's always seemed to be a bizarre argument to me - to prevent deer from dying, let's kill them."

My favorite line out of the entire article. It basically sums up how selective animal 'rights' groups are in their perception.

When someone wants to hunt deer, instead of let them starve, it's not to prevent them from dying. They will obviously still die, but in a way that is both more humane and unwasteful. If this guy thinks it's more humane to let an animal starve to death than it is to hunt and kill it, he's sadly mistaken.

That guy fell off the logic train long ago.

[Poonie]

And yet these same animal rights zealots couldn't care less if human beings starve. God forbid an animal starve to death or be killed by hunters. Hypocrites and whacko's all........

[WhiteFeather]

PETA rep said

Laura Simon of the Humane Society of the United States said
"We don't support culling because rarely do we see it as really a good solution or the only solution," Simon said. "We would say, as a last resort, that if you identify a problem that can't be solved any other way, we would look at culling. But we'd want to see it done the most humane and efficient way, using sharpshooters and rifles."

It used to be called hunting, hunters paid money to the state for the chance to hunt deer, monies collected employee professionals to manage the deer herd and other wildlife.

After PETA (Humane Society of the United States) and the rest of the anti-hunting groups have done their best to restrict, ban and do away with hunting as a valid means to control deer populations for long term solutions.

Instead PETA wants someone else paid to exterminate deer, shoot them over bait, kill them at night, discharge rifles in peoples backyards, does this make any sense?

Using means they would scream at letting hunters use, so somehow its then OK by PETA to let some else kill the deer when all of these “magical” solutions mention in article don’t work, not practical and everything they advocate always cost someone else money to solve the very real problem that their organization help create by demonizing hunters and the legitimate role they play at managing deer populations.


Using auto deer collisions is not a valid means to control deer, pretending the problem doesn’t exist in areas that were banned from hunting and then only waiting till the problem is almost out of control, then only then considering hunting a solution is stupid and irresponsible

Not everyone on the task force agrees. Panel member Laura Simon of the Humane Society of the United States said bowhunting was not even the most efficient way to lower herd numbers and that protecting forests was far too complicated to rely on killing one species.

[fingers80002]

We have the same issues at the Battlefield.
Those "snipers" they hire are supposed to give the meat to food banks, ......

Nope, let them lay...........

F'ing ASSHOLES!!!!!!!!!!

[Brown-Bear]

We have the same issues at the Battlefield.
Those "snipers" they hire are supposed to give the meat to food banks, ......

Nope, let them lay...........

F'ing ASSHOLES!!!!!!!!!!

How do I get THAT job, and would I get fired for taking the meat home?????

Anybody else from York see an " Over population" this year? I sure as hell did not. I saw 6 deer all season.

Dave W.

[fingers80002]

How do I get THAT job, and would I get fired for taking the meat home?????

Anybody else from York see an " Over population" this year? I sure as hell did not. I saw 6 deer all season.

Dave W.

You did better than me.
I had to travel 1.5 hrs S or 2.5 hrs.N. to even see a deer!!!!