BRITISH COLUMBIA NEWS: Sidney Island Deer Cull to Expand

There are currently 1100-1200 fallow deer on this 1000 ha island, or 11-12 times as many as the island can support over the long term.

[The] Sallas [Forest Strata Corporation], a group of private landowners with property on the opposite side of the island from the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, completed their second fallow deer cull last month, using a mobile meat processor and specially designed dark rooms to keep the deer calm.

Now Parks Canada, which has already provided staff and in-kind support for the cull, is hoping to expand the corral and cull system to the park area.

The population of Mediterranean fallow deer was introduced in the 1920s and, despite 30 years of trying to check the population through First Nations hunting, commercial hunting and shipments to deer farms, the animals have continued to ravage underbrush and eat newly planted trees.

Source: Vancouver Sun

PENNSYLVANIA NEWS: Valley Forge NP Hunt Postponed

The National Park Service has called off its plan to deploy silencer-equipped sharpshooters this winter to cull the nearly 1,300 deer overtaking Valley Forge.

With a lawsuit pending and facing the logistics of deploying contract shooters before spring, the government decided to put off a long-planned hunt at Valley Forge National Historical Park until at least next November, Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Bernstein told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Where George Washington's tattered troops once scrambled for food and shelter, the exploding white-tailed deer population now enjoys a generous habitat of field and forest. But they eat up so many plants, officials say, they are throwing the park's environmental balance out of whack. They are also blamed for scores of vehicle accidents within the park each year and for wreaking havoc on suburban gardens nearby.

"They cause so much damage to the environment, so many road accidents. And the roadkill — so many deer end up lying on the road. No one wants that, whether you want the deer there or not," said Julia Urwin, 52, of Tredyffrin, who supports the hunt.

After years of heated debate and a congressional mandate to deal with the burgeoning deer colony, the park service decided this fall to cull the herd by 80 percent over four years through nighttime hunts.

Animal-rights activists believe the park should be maintained by natural means, and filed suit to try to block the kill in the 3,500-acre oasis west of Philadelphia.

Others doubt the plan is safe, given that homes, hotels and malls now surround the land where Washington's Continental Army spent the winter of 1777-1778.

"The culling never works ... and I think it teaches our kids the wrong thing," said Priscilla Cohn of Villanova, a retired philosophy professor who runs a small animal-rights foundation. She argues that deer herds invariably bounce back after a hunt, as better-fed survivors produce more offspring and other deer move in to fill the vacuum.

"I'm a believer in science," she said. "Shooting is from the last couple of centuries."

Cohn's foundation has offered about $120,000 for deer contraception and fencing to protect vegetation, but the offer is only good if no deer are slain. Park officials, she said, have ignored her.

The park management plan endorses the use of contraceptives for herd maintenance, but said their effectiveness should be further studied. Meanwhile, they say the deer problem is too severe to wait.

"Our plan is linked strongly to our mission at Valley Forge ... to preserve the historic resources, the natural resources and certainly the landscape," said park Superintendent Michael Caldwell. "It's science-based, it's safe, and there's been an extensive amount of public involvement."

Deer problems plague many parks throughout the East, and similar debates about how to shrink deer herds have played out for years. In the 1990s, Gettysburg National Military Park's deer population was reduced by a hunt from 4,000 to just over 200.
In Valley Forge, the post-hunt target population is 175.

"This park couldn't be better habitat for white-tailed deer. It is the perfect mix of field and forest," said Kristina Heister, the park's natural resource manager. "If you have 1,300 deer on the landscape, I bet it's hard for a squirrel to even find an acorn on the forest floor."

The habitat loss has caused birds, butterflies and other dependent wildlife to disappear, officials say.

The National Park Service cites restoration of that ecological balance as its primary reason for the cull, with a secondary goal of reducing the risk of chronic wasting disease, a mad-cow-like brain disease. The disease has been found in adjacent states, but not in Pennsylvania, and foes of the hunt question whether a smaller herd size reduces risk.

Meanwhile, about 90 deer-vehicle collisions occur each year on the busy state road and several commuter shortcuts that dissect the park, Heister said. No one was seriously hurt last year, she said.

Logistics may be as much at play as the lawsuit in this week's agreement to delay the hunt until next winter.

Park officials had set a Jan. 5 deadline for contractors to bid on the hunting operation, and said they needed about two months after that to initiate it. That left little time for the culling operation during the key winter months.

A lawyer for the groups involved in the suit, Connecticut-based Friends of Animals and Pennsylvania-based Compassion for Animals, Respect for the Environment, said Wednesday they are thrilled by the one-year reprieve.

"The fact that they're not managing the parks in a natural way is really what's driving our concern," said Michael R. Harris, a University of Denver environmental law professor who represents them. "They're supposed to be managed in a wild state."
Harris endorses the use of coyotes — already present in the region — to thin the deer population. If that means suburbanites must learn to live with predators in their midst, so be it, he said.

That approach startles some who use the park's 26 miles of hiking and biking paths, including economist Philip Senechal of Philadelphia.

"I don't like the idea of introducing predators. I think that's risky," Senechal said.

Source: AP

NORTH CAROLINA NEWS: Deer and Deer Management at Duke Forest

here wasn't a deer in sight 38 years ago when Duke professor Norm Christensen began a long career studying the ecosystem of Duke Forest.

Now, deer are so abundant they've inserted themselves into his research. Christensen now studies how deer affect plant life just as he studies how hurricanes or climate change do.

"It really complicates what we're trying to understand," he said of sharing his research laboratory with so many deer. "But we're trying to make lemonade out of lemons."

Christensen may soon be documenting a drop in the deer population. Duke is in the midst of its second controlled hunt at Duke Forest in two years. Last fall, hunters killed 75 deer; this year, Duke officials hope to cull 100 white-tailed deer from a forest thought to hold as many as 600.

The exercise speaks to a problem that goes beyond the boundaries of the 7,000-acre Duke Forest. North Carolina's deer population has increased from about 670,000 in 1984 to more than 1.25 million in 2007, according to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

In such numbers, the deer are causing trouble. In addition to playing havoc with research in Duke Forest, they feast on people's gardens and landscaping and have caused 20 motor vehicle-related deaths in the last two years.

But the most popular solution -- regulated bow-hunting -- is hard for some people to stomach and has prompted public conversation and head-scratching about how best to handle the ubiquitous deer.

Some say the hunts are too dangerous. Others think they're morally wrong.

Lee Glenn fears the hunt will tear apart deer herds -- animal families that rely on each other. Glenn lives near Duke Forest in Orange County and has gotten to know a herd that frequents her backyard. They're close-knit and reliant on each other, she said.

"It would sort of be like if you had a brother or sister and someone decided to pick your brother or sister off," she said. "Just to thin you out a little."

Jane Norton, a sustainability educator, moved to her home in rural Orange County 22 years ago to be near Duke Forest. She doesn't think there are too many deer.

"I care about all of nature and think it's imperative...to live in harmony with the natural world," Norton said. "I think our purpose on this earth is to learn from nature. I don't believe in playing God."

No easy way

Some say the method of hunting -- bows and arrows -- is both dangerous and inhumane.

Evin Stanford, a deer biologist with the state Wildlife Resources Commission, disagrees. "If there was an "Easy" button to push to resolve the problem, believe me, we would implement it," Stanford said. "But hunting is really the only feasible mechanism we have."

Other methods, such as a contraceptive product called GonaCon, sound more humane but are expensive, difficult to administer and have not proven to have lasting results, Stanford said.

Around the region, local governments and neighborhoods alike are grappling with deer. In Chapel Hill, for example, residents of one neighborhood asked town leaders for permission to conduct a bowhunt. At least one town council member, Sally Greene, said an urban archery program like that was simply too dangerous.

N.C. State operates six forests for research purposes. On at least one, Schenk Forest near the RBC Center, the deer population is growing steadily, said Joe Cox, NCSU's college forest manager.

"It's unusual to go out there and not see a deer," Cox said, adding that NCSU hasn't begun to consider culling deer.

In Duke Forest, an acceptable number of deer would be 15 to 20 per square mile; officials estimate the population is about 80 per square mile, said Judson Edeburn, the Duke Forest Resource Manager. They feast on plants and trees and wipe out saplings before they have a chance to grow. When they venture out of the forest and into surrounding communities, they ravage gardens.

"What people plant in their yards is just a salad bar for deer," Edeburn said.

Over time, the deer population swelled as predators such as wolves and panthers dwindled. And residential development has played a role as well, turning forests into neighborhoods.

The hunt in Duke Forest runs through mid-December. Duke has contracted with two hunting groups, which Edeburn declined to identify. There will be about 70 hunters involved; 50 will use bows while about 20 will use guns. Not all will hunt at once.

Hunters can keep or donate the deer meat.

Duke Forest is divided into six divisions in Durham, Orange and Alamance counties. Hunters are operating in the Durham, Korstian, Blackwood and Hillsborough divisions, Monday through Friday. Those areas are closed to the public at those times, though teaching exercises are still allowed.

The hunters are trained marksmen required to demonstrate their accuracy each year by hitting a three-inch target from 20 yards, Edeburn said. They operate from deer stands perched in trees to shoot down rather than horizontally. They shoot not at the flank, neck or head, but at the lung or heart.

Generally, it takes one quick shot to kill a deer, Edeburn said.

"These are highly-skilled hunters," he said. "These are not amateurs."

Source: News Observer

KANSAS NEWS: Police Officers to do the Shooting at Shawnee Mission Park

The Lenexa City Council on Tuesday cleared the way for police officers to significantly reduce the deer population in Shawnee Mission Park this fall.

The council unanimously approved a special event permit to allow a deer harvest in the southern half of the park, which is within Lenexa’s city limits. The park’s northern half is in Shawnee.

The permit, which costs $75, runs from Oct. 1 to Jan. 31 and was sought by the Johnson County Park and Recreation District.

Lenexa Mayor Mike Boehm said approving the permit wasn’t a matter of passing judgment on the deer program. He said that issue had been settled by the county Board of Park and Recreation Commissioners.

“It’s on parkland owned by the county. It’s their jurisdiction,” Boehm said. “They can lock down the park and do it in a safe manner. We believe it should be allowed.”

Vicki Charlesworth, Shawnee’s assistant city manager, said her city has an ordinance allowing law enforcement officers to shoot within the city limits, and that park officials did not need a special permit.

The park district is recruiting volunteer police officers to reduce the herd from about 200 deer per square mile to 50 — a 75 percent reduction. The culling could begin as early as October.

If shooting the deer doesn’t kill enough, the park district plans to bring in bow hunters to finish the job.

The park covers 3.5 square miles.

Park officials have said factors influencing their recommendation were statistics on deer-vehicle accidents, complaints from homeowners and commercial businesses about increased plant and landscaping damage, and concerns about diseases associated with ticks carried by deer. They added that the deer population also was affecting the ecology of the park.

Animal-rights activists have argued that overdevelopment in the area has destroyed deer habitat and have urged implementation of nonlethal methods of deer control.

Source: Kansas City Star

NEW YORK NEWS: Cornell Issues Progress Report on Campus/Community Deer Management

A 13-page progress report on Cornell University's Integrated Deer Research and Management Study was recently issued, with updated data on sterilization surgeries, culling and research protocols that include infrared-triggered cameras.

Under "expected outcomes," Drs. Paul Curtis and Jay Boulanger in CU's Department of Natural Resources write: "We will evaluate whether it is possible to integrate deer fertility management with a controlled hunting program to meet localized deer management objectives. The goal is to reduce overall deer abundance and associated impacts (primarily plant damage), and deer-vehicle accidents on and near the Cornell University campus. If this integrated management program is successful, it may have additional applications in other communities in New York state and the Northeast." Additional public presentations on this work will be held later this year, (dates TBD), and results will be published in peer-reviewed literature. To view the full report, access www.govrelations.cornell.edu/community.

Source: The Ithaca Journal

KANSAS NEWS: Controlled Hunt Approved for Shawnee Mission Park

SHAWNEE, KS - A controversial plan to kill deer at Shawnee Mission Park got a thumbs-up on Wednesday night, as officials say the deer population has exploded to nearly seven times the normal rate at the suburban park.

According to officials, the deer are overrunning the park, with the population estimated at 200 per square mile. Since there are no natural predators for the deer in the park, officials say that disease or starvation could wipe out the entire herd unless the population is thinned.

"Because there is no natural predator, and our biodiversity policy address this very clearly, we must intervene and we must try to replicate the role mother nature has played before when there was a perfect balance, that balance no longer exists," said Johnson County Parks and Recreation director Michael Meadors.

The plan calls for sharp shooters, made up of park police and other law enforcement agencies, to thin the deer herd. The sharp shooters would likely head out in the Fall.

Source: Fox4kc

GUAM NEWS: Special Hunt to Combat Overabundant Deer

I had no idea there were deer in Guam. Shows what I know...

The Department of Agriculture is offering a special unlimited deal for deer hunters starting tomorrow, April 15.

The agency notes this year's seasonal hunting of local deer can only take place on Government of Guam property or private property with the owner's permission. Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources Biologist Jeff Quitugua says they have opened up the unlimited either-sex deer hunt because the agency is trying to control the deer and feral pig population. So far, he mentions that the animals have been destroying natural habitats that are supposed to regenerate indigenous plants and vegetation.

No exact data has been released on the current population of these local animals. In the meantime, Quitugua also says hunting licenses and deer tags are required to participate in this hunting season. Anyone interested is asked to contact the Department of Agriculture. Again, the unlimited deer hunt starts tomorrow, April 15 and ends September 30.

Source: Pacific News Center

KANSAS NEWS: Controlled Hunt Proposed for Shawnee Mission Park

A state representative from Eudora has sponsored a bill to create two special bow-hunting seasons to cull the exploding deer population at Shawnee Mission Park in Johnson County.

Republican Anthony Brown wants to allow archers into the 1,280-acre park for nine days in October and nine days in January to shoot deer in a controlled hunt.

The goal of House Bill 2342, he said, is to cull 400 deer from a herd that wildlife officials say is at least eight times larger than the park can support. Any animals not harvested in that time would be killed by sharpshooters, Brown said.

A hearing on the bill is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.

Overpopulation can be dangerous to the health of the deer, people and the park’s ecosystem, experts say. Supporters of controlled hunts say they are done successfully in the area.

Critics say arrows are cruel and inhumane. They are pleading for a less “barbaric” solution that could involve relocation, sterilization or contraception.

Hunting is not allowed in the park, and any controlled hunt would require a change in state legislation.

“With 200 deer per square mile, this is causing a problem,” Brown said.

Brown estimated that it costs $300 per deer to hire a qualified sniper, $400 per deer to trap and relocate each animal and up to $700 to sterilize a deer.

“These options, given the number of animals in the park and the current economic climate, are not viable,” he said.

Brown’s efforts came as a surprise to county parks Director Michael Meadors.

“Everybody’s wanting to rush in and do something,” Meadors said. “Our caution has been … to slow down, take a step back, gather as much information as we can, but to make sure the process is as transparent as possible and includes the public.”

Meadors said a draft deer-management plan will be given to the park board in April. Public hearings will be held in May before the board decides the fate of the deer, he said.

Meanwhile, after months of debate, the St. Louis suburb of Town and Country, Mo., last month approved a plan to kill deer and sterilize does.

Deer overpopulation has long been a problem there, and officials agreed to hire a firm to bring in sharpshooters to kill some of the animals, starting this fall. The sterilizati0on effort has begun but is expected to take years to become effective.

Source: Kansas City Star

INDIA NEWS: Deer Populations Exploding in Guindy National Park

At a time when dwindling animal populations are a concern in most national parks, Guindy National Park (GNP) is struggling to contain its exploding deer population.

Most species of deer reproduce rapidly, leading to stress on their habitat and population explosion. There is also a lot of in-breeding at GNP and as a result, the population is not a healthy one.

GNP, the only national park within city limits, has around 1,100 spotted deer and 380 black bucks. As the foliage reserve in the park is insufficient for the animals, the deer often stray outside in search of food.

"The deer population inside the park has gone beyond control and something has to be done immediately. The park does not have enough foliage to meet the huge demand," a worker at GNP told The Times of India. The park authorities have so far managed to hush up the straying of spotted deer from the park as the city has a strong free-ranging deer population. However, when the forest authorities rescued a black buck from the heart of Velachery in April last year, the straying of animals came to light.

Karunapriya, city wildlife warden in charge of GNP, said that some animals do stray out of the park. "The straying of deer from the park is very difficult to contain. We have open areas near Raj Bhavan and due to security reasons we cannot fence those areas. However, there is no shortage of foliage inside the park.
Otherwise such a huge population of deer could not be thriving," she said.

She also admitted that the gene pool of the deer inside the park is unhealthy because of in-breeding. "We are trying to find a solution to this. We often trap some of the healthy free-ranging spotted deer and let them into the park to enable cross-breeding," Karunapriya said. She said they are also planning to create open grass areas inside the park to increase the availability of foliage. "There are many such developmental plans but they are still being conceptualised," Karunapriya said.

Experts say that such problems are bound to happen as the park is located in the heart of the city. "There should be a plan of action to tackle problems like in-breeding and population explosion. Authorities should shift a few animals to other parks in the state and bring in some from other parks to encourage cross-breeding," a senior wildlife official said.

Source: Times of India

NEW YORK NEWS: Deer Pose Problems at Binghamton University

Most people on campus have seen them at least once. They can be seen by M-Lot, in the Nature Preserve — anywhere except the interior of the Brain, the main road around the campus. They collect at all hours of the night, wandering aimlessly around campus, stumbling onto roads without care for cars. No, this group is not made up of drunk girls coming back from State Street, or pledges from a fraternity.

This group is taking over campus and wreaking havoc on its environment.

They are deer.

The deer that populate Binghamton University’s campus have made themselves at home, and the campus has proven to be a very good home indeed, given their numbers.

“The main reason is a lack of predators, natural or human,” said Dylan Horvath, the steward of the Nature Preserve. “Deer are very adaptable and have been dealing with the lack of natural food.”

This lack of predators has created a haven for deer.

“The deer have figured out that they are not hunted the closer they are to human habitation,” Horvath said. “So we see more of them coming into our natural areas and onto campus.”

Natural predators, he said, can no longer control the deer population — the best means of natural control, wolves and coyotes, were hunted out a century ago.

“Hunting by people is the only substitute that we have for keeping deer populations down,” he said.

Every ecosystem has a carrying capacity, or a maximum number at which a population can be sustained, for its inhabitants. According to Horvath, the carrying capacity of the natural areas has been exceeded.

The exact number of deer is hard to determine, but estimates have been made.

“We’ve counted up to 25 to 30 deer in College-in-the-Woods, which should only have about three naturally,” Horvath said. “There is probably a similar number in the actual Nature Preserve, but they are harder to count.”

Horvath noted that it is hard to tell if the CIW deer move back and forth between the residential community and the Preseve.

“Conservatively, there are probably 45 deer overall,” Horvath said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if the number was well over 50. During hunting season we get an influx of neighboring deer.”

While the idea of an army of deer living in the Nature Preserve may seem funny, it actually has an adverse effect on the environment.

“The deer have eaten probably 99 percent of our wildflowers and have almost stopped forest regeneration,” Horvath said.

This issue of regeneration is significant because of its impact on other species.

There is also the safety issue of students in their cars. Lt. Madeline Bay, of Binghamton’s New York State University Police, explained that even with the large number of deer on campus, there are only three or four accidents a year — a number which has remained steady over time.

“It’s one of those things where people have to be alert,” Bay said. “As long as people go slow and obey the speed limits there is usually no problem.”

Julian Shepherd, Ph. D, associate professor of biological sciences and chair of the Committee on the University Environment, said he also hasn’t received many complaints relating to the deer.

“There is no plan,” Shepherd said. “We talk about options sometimes but think that it would be controversial.”

Any answer to the deer issue would be complicated.

“There are two solutions,” Horvath said. “Change the deer behavior or reduce their population.”

Hunting would reduce the deer populations, but carries a lot of concerns and issues, Horvath explained, including safety, public support and permits.

“Hunting is a very remote possibility for now,” Horvath added. “The chances of hunting being allowed anytime soon are low.”

Horvath said some students had tried to set up a deer exclusion fence in CIW and the Nature Preserve to see if there was regrowth, but complications like people littering the area with beer cans have also affected regrowth.

Problems with solutions have made people reluctant to implement measures.

“Frankly, a lot of us would like to see the deer populations decrease,” Shepherd, in regard to the issues, said. “But we don’t want to do it.”

Horvath believes it is a tough situation, because the conditions that have made a deer problem are mostly caused by humans, and the animals have no choice but to adapt.

“On the one hand the deer are wonderful ‘ambassadors’ of nature and people love seeing them,” he said in an e-mail. “On the other hand, ecologically, and to some extent safety-wise, they are a problem.”

All this, Horvath says, makes for an interesting and touchy problem, especially with the deer’s impact on the forest itself.

“Unfortunately, our forests don’t have the luxury of waiting for nature to take its course, but we may have to,” he said.

Source: http://bupipedream.com/new/index.php/articles/view/7209

DELAWARE NEWS: Fifty Deer Per Square Mile Post-Hunt Still Too Many

State experts say Delaware still has too many deer.

Rob Hossler with the Division of Fish and Wildlife told hunters Sunday that there were an estimated 36,000 deer in Delaware after the recent hunting season. He says the goal is to reduce the population to 40 deer per square mile of deer habitat- or 29,000 statewide.

Hossler says the state could add several days to the hunting season and might allow hunters to bag more deer.

Source:
http://www.wboc.com/Global/story.asp?S=6005158&nav=MXEF