NEW JERSEY NEWS: Humane Society Pushes Non-Lethal Deer Control

SOLEBURY — Few sights can top the serene majesty of a white-tailed deer in a green field or a shaded wood.
But that same deer can inflict damage and death on the nation's highways and back roads.
The problem, experts agree, is the conflict that results when the habitats of people and nature overlap. Where the experts disagree is how best to handle the conflict.
Some experts advocate allowing hunters to thin the herd, but this summer, the problem became too severe in a local community to wait for hunting season.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services has said a more immediate response was needed in Solebury Township to cut the deer-vehicle collision rate of two every three days and also to curtail the damage inflicted on local crops.
Wildlife Services sent in a crew, including a sharpshooter with night-vision goggles and thermal imaging equipment, to cull the herd. The crew killed 116 deer, including 12 fawns, over a four-night period. The crew will return sometime in August to continue the shoot.
The Humane Society of the United States says there are other, better methods to control the conflict that are also more humane. Tonight (July 26) at New Hope-Solebury High School at 6:30 p.m., the society will present a discussion of nonlethal methods. Donald Elroy, the society's director of wildlife advocacy in Washington D.C., will be the speaker.
People who attend the meeting will have the opportunity to sign a petition against the lethal methods of deer control.
The petition is intended not just for Solebury residents, but for anyone who "feels this could become an issue in their area," said Kathy Mays Acker, a former Solebury resident who now resides in Plumsteadville.
She added, "So we can show our representatives that we do not care to ever have them go and think along these lines when there are so many other ways to address this issue."
The shoot in Solebury may cause an undesirable increase in the number of deer, according to the Humane Society.
It could result in "less challenging situations and more habitat for the remaining deer," Mr. Elroy said.
He added, "When this occurs, the deer rebound by having more sets of twins, thereby increasing population numbers."
The society says other effective methods would address the collisions and the loss of income to farmers as well as Lyme disease.
"Crop loss and damage could easily be compensated by the community or through USDA," Mr. Elroy told Wildlife Services and Solebury in a letter e-mailed June 20. "Compensation for crop loss is a regular program under the auspices of the USDA."
To prevent the damage in the first place, Mr. Elroy said nurseries in the area have had "very impressive results" when they erected deer fencing.
The frequency of collisions can be lowered through a number of means, according to the society. Among the options are lower speed limits, Strieter-Lite reflectors, motion sensor flashing signals, wildlife crossings and green bridges.
The Strieter-Lite Wild Animal Highway Warning Reflector System was patented in 1994. It is designed to work between dusk and dawn when deer are most active. The system reflects vehicle headlights and sends out a reflected beam at deer. It acts to deter deer from crossing the road while traffic is approaching.
Green bridges are grassy, earth-like pathways or bridges constructed over roads. They funnel deer and other large wildlife away from the path of traffic.
With the proximity of deer to the human population comes a concern for ticks, and with certain ticks comes disease. Tick bites can result in at least 10 different diseases in humans, including Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, according to the American Lyme Disease Foundation.
The deer tick, or black-legged tick, is responsible for transmitting Lyme disease in the eastern part of the United States. It needs to feed on blood as it moves through the three stages of its life cycle, larva, nymph and adult.
In the adult stage, the tick waits on leaves or grass for a passing host, preferably a deer, and latches on as the deer passes by.
The USDA has used a device called a four-poster to deal with ticks in the deer population. It is a metal device where deer feed. As they insert their heads and necks into the device, they are brushed with a tick-killing chemical.
The Humane Society says the USDA should also consider ways to control ticks at other stages in the life cycle.
"If the ticks are controlled at an earlier developmental stage, it would have an overall larger effect on tick population and control of Lyme disease," Mr. Elroy said. "The black-legged tick is not specific to deer and transfers through a variety of hosts during different life stages."
To control the deer population, the society also points to methods of contraception as well as surgical sterilization.
"In short, there are a variety of non-lethal approaches that should have been implemented in the initial stage of any strategy or plan concerning human-deer conflict situations," Mr. Elroy said.

source: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18621086&BRD=1091&PAG=461&dept_id=425410&rfi=6

NEW BRUNSWICK NEWS: Mild Winter, Spring Deer Population Up

A mild winter may be responsible for what looks like a baby boom in New Brunswick's deer population.

Rod Cumberland, the province's deer biologist, says numbers are up in certain areas of the province, including the Tobique River Valley, the Saint John-Kennebecasis River Valley and the Miramichi River Valley.

Cumberland says biologists are also seeing an increase in multiple births, with three sets of triplets found this year and four sets of quadruplets.

Single births and twins are common among deer.

Not only are there more fawns, more of them are surviving through the winter and early spring. Cumberland says the weather had a lot to do with that.

"The lack of snow, of course, is a good thing for deer, especially those that live this far north," he said. "Usually it's the tough winters that keep our deer population from growing a lot."

Researchers are now watching to see how many of the fawns survive the summer.

A previous study found 54 per cent of fawns don't make it to fall, but last year, only 30 per cent died.

Cumberland says that may mean a healthier deer population in New Brunswick.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2007/07/12/nb-moredeer.html

RESEARCH NEWS: CWD Prion More Infectious Than Previously Thought

New research shows that the prion — a mysterious infectious agent that is neither bacterium nor virus — is 700 times more infectious when combined with common minerals found in dirt.

Not only is the prion an abnormal protein that can devastate infected animals and humans — it has has been compared to an alien due to its virtual indestructibility, its unusual ability to replicate itself and its propensity for eating away at the brain — but it may live on and remain virulent in the soil itself.

The finding is important to hunters across the country, as chronic wasting disease continues to spread in wild deer herds. It also has important implications for cattle and sheep farmers, as mad cow disease in cows and scrapie in sheep are also caused by prions.

As for humans, the implications for illness– known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease — is unknown. While serious disease among humans has been tied to the eating of meat from diseased cows, no such links have been made between venison and human health, and hunters are well informed about steps needed to reduce the risk of transmission.

Source: www.thedailygreen.com/2007/07/11/deer-hunters-beware-study-shows-cwd-virulence/3691/

WISCONSIN OPINION: Good Reasons to Ban Deer Baiting and Feeding

Keith McCaffery, retired northern deer biologist for the DNR, emphasizes that the state can not effectively manage deer in the presence of baiting and feeding.
"It changes their productivity, survivorship, their behavior and distribution, and greatly confounds harvest management," McCaffery said. "This is 'old hat' and has been known by deer biologists for a long time."

"But, some of the new reasons for concern are that saliva was proven to be a means of transmission for CWD, which converted a number of doubters," he said. "They had speculated that saliva was highly suspect and that has now been proven. Researchers took saliva from animals that manifested symptoms and orally gave it to fawns that later came down with CWD."

Other relatively new factors that should turn the tide against baiting and feeding, include the report last December by DNR Chief Conservation Warden Randy Stark that highlights problems wardens are seeing with illegal baiting. To McCaffery the violations that occur and the way some hunters use baiting to take over land that should be open to the public is an embarrassment.

Third is University of Wisconsin-Wildlife Ecology assistant professor Tim Van Deelen's report analyzing the effect of baiting on herd control."Van Deelen found that baiting tended to increase the archery harvest slightly, but it decreased the firearm harvest and the net effect was no effect," McCaffery said.

Another new reason why baiting and feeding should be banned, McCaffery said, is the emergence of new diseases. Michigan has had a problem with Bovine tuberculosis in its wild deer herd, and more recently Minnesota has found tuberculosis in part of its deer herd. In addition, Pseudorabies has appeared around Marshfield and there is speculation that it may have come from feral hogs. McCaffery wonders if baiting is playing a factor in its transmission.

"The fact that diseases continue to pop up should be an alarm bell," McCaffery said.
McCaffery said he has been concerned about the lack of political support for actions to control CWD in Wisconsin.

Source: http://www.madison.com/tct/sports/200107

SWITZERLAND NEWS: Another Deer in the Alps Gets Stoned

Authorities in Switzerland uncovered an illegal cannabis farm after locals complained about a stoned deer.

It is reported the deer had been attacking hikers, sleeping in roads and even wandering into homes and stores.

After numerous complaints forest rangers in Trient, Switzerland, launched an investigation.

They discovered an illegal cannabis farm set up by two locals, who were arrested as they went to harvest their crop.

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=iol1183440553562D600

ITALY NEWS: Deer Eats Marijuana, Frisky Behavior Ensues

Forest rangers have uncovered a marijuana farm on a mountaintop near Trento after residents commented on how the deer were 'unusually frisky' and leaping about uncharacteristically.

The rangers themselves had observed that the deer were out in the daytime which is unusual for the species. Further investigation yielded some pots and the remains of marijuana plants.

Police arrested two people in their twenties over the plantation, a factory worker and a university student. The charges may be dropped, however, as the deer consumed most of the evidence.

source: http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=63330

CALIFORNIA NEWS: Santa Rosa Island Ungulates Soon To Be Back in Crosshairs

WASHINGTON -- Santa Rosa Island is once again the subject of federal legislation as California Democrats have taken steps toward restoring the National Park Service’s ability to help remove deer and elk from the island.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the 2008 Interior Department spending bill Thursday and included a repeal of a section of law enacted late last year that restricted the park service.

Last fall, Rep. Duncal Hunter, D-Calif., specifically barred the park service from eliminating or nearly eliminating deer and elk from Santa Rosa Island, part of the Channel Islands National Park.

He had previously proposed transferring control of the island to the Defense Department and designating it as a hunting refuge for disabled veterans. But he failed to gain support for that measure.

Hunter’s provision, attached to the 2007 defense bill, intentionally conflicted with a court settlement that mandated the park service share in the cost of removing the last of the deer and elk from the island.

Source: http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/washington/news.aspx?id=38355

Under that settlement, Vail & Vickers, which holds a private hunting permit for deer and elk on the island, must begin culling the herds in 2008 and eliminate them by 2011, with the park service’s help.

The park service, which acquired the island from the Vail and Vickers family in 1986, believes the non-native deer and elk wreak havoc on the island’s ecosystem. The 53,000-acre island is home to hundreds of plant and bird species, as well as the native island fox and marine life.

Private hunting forces the park to close 45,000 acres of the island to the public from August through December.

Duncan’s law made it illegal for the park service to comply with the terms of the court settlement.

Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and Rep. Lois Capps have been working to repeal the provision since it took effect in late 2006.

The panel’s spending bill would accomplish just that if it passes the full Senate and survives scrunity by the U.S. House later this year.

“To ensure that the public is able to enjoy year-round access to Santa Rosa and that the Park Service can protect the Island’s natural resources, it is critical that this ill-advised provision be repealed,” Capps said. “I am pleased that the Senate is moving quickly.”

Hunter’s office could not be reached for comment Friday.

PENNSYLVANIA NEWS: Another Philly Suburb Struggles With Deer

Bow-hunting is one of three deer-control recommendations that East Goshen supervisors will listen to Tuesday night when they hear a report from a township study group, but no decision on the issue is expected until after a public hearing in September.
James McRee, who heads the township deer-management committee, said the group will unveil its plan Tuesday after finalizing it at a meeting of its own Monday.

The recommendations are that East Goshen employ a private hunting club to thin the deer herd with bows and arrows, that property owners use "non-lethal" means such as building fences and spraying repellants on plants and that the township educate its residents about deer.

"We want to do all three" of the recommendations, McRee said during an interview last week.

At the Pennsylvania Game Commission, spokesman Jerry Feaser said a town can permit hunting only on town-owned land - just as a landowner can invite or forbid hunters only on his own property - during a state hunting season.

Feaser offered a standing statement which reads:

"Only the Pennsylvania Game Commission has been empowered to regulate hunting and trapping in the commonwealth. And, while municipalities have the authority to limit the discharge of firearms and bows for target practice or other non-hunting related activities within their municipalities' limits, local officials do not have the authority to impact this activity when it is being done as part of lawful hunting."

The statement noted that "the statewide archery and crossbow safety zone is 50 yards" from most buildings but the zone for all hunters "is 150 yards from any playground, school, nursery school or day-care center."

The question for township officials, Feaser said, is: "Are they trying to impact all township property or are they acting in their role as landowner of township-owned land?"

East Goshen zoning officer Mark Gordon in an interview pointed out that if hunting becomes an option, the township will regulate it only "on township-owned property."

In an interview earlier this year, township manager Rick Smith noted that in 2005, East Goshen allowed archers in tree stands "on three parcels of the township open space. I believe they took 10 or 11 deer over the course of the hunting season."

But an aerial survey on the night of March 25-26 counted 296 deer within East Goshen and 142 nearby.

In a parallel Chester County situation, Schuylkill Township has worked to persuade homeowners to allow hunting by a private group, the White Tail Associates Hunting Club.

Jim Morrison, head of Schuylkill's deer-management committee, said that since 1993 hunters have killed 996 deer, without killing the problem.

"Despite our best efforts over 14 years," Morrison said for an April article, "we still have got a fairly high deer population."

Ellen Sinclair, an elementary school teacher, was a no vote when the East Goshen deer-management committee recently voted 6-2 to make the three recommendations to the supervisors.

"A lot of my reservations for hunting in the township are safety," Sinclair said in an interview. "I don't think we have have a well-developed plan yet."

Source: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/chester/voices/20070617_A_plan_to_reduce_the_deer_herd_to_be_
unveiled_in_East_Goshen_The_supervisors_will_hear_the_three-part_proposal_on_Tuesday_night__It_will_include_
a_hunting_plan_.html

DEER BEHAVING BADLY: Daily Roundup

MICHIGAN--It wasn't your ordinary day of work for some office personnel at MSU. A mother deer and her fawn crashed right through their window. Michigan State University police say the deer, clearly disoriented, thrashed around the college of human medicine's office. One deer even jumped into an employee's lap, leaving her with minor injuries.

Source (with video): http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=6568200

COLORADO--Run-ins in between wildlife and people are on the rise this spring. Just ask Louis Gaz, who saw a deer crash through a window and into a bedroom in his home.

"I just saw this brown flash going my direction," said Gaz, 76, who was outside with a friend on Saturday when the deer burst into his house in Lafayette, about 20 miles north of Denver.

Gaz said he tried to get the deer to leave through a door, but it eventually bolted back through the jagged hole in the window, leaving blood, fur and broken glass behind.

Source: http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2007/05/25/news/regional/612fa28241e27adf872572e5006d229f.txt

NEW HAMPSHIRE NEWS: Too Many in Southeast, Too Few Everywhere Else

NEW HAMPSHIRE (AP) -- New Hampshire Fish and Game officials are trying to increase the white-tailed deer population everywhere except the southeast corner of the state, where there's too much of a good thing.

Thanks to a healthy herd and good weather, hunters killed nearly 12,000 deer in New Hampshire last year, the fourth-highest total on record. More than one in ten were killed in the area stretching from the Nashua area to the Seacoast, south of Route 101.

After a serious drop in the deer population, the state limited hunting in 1983. The herd has rebounded since then, but Fish and Game would like to see it increase by another 45 percent, except in the southeast, where they'd like to see it fall by nearly one-third.

Last year, the state increased the number of special permits it sold allowing hunters to kill a second deer in that area.

Source: http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=61117

INDIANA NEWS: Deer Breaks Into House, Bleeds Out

The first half of May has been quite eventful for Bob and Helen Meyer of Decatur. On May 8, their son, city police Detective Eric "Keebie" Meyer, was the upset winner of the Republican primary election for nomination to run for mayor, deposing five-term chief executive Fred Isch. Saturday, May 12 was Keebie's birthday. Sunday, May 13, was Bob's and Helen's 57th wedding anniversary and also Mother's Day.

Oh, yeah, there was one more thing: on the 12th - a young deer bashed into the couple's Mercer Ave. home and bled to death after severing a jugular vein on broken window glass. The Meyers said they were watching television around 6 p.m. on Saturday in the rear of their home when they heard glass breaking. They went to the front door and saw a man who had stopped his pickup truck on Mercer, near Adams Memorial Hospital, and who told them he had just missed two deer darting across the road. The man then said one of the deer jumped through a window into the Meyer home. That window is beside the front door, but a wall separates the door from the room next door, so Bob and Helen could not see the damage.

As they investigated the damage in that bedroom, they heard another sound of breaking glass, so they went to a second bedroom and found a young male deer on the floor, dying. "He was still kicking." Bob recalls, but there was blood everywhere: on walls, the floor, the bed, pillows, clothes, etc. The deer had apparently not been badly hurt going through the first window, but severed a major vein as he tried to escape through the second window. Luckily, the animal did not damage any of the many plastic warplane models that Bob, an Air Force veteran, has in the den and the bedroom in which the deer died.

"If he'd have damaged those planes, I would have killed him," Bob said on Tuesday. The Meyers expect their insurance to cover the losses and the replacement of such things as carpeting and even a pair of pants that Bob had never worn, but which were spotted with blood. Maybe the second half of the month will be calmer . . . but wait until the mayoral race culminates in November.

Source: http://www.decaturdailydemocrat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5501&Itemid=27

WEST VIRGINIA NEWS: Three More Cases of CWD Confirmed

CHARLESTON — Three more free-ranging white-tailed deer in Hampshire County have tested positive for chronic wasting disease, bringing the total of CWD-positive deer found in that county to 13, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources an-nounced Friday.

These most recent samples were collected from 101 adult deer taken in March and April by DNR personnel as part of an ongoing and intensive CWD surveillance effort. The three CWD-positive deer were collected within the CWD Containment Area located north of U.S. Route 50 in Hampshire County. The laboratory testing was conducted by the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study at the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

When CWD was first confirmed in Hampshire County in September 2005, the DNR immediately implemented a response plan. The DNR has been engaged in intensive CWD surveillance efforts designed to determine the distribution and prevalence of the disease. These efforts have included carefully planned and coordinated deer collections within Hampshire County by CWD deer collection teams.

“These deer collection teams have continued their efforts to gather appropriate samples within the surveillance area to accurately determine the prevalence and distribution of CWD,” said DNR Director Frank Jezioro.

“Our initial CWD surveillance data suggests the disease is located within a relatively small geographic area located near Slanesville,” said Jezioro. “This is encouraging news. Based upon these findings, we have implemented appropriate management actions designed to control the spread of this disease, prevent further introduction of the disease and possibly eliminate the disease from the state,” Jezioro added.

Source: http://www.times-news.com/local/local_story_132093832.html

DELAWARE NEWS: 269 Deer Shy of a Record Harvest

The numbers are in from last season's deer harvest in Delaware and the total was the second highest in state history.
Hunters bagged 14-thousand-401 deer -- that's 268 fewer than the record set in the 2004-2005 season.

More than 6-thousand of the deer were killed during the 8-day shotgun season in November.

The entire deer season spanned five months from September through January.

This was the second year for the new January handgun season. The handgun kills this year numbered 135, compared to 114 the previous year.

Source: http://www.fw.delaware.gov/Info/DeerInfo.htm.

MINNESOTA NEWS: Lyme, Anaplasmosis and Babesiosis, Oh My!

You probably already know deer ticks can spread lyme disease; but now, there's new concerns about the tiny insects. Health officials are issuing a warning that deer ticks can spread more than just lyme disease.

Minnesota's Health Department says deer ticks can also spread human anaplasmosis and babesiosis. Symptoms of both diseases include high fever, muscle aches, chills, and headaches.

Health officials say they expect the number of people infected to go up. The elderly, or those with compromised immune systems, are the most vulnerable for infection.

Source: http://wkbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=6478976&nav=KoJE

MULTIPLE LOCATIONS: More Deer Behaving Badly

New Jersey- A deer became an unexpected guest at a Gloucester County hair salon when it slammed through a glass window.

The deer launched itself head-first through the window of Salon Leezae in Franklin Township at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday while the salon was packed with customers.

Surveillance cameras in the salon captured video of the animal leaping over a customer before landing in the lobby. After flailing around for a few seconds, the deer made a grand exit, jumping back out the gaping hole it left in the window.

"I just couldn’t believe it; we really were in shock," store owner Lisa Vicheto-Scapellato said.

Lisa's daughter and her friend, in the salon for 'Bring Your Daughter to Work Day,' had a front seat view and said at first they thought it was a car because the crash was so loud.

"No one would think that the deer would just jump right through the window," Lisa's daughter said.

"He was kicking all over when he was right by the front and he kicked glass everywhere and it hit me on my arm," she said.

"Right away, I am like 'who do we call, who do we call?' I am thinking of animal control, because we are worried about the deer after we knew that all the human beings were okay," Lisa said.

Lisa's daughter had to get two stitches but luckily there were no other serious injuries.

The deer was last seen fleeing the salon, heading towards Delsea Drive and into the nearby woods where witnesses believe it came from.

Michigan -- Officers used a Taser to subdue a whitetail deer that jumped through a window into an apartment in downtown Owosso Thursday morning.

The 140-pound doe ran through the apartment, knocking things over, before the two men inside closed it in a bathroom, Deputy Chief Mike Rau said.

The officers immobilized the animal with a Taser until state Department of Natural Resources officers sedated it and carried it out of the building, Rau said. The deer suffered injuries and was later destroyed, he said.


Source:
http://cbs3.com/topstories/local_story_116234528.html
http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/newsnow/2007/04/deer_jumps_into_apartment_wind.html

MULTIPLE LOCATIONS: Deer Behaving Badly

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania:

Hoof prints in the mulch and flower beds, a bent railing, and traces of glass were the only visual reminders left behind after three deer took a stroll through an Adams County retirement home Wednesday morning.

At about 10:30 a.m., three deer entered the west entrance of the Cross Keys Village – The Brethren Home Community through an automatic door and wandered through several hallways before leaving, said Frank Buhrman, director of communications and public relations.

"It was over quickly. We're just extraordinarily fortunate it was without incident," Buhrman said.

Villanova, Pennsylvania

Two deer entered Moulden Hall on West Campus this Sunday, causing damage to the residence hall and wreaking havoc at a student barbeque. Students alerted Public Safety of the incident.

"[We responded] to a report of a live deer roaming inside the building," Public Safety Senior Investigator Jim Conway said.

At approximately 7:45 p.m., the animals entered the building through the door closest to Klekotka Hall. Resident Assistants held a barbeque for the residents of West Campus from 4 to 7 p.m., and students propped open the door as they moved in and out of the residence hall.

Five public safety officers, including a sergeant who served as shift supervisor, reported to the scene to find the deer on the ground floor in the hallway closest to Klekotka Hall. The officers proceeded to ensure that all of the doors to Moulden Hall were secured and that all students cleared out of the way.

The Public Safety officers then called Radnor Police, hoping that they would have animal tranquilizers, Conway said.

Radnor Police did not have any animal tranquilizers to offer Public Safety, but two Radnor police officers did report to the scene.

The officers worked together and "forced the deer out of the open lobby door," Conway said. The deer were not injured.

Rogersville, Tennessee

Police aren't looking for a suspect who broke through an elderly Rogersville woman's bedroom window Wednesday morning and trashed her apartment.

But the suspect's wanted poster can likely be seen at any outdoor sporting goods store.

Madge Webster, 79, said Wednesday that "by the grace of God" she was sleeping on her couch Wednesday shortly before 1 a.m. when a deer crashed through her bedroom window, landing on her bed.

There's no telling how badly Webster might have been injured had she been under the covers as the hooves stomped across her bed.

The sound of breaking glass startled Webster awake at her apartment at 970 Woodlawn Ave.

At first she thought it might have been her grandson, who smokes outside. But the intruder's identity became apparent when an adult deer stormed through her bedroom door, bouncing off of walls and furniture into the kitchen and dining room area.

"It was just the Lord's will because it came through my bedroom window, across my bed, and I'm glad I wasn't in it," Webster told the Times-News. "I looked up and saw this thing, and I didn't know what in the world it was. I said, ‘Oh dear God what is that?' and I jumped up right quick.

"It was climbing the walls. There's hair all over the walls. It got up on the tables. All my collectibles were destroyed. I just happened to go open the door, and when I did it ran out through the storm door."


Sources:
http://www.eveningsun.com/localnews/ci_5755909
http://media.www.villanovan.com/media/storage/paper581/news/2007/04/26/News/Deer-Invade.West.Campus-2880421.shtml
http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=3754086

PENNSYLVANIA NEWS: Game Commission Board of Directors Vs. Biologists

Rooney's two cents: Hey Thomas Boop--of course you would never run a business this way. Then again, (1) this is not a business, which is a good thing, because (2) the price of deer tags does not include many of the economic costs of deer damage, such as auto collisions and medical treatment, crop and landscape damage, disease transmission to humans and livestock, and damage to forests and forestry. I'm all for your proposal to fix the "fatal flaws" in the deer management program if you are all for adding these externalities into the price of tags. I think hunters might balk at the $200-300 price per tag, though (based on some back of the envelope calculations).

HARRISBURG, Pa. - The president of the Pennsylvania Game Commission's board of directors said Tuesday the agency's controversial deer-management plan is "fatally flawed."

"We would never run a business the way we're running our deer-management program," board president Thomas E. Boop said.

Just a few hours after Boop delivered his stinging criticism of the program, the agency biologists responsible for that program recommended continuing it with virtually no changes for the upcoming 2007-08 hunting season.

"We're going to base our information and recommendations on the best science that we can and on the best data that we can," said Cal DuBrock, head of the Game Commission's Bureau of Wildlife Management.

Tuesday was the first day of the Game Commission's annual, two-day spring meeting, at which hunting and trapping seasons and bag limits for the state's game animals are set for the following fall and winter. The commissioners will vote today to set those seasons and bag limits.

As has been the case over the past decade, deer and deer management proved to be the most discussed and most controversial topics of the meeting's first day.

Hunters lined up to tell the commissioners the deer herd across the state has been decimated by years of overhunting.

"To stay the course (with the management program) would adversely affect the sport of hunting for all ages in our state," said East Hempfield Township resident Charles Bolgiano, who is legislative liaison for Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania.

Likewise, forest managers and people interested in seeing diversified wildlife and plant life lined up to encourage the commissioners not to alter the course of the deer-management program.

"We are finally seeing signs of recovery in forest regeneration," said Jim Chapman, a forest manager who works for a lumber company in Warren County.

Wildlife biologist Chris Rosenberry, who heads the Game Commission's deer-management division, agreed with Chapman's assessment, and said now is not the time to reverse course on the program.

The health of the state's deer and the health of the state's forest, Rosenberry said, indicate the Game Commission must keep up the current amount of hunting pressure applied to the deer herd.

As a result, Rosenberry recommended the commissioners vote today to maintain last year's slate of hunting seasons, with the exception of extending it in part of the southeast region, where deer numbers are particularly high.

He also recommended the commissioners allocate 6,000 more antlerless deer licenses than they issued last year, for a total of 865,000 licenses.

The Game Commission controls the state's deer population by regulating the number of female deer that are killed each year.

Each license allows a hunter to kill one antlerless deer, which is either a doe, a buck that's too young to have grown antlers or an older buck that has lost its antlers.

State Rep. Sam Rohrer of Berks County, who is the minority chairman of the House Game & Fisheries Committee, said more people from across the state complain to him about the deer-management program than any other issue.

Hunters are complaining to their legislators about the lack of deer, Rohrer said, because the hunters believe the Game Commission isn't listening to their opinions.

Rohrer said the Game Commission's data regarding the state's deer herd sometimes contradicts itself. He recommended the agency submit to an independent audit of its facts and figures.

Boop supported Rohrer's proposal, saying he "can't make any sense out of the data I've seen."

Rohrer said he believes the Legislature would help finance and facilitate the audit if the Game Commission would submit to it.

And he recommended the agency suspend all antlerless deer hunting by adults during the annual two-week firearms deer season this fall until the audit is conducted.

"All I'm asking for is a little bit of a break in the program so that we can focus on the data collection," Rohrer said.

Source: http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/202993

NEW ZEALAND NEWS: Cull on Secretary Island Nets Over 340 Red Deer

The Department of Conservation has culled more than 340 red deer off the 8140ha Secretary Island in Fiordland since November as part of an ambitious plan to eradicate the species and create another predator-free sanctuary.

In its proposal document, DOC says it also plans to test and develop methods for "intensive control of deer" during the eradication.

Secretary Island is off the Fiordland coast at the entrance to Doubtful Sound.

In 2004 Conservation Minister Chris Carter granted $7 million for the pest eradication work on 8140ha Secretary Island and 20,860ha Resolution Island, in Dusky Sound. An earlier attempt to eradicate deer, during the 1970s and 1980s, was unsuccessful. The first stage, a stoat eradication project for Secretary Island, was initiated in 2004-05.

DOC project manager Dr Kerri-Anne Edge said 341 deer had been shot from the air and ground-hunted since November – representing a significant denting of the deer population.
DOC estimated there had been a total population of between 600 and 700 deer on the island but the species was also breeding rapidly.

The eradication of red deer from Secretary Island is designed to protect the ecological values of the island, and to test and develop "methods for intensive control of deer" , DOC says.
Main methods being tried during the knock-down phase will be ground hunting, helicopter hunting and possibly the use of foliar baited 1080 gel as a promising option. Aerial 1080 drops have been discounted.

Ms Edge said deer pens were being put on the island and self-attaching radio collars would be used to help track deer. The work would continue into next year, she said.

To have the two islands free of all pests would add to a list of important island sanctuaries, including 1336ha Codfish, 1150ha Anchor and 475ha Chalky islands. The island projects are expected to be complete by about 2014. Work on eradicating deer from Resolution Island would start in July, she said.

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/southlandtimes/4027345a6568.html

PENNSYLVANIA: Audubon Society Weighs in on Deer Population

The over-browsing of Pennsylvania's forests and agricultural areas by too many deer in too many places has eliminated thousands of acres of habitat for birds and other wildlife, and represents the largest single threat to bird habitat, after urban sprawl, according to Timothy D. Schaeffer, Ph.D., Executive Director of Audubon Pennsylvania, the state office of the National Audubon Society.

Dr. Schaeffer made the comments before the Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee at a listening session on rural and agricultural issues in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

"The impact of deer on our forest ecosystem, the crop and forest
products losses, the loss of life and property from deer/car collisions and
the impact on public health from the incidence of Lyme disease carried by
deer have all been documented and the picture painted by these numbers is
not good," said Dr. Schaeffer.

A study released in March by the Department of Conservation and Natural
Resources showed fewer than 25 percent of the 41,650 forest plots they
looked at across the state showed desirable forest regeneration and almost
45 percent lacked any new, woody growth.

"Here in the Lebanon area -- the Conrad Weiser Forest District -- the
results are even worse," Dr. Schaeffer explained. "59 percent of the 1,126
forest plots surveyed showed no forest regeneration and 28 percent showed
regeneration with undesirable species."

The DCNR study and a 2005 study by Audubon Pennsylvania and the
Pennsylvania Habitat Alliance show that high deer populations have greatly
altered forest understories. The abundance of native wildflowers and other
forest-floor plants has been greatly diminished, shrub species have been
dramatically decreased or eliminated, and the variety of tree species has
declined.

From a bird and wildlife resource perspective, nearly every one of
Audubon's 84 Important Bird Areas in Pennsylvania has experienced
significant damage caused by deer over-browsing, reducing much-needed
habitat areas. These are areas of habitat critical to the survival and
diversity of bird populations that must meet dozens of science-based
criteria for designation.

"In addition to habitat losses, there is an estimated $90 million in
agricultural crop loss and $73 million in damage to our forest products
every year caused by deer, according to the Department of Agriculture,"
said Dr. Schaeffer. "Nurseries are losing an average of $20,000 a year due
to deer damage, and state taxpayers lose $18 million a year in deferred and
lost timber stumpage sales."

In addition, a 2006 hearing by the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs
Committee found --

-- Over $78 million in property damage occur in the over 39,000 deer/car
collisions each year in Pennsylvania, not counting the deaths and
injuries to the people involved, the highest of any state in the
nation; and

-- The incidence of Lyme disease, a debilitating and sometimes fatal
illness spread by deer ticks, has increased by over 9,000 percent
between 1987 and 2004, according to the Department of Health.

"Hunters will never agree on how many deer there should be in the
woods, and deer certainly don't go where hunters want them to; they go
where there's food and cover," said Dr. Schaeffer. "Deer are having a
devastating impact on forest ecosystems and many agricultural areas, and we
need to continue common sense policies to stem these losses."

Audubon Pennsylvania made several recommendations to the Committee --

-- The first priority should be the restoration and maintenance of fully
functional forest ecosystems, containing a full component of native
biological diversity at all levels. It is the best way to serve the
long-term interests of the people and wildlife of Pennsylvania.

-- Policy-makers and land managers should focus on the indicators of
forest health -- rather than the number of deer people are seeing -- to
assess whether our forests are recovering.

-- Until data shows Pennsylvania's forests are recovering, it would be
imprudent and irresponsible to further limit hunter effectiveness
through restrictions on hunting such as shorter seasons and smaller
antlerless allocations.

-- Support House Bill 550, sponsored by Rep. Hershey (R-Chester) and Rep.
Tom Caltagirone (D-Berks), allowing the owners of farms, forestland and
landscape nurseries to better protect agricultural commodities from the
damage caused by deer and other wildlife and would make it easier for
landowners, local governments and communities to obtain deer removal
permits. Sen. McIlhinney (R-Bucks) is considering introduction of a
similar bill in the Senate.

-- The General Assembly, Governor's Office and the Game Commission should
identify a funding base that is more stable and equitable than funding
derived almost exclusively from sources such as license dollars and
timber sales on game lands in order to facilitate the shift from
single-species management to ecosystem management.

For more information, visit Audubon Pennsylvania's website at:
http://pa.audubon.org/deer_report.html

SOURCE Audubon Pennsylvania and
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-05-2007/0004560408&EDATE=

PENNSYLVANIA NEWS: Forest Regeneration Failure at 75% Statewide

PITTSBURGH - A new state survey shows that Pennsylvania's deer herd is nibbling away at new growth in the state's forest lands at an alarming rate.

Nearly 42,000 plots surveyed from the air in 19 of the state's 20 forest districts show a lack of new, woody growth. Less than 25 percent of the plots in the state showed a desirable level of new vegetation.

The areas with the worst growth were the Weiser, Kittanning, Wyoming, Sproul and Delaware state forests in north-central Pennsylvania.

Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Michael DiBerardinis called the results of the recent air survey troubling.

The information gathered will be used to direct hunters to certain forest areas, so the deer herd can be thinned more in those areas where deer are nibbling away at new plants and trees, DiBerardinis said.

Hunters killed 361,560 deer in 2006, 2 percent more than in 2005. It was the first time the deer kill increased since 2002. Hunters killed 135,290 bucks last year, a 12 percent increase over 2005.

Source: http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/sports/colleges/mercer/17014721.htm

MONTANA NEWS: Helena Task Force Recommends Sharpshooters

Helena’s Urban Wildlife Task Force has recommended officials use sharpshooters in most areas of the city to kill 334 deer next winter. If the city waits even a year, the group’s report said, more than 600 deer will have to be culled in order to attain an acceptable population of urban deer.

The task force’s report said the city now could be home to as many as 500 mule deer, with most living in Helena’s southern neighborhoods. Group members called the estimate conservative. If left unchecked, the population could grow to more than 1,800 by 2010, the report said. The group wants to reduce the herd to about 380 animals.

“Given the situation we’re in, (sharpshooting) is probably the most effective, it’s probably the safest, and while this may sound strange … it’s the most humane,” Task Force Co-Chair Matt Cohn said. “This is going to be the best method to achieve the goal we have.”

The group also recommended the city commission set aside between $30,000 and $100,000 for a deer-management program and appoint a permanent wildlife advisory committee to oversee the program into the future.

Task force members are set to present their report to city commissioners on Wednesday.

The report represents the end of one phase and the beginning of another. City commissioners will hold public meetings and discuss the issue. If they settle on a management plan, they’ll have to submit it to the state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission for final approval.

City Commissioner Sandy Oitzinger served on the task force, which reached its decision through consensus votes. She said she’s unsure how she’ll address the deer issue at the commission level.

“How I will vote on this as a commissioner is going to depend on the interaction and dialogue with the commission … it would be premature for me to say whether I’m going to support the sharpshooting option or not at this time,” Oitzinger said.

The task force recommended several other options — including ongoing public education and encouraging the use of deer repellants and deer-proof landscaping. The group approved other options, such as fertility controls and certified urban hunting, which members said could become more viable in the future.

“There are some things that we’ve approved, but they’re on the backburner,” group member Bob Habeck said. “We wanted to recommend the slate of appropriate management options, even though they might not come into play in one year.”

Task force members rejected two options: doing nothing, or trapping deer and moving them elsewhere.

The group said allowing the deer herd to continue to grow unchecked will only exacerbate the problem, and the trap-and-transport option, while popular at public meetings held early this year, has a number of associated issues — it’s time-consuming and expensive, it potentially shifts the problem elsewhere and deer often die during the process.

The full report will be available on the city’s Web site, at the Lewis and Clark Library and at the city Parks and Recreation Department after it’s presented to city commissioners.

The herd

Helena is unique from the scores of other communities across the country that have adopted deer-management plans — the Queen City is home to mule deer, while the vast majority of other cities dealing with burgeoning herds are home to whitetails.

“The task force is plowing new ground when it comes to mule deer, because there are virtually no mule deer plans — they are all for whitetail deer,” said FWP Biologist Gayle Joslin, who served on the task force.

The group believes more than 32 deer occupy every square mile in Helena, and population projections put the herd’s total at more than 700 animals by next winter. The group settled on a goal of 25 deer per square mile, a number some other communities have used for whitetail deer, Joslin said.

In a biological sense, Helena — with its watered lawn and gardens and city limits expanding more and more into wildlife habitat — could feed many more deer. The trick is finding how many deer Helenans are willing to live with, and task force members said total elimination is not an option.

Joslin said 25 per square mile might not be the right number, but it’s a place to start.

Is there a problem?

One of the basic questions task force members considered throughout the process — and an issue they heard again and again from the public — is whether an urban deer problem exists in Helena.

The group’s answer: Yes. And it’s only going to get worse.

“The (human) population that we see is going to grow, and the deer population is going to grow,” Task Force Co-Chair Virginia Niccolucci said. “We would have nothing other than more human-deer conflicts, unless we do something now.”

Habeck agreed.

“Using professional judgment and conservative estimates … we’re on the footslope of (an exponential) growth in urban deer population,” he said.

If city and FWP commissioners can’t agree on a plan for even one year, the problem grows, he said.

“The key thing to know is, even in a best-case scenario, we’re going to be losing time and … it’s just going to get worse,” Habeck said.

In 2003, the Police Department received 103 complaints about deer, most of them calls about dead animals. The department received 16 reports of deer-vehicle collisions. Last year, dispatchers fielded 241 calls, with 30 reported collisions. FWP received 73 calls in 2004 and 162 calls last year.

Source: http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/03/30/helena/000deer.txt

OHIO NEWS: Airport Deer Not Content With Runway Havoc

DAYTON, Ohio -- A bizarre incident at Dayton International Airport involved several deer.
Authorities said the animals started throwing themselves at hotel windows, causing several of the windows to break.

Officials said a glass door was also broken where one deer briefly got into the building before running back outside. Minutes later, the herd of four or five deer ran across the airport access road. Authorities said despite the chaos, no one was injured.

source: http://www.whiotv.com/news/11435336/detail.html

MINNESOTA NEWS: Followup--Deer Cull Continues in Bovine TB Area

Federal sharpshooters have killed 366 deer in northwestern Minnesota, including 125 last week, as part of an ongoing attempt to reduce the spread of bovine tuberculosis in the wild deer herd and domestic cattle herds there.

The culling action began in February in a 135-square-mile area and will conclude this week, said Michelle Powell, Department of Natural Resources wildlife health program coordinator.
The final tally likely will be around 400 deer, she said.

Bovine TB has been found in seven cattle herds and two wild deer in the area, prompting officials to try to reduce the deer herd there. So far, of the deer killed by sharpshooters, three have shown signs of having bovine TB, Powell said. Those animals are undergoing further tests.

Powell said she can't determine how successful the culling effort was until fall, when deer killed by hunters in the area will be tested for signs of bovine TB. All the deer, except for those that appeared to be diseased, have been given to people to utilize the venison.

"We've had no problem giving away the venison," she said. "We have a ton of people on a waiting list." The DNR will encourage hunters to reduce the deer population in that area through special permits and bonus tags this fall, Powell said.

source: http://www.startribune.com/531/story/1076218.html

NORTH DAKOTA NEWS: Record Deer Harvest in 2006

BISMARCK, N.D.--North Dakota hunters killed more than 100,000 deer last year, besting the previous record of 99,600 set in 2005, the state Game and Fish Department says.

Wildlife chief Randy Kreil said the department allocated 143,500 deer gun licenses last year, down from a record 145,600 deer gun licenses in 2005.

Kreil said the overall deer harvest in North Dakota last year was more than 110,000, when combined with the bow, muzzleloader and youth seasons.

The overall hunter success rate last year was 76 percent, the same as 2005 and about average for the past 15 years, Kreil said.

source: http://www.in-forum.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D8O3TNV00

VIRGINIA NEWS: Growing Concern Over Deer Populations and Lyme Disease

FAIRFAX, Va. -- Some Fairfax County residents are pleading for help to manage the area's deer population after a surge in reported cases of Lyme disease.

Infected ticks spread the disease, and deer are carrying the ticks across the county, health officials said. Fairfax County disease program manager Jorge Arias said deer are like a "Metro system" for ticks.

Lyme disease often begins with such symptoms as fever, fatigue and a bull's-eye-shaped rash. It is often quickly treated with antibiotics.

Confirmed cases of the disease in Fairfax County rose from three in 2004 to 82 in 2006. Much of the increase is due to better reporting, according to health officials.

The numbers are rising across the Washington area.

Loudoun County claims half of all the reported cases of Lyme disease in Virginia. In Maryland's Montgomery County, confirmed cases have grown fivefold since 2004 to 216 last year. Instances of the disease are on the rise here, but they are still less than some New England states, which see thousands of cases, health officials said.

source: http://www.nbc4.com/health/11372522/detail.html

SOUTH DAKOTA NEWS: Urban Deer Problems in Pierre

A deer-management program may begin this fall in Pierre, where roaming deer have become a problem in recent years.

A special task force is developing various options to control invading deer, including a feeding ban and killing some of them.

Police will most likely be the ones in charge of shooting the animals.

Roaming deer are ruining flowers and gardens in the capital city, and they're a danger to motorists. Deer also occasionally are aggressive. One resident says a deer attacked his dog.

Another homeowner says her dog was attacked when the dog began to chase a fawn and its mother came to the rescue.

A deer-management plan for Pierre will be finalized in the next month and presented to the city commission.

source: http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail6371.cfm?Id=0,55782

RESEARCH NEWS: Deer Impacts in Pennsylvania Forests Are Pandemic

Browse Monitoring Uncovers Troubling Data in State Woodlands

HARRISBURG, Pa., March 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Preliminary
findings from ongoing, extensive state forest studies of the effect of
white-tailed deer populations on woodland regeneration show habitat damage
is the heaviest in the north central and Pocono Mountains areas of the
state, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Michael
DiBerardinis said today.

"Like our past surveys from the air, this unprecedented study on the
ground of what deer eat, or browse, is proving to be an invaluable tool in
understanding deer densities and distribution in our state forestlands, and
it is guiding future DCNR efforts to ensure forest regeneration and healthy
habitat," said DiBerardinis.

"And, like those aerial counts, these browse-study findings are just a
single snap-shot in time, incapable of documenting whether forest habitat
health is improving or declining. They will, however, provide a meaningful
baseline to compare in future trend analyses."

The browse studies, which were conducted last year and covered almost
90 percent of the state forest system, showed findings the secretary deemed
"troubling."

"Across the entire state forest system, less than 25 percent of the
41,650 plots showed desirable regeneration, and almost 45 percent of the
plots lacked any new, woody growth," DiBerardinis said. "The problem is
more acute in the state's north central 'big woods' section where almost 50
percent of the study plots show no woody regeneration and only about 20
percent desirable regeneration. The most severely browsed habitats were
documented in the north central and Pocono regions of the state.

"For these reasons, it would be premature to draw any conclusions that
would support an increased deer herd, even in areas where we observed
relatively low-browse damage," DiBerardinis said.

The secretary applauded the commitment of Bureau of Forestry personnel
from 19 of the state's 20 state forest districts who undertook the browse
studies during early spring in 2006.

"Never has there been an undertaking of this magnitude in which data
from 1,600 miles of transects was entered into the bureau database for
analysis," said DiBerardinis. "These researchers are foresters first, but
they also are hunters and naturalists and all are dedicated to restoring
forests to a healthy level where deer and other wildlife have sufficient
food and cover."

"We will use this detailed vegetation analysis in conjunction with past
aerial surveys to help guide our management decisions and adjust our
efforts to steer hunters to certain state forest areas in the 2007-2008
hunting season," DiBerardinis said.

Transects, which are lines for ecological measurements, were spaced two
miles apart. They were sampled by visiting vegetative plots every 200 feet,
recording woody species, and assigning a browsing category to that species
at that plot. Also, presence or absence data was recorded for "desirable"
and "undesirable" woody vegetation at every plot.

Woody plants include trees, shrubs and vines. Woody plants dominate the
vegetation wherever conditions are favorable for plant growth. Deer feed on
the leaves, twigs and buds of these plants.

Other survey findings include:
-- Data gathered aided in development of a preliminary deer-browsing
preference index for woody species observed, which will help guide
future monitoring efforts and provide browse intensity indicators;

-- Across the state, the proportion of plots with desirable regeneration
(24.45 percent) and lack of woody regeneration (44.45 percent) indicate
browsing has not been suppressed long enough for a widespread
regeneration response;

-- Identifying browsing impact from lowest to most severe, the Forest
Districts ranked as follows: relatively lightly browsed with better
regeneration -- Lackawanna, Buchanan, Michaux, Tiadaghton, Tuscarora,
Gallitzin, and Cornplanter; relatively moderately browsed with less
regeneration -- Moshannon, Susquehannock, Rothrock, Forbes, Bald Eagle,
and Tioga; relatively severely browsed with poor regeneration --
Weiser, Kittanning, Wyoming, Sproul, Delaware and Elk;

-- Monitoring will continue to locate other areas of continued
excessive browsing where deer harvests should be increased, and these
efforts will be coordinated in the State Forest Management Plan.

Details on the 2006 state forest deer browse study, as well as DCNR's
aerial surveys and other information on deer, can be found online at
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us and select "State Forests."

Source: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-22-2007/0004551483&EDATE=

IOWA NEWS: Heartless Poaching or Act of Civil Disobedience?

There's a trial beginning today in eastern Iowa that will be closely followed across the entire state.

A tree farmer will go on trial in Tipton for the unlawful killing of a deer. It's a case that will test whether Iowans can kill the destructive animals on their own property.

Kevin Kelly freely admits that he killed a deer on his property. In fact the 55-year-old said he called the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to report the act.

But Kelly maintains he did nothing illegal. He said he was simply protecting his property and that the deer was harming his tree farm. He frames his case as a test of Iowa's constitution.

"The case will determine whether Iowans can control destructive animals on their private property, as guaranteed by the Iowa constitution," Kelly said.

Others, including DNR officials, do not follow Kelly's logic.

"The case calls into question the North American conservation model, where wildlife is entrusted to the public," said Dale Garner, chief of the DNR's Wildlife Bureau.

Garner said that, under that system, "deer do not belong to private landowners to do with as they please."

Kelly has argued that the Iowa constitution allows property owners to defend their property. He points to an Iowa Supreme Court ruling in 1915 that overturned the conviction of a Pottawattamie County farmer who was accused of shooting a deer that had been eating his corn.

But others say that Kelly had other options, including a variety of programs offered by the DNR. Kelly maintains that the state did very little to help his situation. The state is expected to present evidence to the contrary.

"He should have exhausted all options before he took matters into his own hands," said Tom Fassbinder of Guttenberg, who, like most deer hunters, hopes Kelly is convicted.

"He is a poacher who needs to be punished like any other poacher," said Fassbinder, publisher of the Whitetail Fanatic magazine.

Randy Taylor, the president of the Iowa Bowhunters Association, likewise said that no good can come from a victory for Kelly.

"It would mean open season for any farmer who wants to kill a deer or for anyone else who comes along," said Taylor, of Reasnor.

Others are sympathetic. Corn and soybean farmer Tom Griffin of Winthrop said he has mixed emotions about the case.

"I love deer, but if I were a tree farmer, I would probably learn not to," said Griffin, who described his crop losses to deer as acceptable "because I love to watch and hunt deer."

If convicted, Kelly could be the subject to fines of $100 on each count, plus a civil penalty of $1,500 representing the value of the deer.

Source:
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070319/NEWS/70319001/1001

MINNESOTA NEWS: Deer Killed to Control Bovine TB Outbreak

SKIME, Minn. -- Federal sharpshooters have killed about 225 whitetails in the past three weeks in an effort to measure and control an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis in the area.
It will take about three months to find out whether the tissue from any of the deer tested positive for TB, said Michelle Powell, wildlife health program coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

"Heaven forbid if it ends up being an epidemic of TB up here," said Conway Marvin, who owns land near Skime. "It will impact our economy. Thousands of jobs up here depend on that time of year."

Seven wild deer -- two during the 2005 hunting season and five during last fall's season -- were found to be infected with the disease. Officials believe it came into the state through cattle, and contact between cattle and deer can spread it to the deer population.

Seven cattle herds in the area were "depopulated" because infected animals were found.
Powell said the sharpshooters with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services will take a break this week and "re-bait" their shooting sights. They'll resume shooting next week.
They've been hunting day and night, shooting deer of all ages and genders with silencers and infrared night-vision equipment.

Their target area includes a six-mile radius of Skime, just north of Roseau, Marshall and Beltrami counties, where TB first was found in a cattle herd in early 2005.

The sharpshooters must have permission from landowners. Some landowners, like Marvin, haven't given permission and will seek permits to shoot deer on their land, Powell said.
Marvin and his brothers own about 2,600 acres of wildlife habitat near Skime and they've developed the parcels for their enjoyment.

"It's our land, and we have developed it, and plowed and disced it and watched the deer grow, and we think it's a right we want to exercise," he said.

Marvin, who owns a sporting goods store near Warroad, said northern Minnesota would be hurt economically if the TB outbreak isn't stopped.

He wants government agencies to take a multi-pronged approach to stop the disease from spreading -- including subsidizing high fences to separate cattle from deer, or conducting extra shooting.

"We can't just shoot all the deer and expect it to go away, and we can't remove all the cattle and expect it to go away," he said. "We don't think the other prongs are moving very fast."

Powell said that as of Monday, the sharpshooters had killed 96 adult females and 11 adult males; 23 yearling females and 19 yearling males; 35 female fawns and 40 male fawns.
Even if a deer is infected, the meat is safe to eat with proper cooking. So far, all the meat has gone to local people who signed up for it.

Source:
http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?a=287556&z=2

PENNSYLVANIA NEWS: Deer Carrying Capacity Workshop

Penn State Cooperative Extension in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry will present a Deer Density and Carrying Capacity workshop on March 24 at the Governor Dick Park Environmental Education Center in Mt. Gretna, Lebanon County.

The workshop, designed for anyone interested in learning more about white-tailed deer biology and management as it relates to the carrying capacity of the habitat, is a hands-on, in-the-field experience that will get participants in the woods collecting deer- population and habitat data.

"Participants will learn how to calculate the deer density in a given forest setting; how to evaluate the condition of deer habitat; and how the condition of the habitat relates to deer biology, deer numbers and deer carrying capacity," says Dave Jackson, a forest specialist with Penn State Cooperative Extension. "This is an opportunity to talk to wildlife biologists and foresters who have experience in implementing various forest and wildlife habitat management strategies."

The program will run from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. The cost is $15 per person and includes refreshments, lunch and handout materials. The Governor Dick Park is located in Mt. Gretna.

Pre-registration for this workshop is required prior to Monday, March 19. Space is limited, so please register early. To register, or for more information, contact the cooperative extension office in Centre County at (814) 355-4897 or by e-mail at CentreExt@psu.edu

OHIO NEWS: Record Harvest in 2006

Ohio deer hunters took a record 237,316 deer during the 2006-07 hunting season and for the third year in a row the harvest surpassed 200,000, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife. The total number of deer taken was 13 percent above last year's season total of 209,513. The new record tops previous record of 216,443 set in 2004.

"We are very satisfied with this year's record harvest," said Steven A. Gray, chief of the Division of Wildlife. "Ohio's deer management program is a model for the country. The challenge now becomes maintaining a healthy deer herd into the future."

Source:
http://zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070309/SPORTS/703090310/1006

PENNSYLVANIA NEWS: House Bill 550 Allows Farmers to Contract Deer Hunters

Religion and politics. Two subjects people say you should never bring up in conversation.
You can add another to that list: deer.

We’ll never argue that deer aren’t beautiful animals. But so are lions and tigers and bears.
In Chester County, there are probably a bunch of bears, no lions or tigers — but there are certainly plenty of deer. And the fact is that these herds and herds of deer are destroying property and crops.

State Rep. Art Hershey, R-13th, of Cochranville, is trying to help the situation with proposed legislation.

Orchard growers and other farmers in the state will get some help in their fight to control crop losses from deer if the new law proposed by Hershey is passed.

Hershey’s legislation, known as House Bill 550, was unveiled Feb. 26. A key provision is that it would allow farmers to hire a contractor to kill deer on their property.

The bill is going to be introduced to the Legislature in the coming weeks. Another aspect of the pending bill is that it would expand the list of agricultural products that farmers can farm to be eligible for killing deer for crop damage.

Under current law, farmers who grow cultivated crops, fruit trees, vegetables, and raise live stock, poultry and maintain beehives can cull deer herds on their property if they have sustained crop losses.

And local farms say the damage from deer is real.

“We lose up to one-third of our apple crop every year due to the deer problem,” said Karen Vollmecke, of Vollmecke Orchards in West Brandywine.

At W.D. Wells & Associates Inc. in West Grove, President Bill Wells said that the company has sustained $190,000 in lost income due to crop losses from deer between his landscaping business and his nursery, Watercrest Farms.

“We suffer greatly,” said Wells. Aside from the loss of plants at the nursery, there is the loss of landscaping customers. “Many residents are so fed up with their shrubbery being eaten, that they say, ‘We’re not going to invest in landscaping anymore.’” An added expense at the nursery is trying to protect trees by putting plant covers around them, which only works on single-trunk trees. “We protect 5,000 trees a year.”

According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, farmers do not need a special permit to shoot deer but they must contact their local wildlife conservation officer and follow all the rules.

Farmers have to abide by the safety zone law, which says that they cannot shoot within 150 yards of an occupied dwelling. The current law only allows farmers or the employee of a farm to shoot deer.

Wells said that over the years he has had employees who were recreational hunters and were able to shoot a few deer but, “the idea of being able to hire someone to do it is very attractive.”
Vollmecke said she hoped the new law would allow farmers to use contractors who would hunt with a bow and arrow. The safety zone is reduced to 50 yards from a dwelling unit for bow and arrow hunters. For farmers like Vollmecke who are surrounded by subdivisions, archers could be more successful.

Jason Decoskey, chief of technical services of the Bureau of Wildlife Protection of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, acknowledged in an interview Tuesday that there is a severe deer problem in areas such as Chester County due to the “urban/suburban” interface.
For Stuart Constable, production manager of Highland Orchards in West Bradford, the orchard is at ground zero when it comes to the urban/suburban interface. “It’s really been bad the last four to five years.”

We think the deer problem in the counties surrounding Philadelphia is out of control. And we insist that every safety precaution is taken if the deer population is to be thinned.

Something needs to be done. Hershey’s bill is a start.

source:
http://www.dailylocal.com/WebApp/appmanager/JRC/DailyLocal;!1742888106?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=
pg_article&r21.pgpath=%2FDLN%2FOpinion&r21.content=%2FDLN%2FOpinion%2FHeadlineList_Story_112380

NEBRASKA NEWS: Record Deer Harvest in 2006

Hunters killed a record total of 65,091 deer in Nebraska during the 2006 hunting seasons, 4,200 more deer than ever before, according to Kit Hams, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s big game program manager.

During the November firearm season, hunters took 43,081 deer, a success rate of 61 percent; 4,164 deer were taken during the muzzleloader season, a success rate of 26 percent, compared to 4,771 deer in 2005; and archers took 4,596 deer, a success rate of 29 percent, compared to 4,283 deer taken by bowhunters in 2005.

Hams said there were records for the harvest of both mule deer and whitetails in 2006. There were 11,610 mule deer taken last year, compared to 11,149 in 2005. Hunters took 53,322 whitetails in 2006, compared to 49,587 in 2005.

source: http://www.swnebr.net/newspaper/cgi-bin/articles/articlearchiver.pl?159821
The total buck harvest for 2006 was 42,186 deer as 77 percent of rifle hunters, 84 percent of archers, 77 percent of youth hunters and 60 percent of muzzleloaders took adult bucks. The total antlerless deer harvest was 22,492 deer, of which 55 percent were taken on antlerless-only tags.

Hams said the Commission is attempting to control deer populations across the state and that is best accomplished by removing antlerless deer from the herd. “Hunters took about 22,500 antlerless deer in 2006. Our goal is to increase the harvest of antlerless deer to 25,000-26,000 during the 2007 hunting seasons,” he said.

ENGLAND NEWS: CONTINUED GROWTH IN DEER POPULATIONS

INCREASING deer populations in East Anglia mean it is inevitable there will be more road accidents involving the creatures, experts have warned.

The comments were made in the wake of an horrific crash on the A14 in Suffolk on Monday, in which a father and daughter were killed after swerving to avoid a dead deer in the road.

Ten thousand vehicle-deer collisions are reported in eastern England each year and Suffolk/Norfolk has the third highest rate of this kind of accident in the country.

Nationally, the wild deer population is estimated at 1.2 million and growing. In eastern England the number is thought to be about 75,000.

David Hooton, regional liaison officer for the Deer Initiative, which gives advice to landowners on sustainable management of wild deer populations, said there were now six different species of deer in the wild in this region.

They included red, roe, fallow, muntjac, sika and Chinese water deer, the more exotic ones having escaped from private collections and bred successfully in the wild.

A red deer - the biggest species in the wild - is thought to have been involved in Monday's fatal accident.

Mr Hooton said changed living patterns which saw many more vehicles on the roads at night accounted for part of the increase in collisions with deer.

However, recent mild winters had helped breeding success and the change to autumn sowing of cereal crops meant there was plenty of food available in the winter months.

“While foxes might pick up a few of the smaller species, deer no longer have a natural predator in this country and populations are likely to continue to rise until they get to the point where there is not enough food to see them through the winters,” Mr Hooton said.

The Deer Initiative gave advice to landowners over the culling of deer populations to try to protect crops, new tree plantations and ancient woodlands.

But many landowners were not culling at a high enough level to “keep the lid” on populations.

“We all want to see deer in the countryside because they are beautiful, aesthetic creatures but populations have to be managed properly in order to restrict damage to crops and trees,” Mr Hooton said.

The Deer Initiative is funded by the Forestry Commission and Natural England.

Source: http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/eadt/news/story.aspx?brand=EADOnline&category=News&tBrand=EADOnline&tCategory=news&itemid=IPED27%20Feb%202007%2023%3A45%3A24%3A313

CALIFORNIA NEWS: Collisions with deer cause millions in damage claims

By Denis Cuff, MEDIANEWS STAFF 02/16/2007 02:31:24 AM PST

Pat Dupler likes to admire the wild deer in the East Bay hills, but she also has learned to fear them as potential unguided missiles that blast into the path of moving cars. Dupler has collided three times with deer at night, twice in Contra Costa County and once in the Sierra foothills. The collisions did not injure her, but rattled her and caused several thousands of dollars in car damage.

"I'm a careful driver," said Dupler, a retired Martinez nurse who drives a Volvo sedan. "I had no time to avoid these accidents. Once, I didn't even see the animal until it hit my side window and its face pushed against my windshield. It was horrible."

Bambi, a kindly friend in the forest, can become the nightmare of the highway in the East Bay and other places in deer country. Nationally, deer collisions with cars annually cause some $1.1 billion in vehicle damage, kill 150 people and injure 29,000 others, according to estimates by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The collision rate is going up as more homes are built in woodsy deer habitat, experts say. Collision risks escalate during the deer rutting season, which is in the late fall and early winter. In the East Bay, though, the risk is year-round.

California was rated 26th out of 50 states for deer collision claims last year, trailing states with larger deer herds, according to a survey of State Farm Insurance customers. But the toll in California is still significant, police accident records show. Vehicle collisions with animals in California killed five people, injured 431 others and damaged 15,750 vehicles between 1996 and 2005, according to records compiled by the California Highway Patrol.

Safety and wildlife experts have no easy solutions to prevent crashes between cars and deer. Giving birth control chemicals to deer is expensive and difficult. In the 1990s, the East Bay Regional Park District determined in a pilot project that it cost $2,000 to $3,000 annually to give birth control chemicals to each doe at a Fremont park.

FULL STORY: http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_5239753

U.S.A. News: More Cities and Towns Cull Deer

Charisse Jones, USA TODAY
The nation's swelling deer population is prompting a growing number of towns and cities to permit hunting within their borders, much of it by bow and arrow. The goal: reduce the number of traffic collisions involving deer and ease conflicts between the animals and their human neighbors.
Motorists are involved in more than 1 million accidents a year involving deer. That has led several states to lift Sunday bans on hunting or test animal- detection systems that warn drivers of nearby deer. Among communities adding limited hunts to their strategy:

•Fort Smith and Barling, Ark., lifted a hunting ban in a 7,200-acre area that lies in both towns. One hundred permits were sold for bow hunting this season, which ends Feb. 28. The hunt was set up because of concerns there might not be enough food for deer and the risk of the animals roaming into the area as it fills with new homes and businesses, says Sandy Sanders, director of a local redevelopment authority.

•Kansas City, Mo., had bow hunts for the first time in two public parks. From late November to Dec. 10, 41 deer were killed, says Debra Burns, urban wildlife biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation. The City Council authorized the hunts after learning that at least 400 deer a year were hit by vehicles within the city, Burns says.

•Warsaw, Ind., in November authorized archers to hunt deer for three weeks this winter. "It was a baby step," Councilman Jeff Grose says of the hunt, which led to the killing of 20 deer. "We felt the residents in that area had a legitimate argument to declare the deer population as a nuisance."

•Alamosa, Colo., is allowing hunting by bows and shotguns on a city-owned golf course until Feb. 28. The hunt comes after incidents in which deer killed backyard pets, caused property damage and were hit by vehicles. "This won't decrease the population," City Manager Nathan Cherpeski says. "At best, it's going to slow the growth."

Suburbs of Des Moines, St. Louis, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, have staged bow hunts or are considering them.

North Carolina's Wildlife Resources Commission will vote March 7 on whether to permit a five-week bow-hunting season, the first time hunting would be allowed within city or town limits. If approved, each community would decide whether to allow the hunts.

"It's a way to help control the population," says Fred Harris, the commission's deputy director. The proposal was "generally" supported at nine public hearings around the state in January, Harris says.

Some animal-rights advocates say the hunts cause more harm than good. Laura Simon of the Humane Society of the United States says the chances of traffic accidents increase as hunted, scared deer dart across roads. Towns can keep deer from traffic by using reflectors or fencing, and residents can make their gardens unappealing with repellents or flowers that deer dislike, she says.

Towns authorizing deer hunts have imposed safety rules. Among them: Hunters must keep at least 100 yards away from any building. "We tried to take a situation that has risk with it and make it as safe as we could for not only the archers, but the deer and the residents in the area." Grose says.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-02-06-deerhunt_x.htm

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

COLORADO NEWS: Deer Hunt in City of Alamosa

The city of Alamosa declared open season Tuesday on town deer, a population that officials say has become both too abundant and aggressive.

The town's first deer hunt - up to 30 licenses, five at a time, to be issued on antlerless animals - will run through February on the front nine of the golf course and on a 1,300-acre ranch held by the town as a wildlife preserve, City Manager Nathan Cherpeski said.

The hunt allows for archery and shotguns, but no rifles (errant bullets would travel too far). The town is handing out maps for hunters and any members of the general public who might want to avoid those areas. And hunters who receive licenses must go to a local instructor to qualify as an accurate archer or shooter.

"Our deer population is causing car accidents and property damage," Cherpeski said. "Two pets have been killed, small dogs - killed in their own yards. The deer stand 20 feet away (from people) and are not afraid. ... Twenty or 30 mill around the high school campus."

The Colorado Division of Wildlife consulted on the managed hunt, which has been under consideration for a few years, but the division is letting the town run it.

"It is within their jurisdiction," DOW spokesman Joe Lewandowski said. "The division will be keeping an eye on it. That number (of licenses) will not significantly check this deer population."

Cherpeski said that if 30 mule deer does are taken, it will only slow the population growth, not stop it. Officials have been unable to do a hard count of the deer because the population is scattered and mobile, but they estimate 500 to 1,000 are in town or on the outskirts.

Source:
http://www.denverpost.com/technology/ci_5121868

MINNESOTA NEWS: 2006 Second Highest Harvest On Record

Minnesota hunters harvested nearly 270,000 deer during 2006, the second highest deer harvest ever recorded, according to a final numbers announced today by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

With nearly 500,000 deer hunters enjoying long seasons and liberal bag limits, DNR officials anticipated a strong 2006 deer harvest. In total, firearms hunters harvested 229,000 deer while archery and muzzleloader hunters harvested 25,000 and 13,500 deer, respectively.

Hunters who participated in the early antlerless season tagged 2,300 deer. Overall, the statewide firearm harvest was up 6 percent, archers enjoyed another record season and increased 8 percent, while muzzleloader harvest decreased 4 percent from their record 2005 harvest.

"Once again, Minnesota deer hunters enjoyed another great deer season,"
said Lou Cornicelli, DNR big game program coordinator.

Prior to 2003, Minnesota hunters had never killed 250,000 deer in any one season. Over the four years, total deer harvest exceeded 250,000 each year.

Source:
http://www.buckmasters.com/more_buckmasters/zones/features/070131Z6Minn.htm

GERMANY NEWS: Wolf Resurgence Magically Turns Some Hunters into Crybabies

BAERWALDE, Germany - There's blood on the frost and blame in the air.

The wolves are back, hunting in the night, skulking through gardens, making the farm dogs restless. Sleek and mystical, they have roamed through folklore and fairy tale, a bit of enticing danger at the forest's edge.

But Joachim Bachmann, a hunter with a wall full of trophies, is not so lyrical when it comes to the wolf's reappearance amid the birch and pine of the eastern woods in Saxony.

In today's Germany, the wolf is a "protected species." Mention these two words and you had better duck, because Bachmann can't quite get his mind around how a sheep-eating machine should not be shot on sight. It bothers him even when he sits at the big table in his big house looking out the window to a damp land speckled with paw prints.

"What positive thing does a wolf bring to nature? Nothing," he says.

Something else out beyond the winter grass perturbs him too. Down the road, past a church and through a forest so dense it seems like walking through the bristles on a hairbrush, a woman Bachmann describes as a misguided Little Red Riding Hood charts the personalities and nocturnal habits of wolf packs.

Gesa Kluth's boots are muddy, and her maps are worn; to Bachmann, the biologist is an infuriatingly dedicated state-funded wolf lover.

She's not cooing about him either. Kluth points to a picture on her door of a sturdy white-haired man in a hunting hat peeking out from a stand of evergreens. It's Bachmann.

"He's our No. 1 enemy. We were thinking about getting darts to throw at it," she says.

Kluth spends her days and nights tracking wolves, where they sleep, play and hunt on a territory of about 115 square miles. She plans to trap a few, fix them with radio transmitters and follow their migrations, which appear to be drifting north and west. To her, the wolf is a stealthy, swift, misunderstood beauty.

"The problem is that hunters see themselves as the predators who control the animal population from overpopulating," she says. "But now the wolves have returned and they are the natural predators, which threatens the hunter's lifestyle."

Wolves were hunted to near extinction in Germany in the Middle Ages. They reappeared from time to time, between wars and other epochs that changed borders and rearranged forests.

Dozens were shot in East Germany during the Cold War. But the demise of the communist government and the rise, after German reunification, of environmentally conscious successors have given nature a foothold on land that had been lost to warehouses and iron mills that today languish like industrial ghosts.

Wolves reappeared in this part of Saxony in the mid-1990s, when a lone male crossed the Neisse River from Poland, which has about 500 wolves.

The first German pups were born in 2000; today at least 25 wolves wander the forests on army training sites and hunt along the brown coal of strip mines. A few others live to the north in Brandenburg, where their territory widened as 1.5 million people fled East Germany after the Berlin Wall fell. Last year, a wolf believed to have wandered up from Italy was hit by a car in southern Bavaria.

Like the beast he despises, Bachmann arrived in the east after what people here call "former times." He was born in a part of Silesia that reverted to Poland after World War II. He and his family were forced into East Germany. They escaped in 1953 and moved to the Ruhr region of West Germany, where he eventually ran a fleet of coal trucks. A few years before the wolves rediscovered Saxony, Bachmann built a wood house here, decorating it with an antler chandelier and mounted heads of wild boar, bison and rams.

He and his buddies track deer. So do the wolves. Bachmann is worried that the deer population will be thinned and the state will reduce quotas for hunters. Hunting is cheaper in eastern Germany than in the west, but if wolves upset the ecosystem, hunters would have less deer meat to sell and might stop paying to use privately owned game lands. This could suppress real estate values in a region with limited prosperity.

"The wolf population is doubling each year," Bachmann says. "Soon we'll have more than 120, and then the wild deer will be gone and the forests will be empty. I think many of these wolf lovers orchestrated the return of the wolf. They're getting paid to protect the wolf. They use the wolf as a magnet for donations. Look on the Internet -- you can become a 'wolf patron.'"

source:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/nation/16551444.html

PENNSYLVANIA NEWS: No Hunt in Norristown Farm Park

COURTHOUSE - The Montgomery County commissioners have ruled out a public deer hunt this year in the Norristown Farm Park.

County Solicitor Michael D. Marino said on Thursday the county and park officials are investigating whether some type of contraception, such as darting, would work instead.

"We are just taking a step back to look at things," said Commissioners Chairman Thomas J. Ellis.

"But we are not going to wait too long because the destruction of assets is just awesome," said Commissioner James R. Matthews, citing the damage to park vegetation when there is an over-abundance of deer.

Last year's three-day shotgun hunt - the first ever in the 700-acre urban park that straddles Norristown, East Norriton and West Norriton - resulted in the slaying of 139 deer including 21 bucks and 118 does.

Animal rights activists strongly opposed the hunt.

However, county officials at that time maintained that the hunt was necessary to decrease the size of the park's growing deer population.

The state game commission had estimated that there was over 400 deer in the park in 2004. County officials added another 100 to that estimate following the 2005 spring fawning season.

County officials have estimated that the park can only sustain a herd of seven to 20 deer. This is based on a game-commission recommendation that a healthy deer population is about 10 deer per square mile.

The county last October held its sixth annual bow-and-arrow deer hunt in the county's Lorimer Park in Abington.

Some 47 hunters participated, bagging a total of 11 deer, including 10 does and one
buck.

Source:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17747114&BRD=1679&PAG=461&dept_id=86218&rfi=6

MAINE NEWS: Proposal To Cull Deer on Marsh Island (Orono)

How to deal with deer overpopulation on Marsh Island has been a controversial issue for more than 10 years in area towns, but now the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has come up with a suggestion.

In a recent letter to Town Manager Cathy Conlow, DIF&W regional wildlife biologist Marc Caron proposes to pursue new rules to open Marsh Island to archery-only deer hunting and add the island to the existing archery area, which includes portions of both Old Town and Orono.

"The solution [Caron] offers is a pretty good one," Conlow said.

DIF&W classifies the island as a wildlife management area where hunting is prohibited, but the department’s commissioner has the authority to change that rule.

The intent of the expanded archery area is to allow hunting in areas that are not open to firearms hunting because of municipal firearms discharge ordinances. All of the areas are near homes and are interspersed with small woodlots, according to the DIF&W Web site.

Before any final decisions are made, she said, the Orono council will hold a public hearing on the issue at its Feb. 12 meeting.

There has been question over the last couple of years whether it would be possible to control the deer herd in some way if the University of Maine, the largest landowner on Marsh Island, decided not to participate.

UM has decided not to jump on board with the plan, and Caron has considered that in his proposal.

"Our decision at this point is that we would not open university land to a hunt, selectively managed or controlled hunt," UM Public Safety Director Noel March said Wednesday.

March headed the UM committee that explored the deer population and control issue.

"As much as there does appear to be certainly a legitimate need to address the deer herd population on Marsh Island, we have concerns to safety of those who use university forests and land, hiking trails, and open fields," March said. "But we will agree to cooperate with abutting landowners in the event that a deer hunt on their property requires them to come onto university land to retrieve a deer or otherwise."

UM’s decision not to participate makes it difficult to hunt on the Orono side, but Conlow said Caron’s proposal still offers some solution to the problem.

"It’s hard to hunt Orono lands, but it will still enable Old Town to deal with the problem over there," Conlow said.

Old Town councilors previously voted to move forward with a controlled hunt as long as safety precautions are taken.

"As long as none of the provisions change, I don’t see any reason to not move forward with the proposal of inland fisheries," Old Town City Manager Peggy Daigle said Thursday.

Old Town councilors also have received a copy of the letter to review.

Caron is seeking a response from Orono officials next month in order to begin steps toward the rule-making process.

Source:
http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=145613&zoneid=500

MONTANA NEWS: Deer Cull in Helena Moves Forward

Most of the people who spoke at the Urban Wildlife Task Force's first town hall meeting on Helena's growing deer herd favored reducing the population.

Those folks were evenly split between culling the herd and a combination of lethal and non-lethal options.

A few residents said they don't believe a problem exists. They said they've learned how to live with the animals and don't want to see them killed.

Several people said they favor trapping and transporting the deer to another location, but the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks has a number of concerns about the option.

The task force, which began tackling the issue in May, is set to present its recommendations to the Helena City Commission in early March. The city then will decide whether the herd should be reduced and, if so, how to do the work and how to pay for it.

Any management plan must then be approved by the FWP Commission before it can be implemented. Helena officials said they hope the agency will partner with the city in funding any possible plan.

If the city decides to manage the herd, it will be an ongoing practice.

The population

Gene Hickman, a Helena wildlife consultant who was hired to estimate the herd's size, said the Queen City may have as many as 350 deer during late summer and autumn. He cautioned the estimate is no more than an "educated guess."

He hasn't finished working with the numbers, but said he believes the city had about 300 deer when he did his counts, beginning about a month ago. The census is a snapshot in time - no one knows the herd's size for certain. The highest numbers were found along the city's southern boundary.

One thing is certain: the deer are healthy, and the city's buck/doe ratio means the population will continue to grow, he said.

FWP wildlife biologist Gayle Joslin said population models show the herd will grow exponentially. It could double every three to five years, she said.

If the city decides to manage the population, it will need to set benchmarks, Hickman said.

"We need to find out what the socially acceptable number of deer is," he said.

The options

The task force is considering a number of non-lethal and lethal options. Among them:

- Status quo. Leaving the situation alone could result in additional costs down the road as the herd grows, and could increase the amount of property damage and the risk of accidents and injuries.

- Encouraging the use of unpalatable landscaping, repellants and barriers to keep deer out of yards.

- Fertility control or sterilization. Trained workers could inoculate deer with contraceptive or abortive drugs. The process is expensive, and no FDA-approved chemicals are yet available.

- Capture and transfer. Deer could be tranquilized or trapped, and then moved. It's a high-cost option, and one FWP has concerns about - transporting urban deer to a wild setting could result in high mortality and could possible spread illnesses such as chronic wasting disease.

- Capture and kill. This option may require property owners' permission, and tranquilized deer cannot be consumed.

- Professional wildlife removal. Sharpshooters could bait and cull the deer.

- Certified urban hunting. Community bowhunters could be selected and trained to target the herd.

Lists of options will be displayed at the Lewis and Clark Library and the City-County Building for public viewing.

The comments

One woman drew laughter from the crowd numbering more than 100 when she playfully suggested introducing wolves into the city to cut down the herd's numbers.

A man suggested allowing Helenans and their kids to drive the animals out of town using paintball guns.

A number of speakers said they're worried the deer could spread disease or become aggressive toward children. Folks also are concerned the herd draws predators into the city.

"(Deer) are unpredictable and they aren't safe, and my children aren't safe," a woman said. She said a deer charged a child in her neighborhood last year.

"We have a responsibility to have safe neighborhoods in our community," she added.

One woman said she's concerned about the danger of deer spreading diseases to humans. An FWP official said he's not worried about the possibility, which he said is highly unlikely.

"We're sick of them," one man said of the dozen or so deer he sees in his yard most days. He favored killing the deer.

One older man said he often hiked in the mountains south of the city in his youth. Seeing a deer was rare. Now he sees as many as 19 out his window.

He said he once saw a doe repeatedly pounce on a small dog, killing it.

"Something should be done to eliminate the deer," he said.

One man thought a certified urban hunt was the best option and said many people would volunteer to participate, making it a cheaper choice.

"I don't think this has to cost as much as it could," he said.

Some don't want the city to reduce the herd.

"I enjoy seeing the deer," a woman said. "We learn to adjust with them.

"If someone shoots a deer in my yard, I don't want to pay for it," she added.

A second meeting is planned for Feb. 14 at the Civic Center.

Source:
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/01/26/helena_top/a01012607_01.txt

WISCONSIN NEWS: CWD Moves East

Professional sharpshooters are being used in the Kettle Moraine State Forest for the first time because chronic wasting disease is discovered in deer there.

As many as nine cases of CWD have been found on the border of Waukesha County.

Sharpshooters are also being used for the first time in Devil's Lake State Park near Baraboo. About 50 deer have been killed in that effort that began this month.

The Department of Natural Resources are using sharpshooters instead of relying on hunters to reduce the herd because tests show CWD has grown in the parks.

Source:
http://wfrv.com/local/local_story_026073430.html