Hundreds of deer will be killed across Lincolnshire in a bid to control the population.
Malcolm Armstrong, a wildlife ranger for the Forestry Commission and head of field operations for the Lincolnshire Deer Group, said the cull would be ongoing and be carried out by qualified marksmen.
He said: "Culls have always happened in the area but deer are becoming more and more prevalent in Lincolnshire."
Around 200 deer are usually killed in Lincolnshire every year in an attempt to manage populations but this year's total may be higher.
A one-off cull in April has already seen the killing of 41 deer.
The small muntjac deer browse on low-lying plant life and have been damaging populations of bluebells and wild orchids.
Mr Armstrong said: "Muntjac really like to eat low ground plants and that really creates a problem with the flora and fauna in some woods.
"If populations get really high then rather than deer being a cute animal that people want to see they can become a pest.
"If the general deer population gets too large then they can start to pick up diseases and we need to strike a balance in management."
Muntjac deer thrive in temperate conditions and have become increasingly common in England due to climatic change and warmer winters.
Any deer killed in the operations will be sold on for human consumption.
To find out more about the cull of Lincolnshire deer, see Wednesday's Echo.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/4yj9nw
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
HOW TO: Build A Deer-Proof Fence For Your Garden
When I moved to our property on Farm To Market Road in Whitefish, Montana, I chose to build a deer-proof fence to last 100 years. Though there is a path around the outside liberally sprinkled with deer dropping, no deer have gotten in for the past seven years. And I did it all myself.
Materials
Field fencing (4 ft. high hog wire)
5 six inch pieces of iron pipe, 10 ft long
Fencing pliers
Roll of smooth wire
Cement and sand/gravel mix
Fence post digger
Chain link gate, or one made from pipe and wire
Drill for hinge attachment
Fence stretcher
Coffee cans
L Bolt for hinge
T posts, 10 ft tall
1. Dig holes 2-3 feet deep (to frost line) at the corners of your garden, and one extra for a gatepost.
2. Mix cement as directed on the package with sand and gravel.
3. Insert the iron pipe into the holes, plumb with a strong and plumb bob.
4. Fill with cement mixture and let set for a couple of days.
5. Run a string between your posts and measure every 8 to 10 feet for placement of T-bars.
6. Pound the T-bars for a 2-foot depth, in line between the iron posts (I stood on the truck cab to do this).
7. Cut vertical cross wires out of two feet of the end of your field fencing.
8. Starting at the bottom, wrap horizontal wires around the post. Secure by twisting ends of wire around the first vertical wire tightly.
9. Unroll wire past the T posts to the gate and corner posts.
10. Attach a fence stretcher to the wire to tighten it along the fence posts, or pull with an attachment to your truck, or use a come along. Attach stretched fencing to the posts with wire fencing clips.
11. On fence corners, use smooth wire to attach each horizontal strand to the pipe.
12. At the end post, cut off vertical cross wires for two feet of horizontal wire to wrap and twist around the end post for secure fastening.
13. Repeat for the top 4 feet of field fence.
14. Wire top to the bottom strands by weaving smooth wire between the middle edges of the two fencing pieces.
15. Fit gate between the gate and corner post. Position so it is 6" off the ground for snow clearance and possible sagging.
16. Mark the hinge placement of the gatepost. Drill holes straight through the gatepost, and fit with a long L shaped bolt that can be tightened on the far side of the gatepost.
17. Use commercial chain link attachments or fit pipe gate with pipe clamps to hook onto the hinge.
Source: http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-65-70-1558,00.html
Materials
Field fencing (4 ft. high hog wire)
5 six inch pieces of iron pipe, 10 ft long
Fencing pliers
Roll of smooth wire
Cement and sand/gravel mix
Fence post digger
Chain link gate, or one made from pipe and wire
Drill for hinge attachment
Fence stretcher
Coffee cans
L Bolt for hinge
T posts, 10 ft tall
1. Dig holes 2-3 feet deep (to frost line) at the corners of your garden, and one extra for a gatepost.
2. Mix cement as directed on the package with sand and gravel.
3. Insert the iron pipe into the holes, plumb with a strong and plumb bob.
4. Fill with cement mixture and let set for a couple of days.
5. Run a string between your posts and measure every 8 to 10 feet for placement of T-bars.
6. Pound the T-bars for a 2-foot depth, in line between the iron posts (I stood on the truck cab to do this).
7. Cut vertical cross wires out of two feet of the end of your field fencing.
8. Starting at the bottom, wrap horizontal wires around the post. Secure by twisting ends of wire around the first vertical wire tightly.
9. Unroll wire past the T posts to the gate and corner posts.
10. Attach a fence stretcher to the wire to tighten it along the fence posts, or pull with an attachment to your truck, or use a come along. Attach stretched fencing to the posts with wire fencing clips.
11. On fence corners, use smooth wire to attach each horizontal strand to the pipe.
12. At the end post, cut off vertical cross wires for two feet of horizontal wire to wrap and twist around the end post for secure fastening.
13. Repeat for the top 4 feet of field fence.
14. Wire top to the bottom strands by weaving smooth wire between the middle edges of the two fencing pieces.
15. Fit gate between the gate and corner post. Position so it is 6" off the ground for snow clearance and possible sagging.
16. Mark the hinge placement of the gatepost. Drill holes straight through the gatepost, and fit with a long L shaped bolt that can be tightened on the far side of the gatepost.
17. Use commercial chain link attachments or fit pipe gate with pipe clamps to hook onto the hinge.
Source: http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-65-70-1558,00.html
Monday, May 19, 2008
IOWA NEWS: Sustained Cull Reduces Urban Deer in Dubuque
Urban deer-population surveys are inexact science, but the Environmental Stewardship Advisory Commission will present its deer-management plan to the Dubuque City Council on Monday with some good news.
The aerial count conducted in February recorded the fewest deer in the city limits since the bow-hunting program began in 1998, at 219. That figure comes after an unusually high number in 2007, when 466 deer were counted.
Greg Harris, wildlife depredation biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, monitors the aerial surveys in eastern Iowa. He said counts are down or stable everywhere except Muscatine, which saw a spike.
"It's nice to see the numbers down, but you can't explain it by the harvest," Harris said. "There are other factors involved and habitat destruction is one. That's something you can see through the air."
Harris also said the bitter winter probably forced deer to travel farther afield.
"If they're starving and there are food sources outside the city, they will move, and (they) won't move back in right away," Harris said.
The Dubuque City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Historic Federal Building, 350 West Sixth St. "Those does will drift back in."
The bow hunt, which opens in late October and runs through late January, targets does to control population growth. The city's goal is to stabilize the population below 20 deer per square mile. While that measure is often met north of U.S. 20, it hasn't been accomplished south of that line. According to Harris, reaching that "magic number" isn't of high importance.
"The better goal to shoot for is a reduction in damage and in deer/vehicle accidents," Harris said.
Mary Rose Corrigan, public health specialist for the city of Dubuque, reports deer/vehicle crashes dropped significantly in 2007 to 29. There were 48 in 2006, which bucked a trend of fewer accidents in recent years. From 1998 to 2001, deer/vehicle crashes averaged in the 40s, Corrigan said.
The city is divided into 12 deer-management zones. Harris said two zones that regularly have the highest deer concentrations also have some larger-property owners that don't allow hunters. One area encompasses nearly 2,100 acres in the northeast corner of the city, south of John Deere Dubuque Works and east of Central Avenue. The other is 536 acres south of U.S. 20, mostly between Fremont Avenue and Cedar Cross Road.
"The bottom line is there is always going to be a problem because of private-property rights," Harris said. "It would be easier if everyone allowed the hunters in, but that doesn't happen in rural areas, so it sure isn't going to happen in the city.
He said the key to population control is consistency.
"Once you start hunting, you can't stop. Let's say you hit this man-made magical number of 20 per mile and let up for a couple of years -- you're right back to square one. We come up with these parameters and want to fit wildlife into them. Wildlife doesn't play by man's rules."
Source: http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=202217
The aerial count conducted in February recorded the fewest deer in the city limits since the bow-hunting program began in 1998, at 219. That figure comes after an unusually high number in 2007, when 466 deer were counted.
Greg Harris, wildlife depredation biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, monitors the aerial surveys in eastern Iowa. He said counts are down or stable everywhere except Muscatine, which saw a spike.
"It's nice to see the numbers down, but you can't explain it by the harvest," Harris said. "There are other factors involved and habitat destruction is one. That's something you can see through the air."
Harris also said the bitter winter probably forced deer to travel farther afield.
"If they're starving and there are food sources outside the city, they will move, and (they) won't move back in right away," Harris said.
The Dubuque City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Historic Federal Building, 350 West Sixth St. "Those does will drift back in."
The bow hunt, which opens in late October and runs through late January, targets does to control population growth. The city's goal is to stabilize the population below 20 deer per square mile. While that measure is often met north of U.S. 20, it hasn't been accomplished south of that line. According to Harris, reaching that "magic number" isn't of high importance.
"The better goal to shoot for is a reduction in damage and in deer/vehicle accidents," Harris said.
Mary Rose Corrigan, public health specialist for the city of Dubuque, reports deer/vehicle crashes dropped significantly in 2007 to 29. There were 48 in 2006, which bucked a trend of fewer accidents in recent years. From 1998 to 2001, deer/vehicle crashes averaged in the 40s, Corrigan said.
The city is divided into 12 deer-management zones. Harris said two zones that regularly have the highest deer concentrations also have some larger-property owners that don't allow hunters. One area encompasses nearly 2,100 acres in the northeast corner of the city, south of John Deere Dubuque Works and east of Central Avenue. The other is 536 acres south of U.S. 20, mostly between Fremont Avenue and Cedar Cross Road.
"The bottom line is there is always going to be a problem because of private-property rights," Harris said. "It would be easier if everyone allowed the hunters in, but that doesn't happen in rural areas, so it sure isn't going to happen in the city.
He said the key to population control is consistency.
"Once you start hunting, you can't stop. Let's say you hit this man-made magical number of 20 per mile and let up for a couple of years -- you're right back to square one. We come up with these parameters and want to fit wildlife into them. Wildlife doesn't play by man's rules."
Source: http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=202217
Thursday, May 15, 2008
WISCONSIN NEWS: City Bans Deer Feeding
OSHKOSH, Wis. - Oshkosh residents can no longer feed deer in the city.
The Oshkosh Common Council approved a ban on deer feeding Tuesday in an effort to discourage deer from entering urban areas.
People caught feeding deer can be fined nearly $220, when court costs are added to a base fine of $75.
Council members agreed to seek other suggestions for detering deer from the residents and the Humane Society of the United States. They also are looking at killing some deer in the fall or early winter.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/6r94qx
The Oshkosh Common Council approved a ban on deer feeding Tuesday in an effort to discourage deer from entering urban areas.
People caught feeding deer can be fined nearly $220, when court costs are added to a base fine of $75.
Council members agreed to seek other suggestions for detering deer from the residents and the Humane Society of the United States. They also are looking at killing some deer in the fall or early winter.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/6r94qx
MINNESOTA NEWS: Over 1200 Deer Killed in TB Cull
A total of 1,207 deer were killed by state and federal sharpshooters, hunters and landowners the past six months in bovine tuberculosis-infected northwest Minnesota, the state Department of Natural Resources said Wednesday.
The sharpshooting effort to remove deer started in February and ended Friday, the DNR said. Free-ranging deer, believed to be carriers of bovine TB to cattle, were targets of removal since the deer-hunting season closed last fall.
The concentrated bovine TB area for deer removal is basically northwest Beltrami County and southeast Roseau County, in the Skime area.
Brad Swenson Archive The deer population in the 164-square-mile core of the bovine TB disease management area was estimated at 800 animals during an aerial survey conducted in January before sharpshooting efforts began, the DNR said. Aerial sharpshooters took 416 deer and ground sharpshooters took 546 deer in and near the core area, bringing the 2008 sharpshooting total to 962 animals.
During the regular deer seasons, 1,449 deer were harvested in the bovine TB deer permit area, the DNR said. Hunters harvested an additional 120 deer a January special hunt. Since the close of the deer hunting seasons, landowners have taken an additional 125 deer in an area that was expanded to include private lands to the north of deer permit Area 101. In total, 2,656 deer have been taken from September 2007 to May 2008.
“The large take is evidence of the extraordinary effort that has been underway since autumn,” Dave Schad, DNR Fish and Wildlife Division director, said in a statement. “This has been a highly successful operation that has gone a long way toward achieving our goal of eliminating bovine TB in deer.”
The state of Minnesota is under the federal designation of Modified Accredited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the third of five categories which outlines strict regulations for the testing and movement of cattle across state lines for bovine TB.
Hopes are to see the state split into two zones, with a concentrated bovine TB management area in northwest Minnesota, and classifying the rest of the state as TB Free.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed into law last week measures to allow the Minnesota Board of Animal Health authority to increase livestock testing, tighten restrictions on animal movement, provide cost-share assistance for fencing in certain areas and offers to “buy out” livestock owners in the bovine TB management zone.
“This disease is an economic burden for our beef producers, and we are committed to eradicating it as quickly as possible,” state Assistant Agriculture Commissioner Joe Martin, the state’s bovine TB response coordinator, said last week.
“We had strong, bipartisan support for this legislation from legislators, producers, and industry groups such as the Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Association,” he said.
“This critical legislation will provide the Board of Animal Health the authority they need to restrict movement of livestock within the bovine TB management zone and implement split-state status,” said Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation President Kevin Paap. “The bill also provides significant resources to control and eradicate bovine TB, including a voluntary herd buyout for cattle producers in the management zone and cost-share money for fencing.”
Paap added that the new law “bans wildlife feeding in the zone and establishes a temporary assessment of $1 per head on all beef cattle sold in Minnesota. Money collected from this assessment will go to the Board of Animal Health for bovine TB control efforts. This assessment shows how cattlemen across Minnesota are willing to contribute toward the eradication of bovine TB.”
Since the initial 2005 discovery of bovine TB in Minnesota, the state has identified 11 infected beef cattle herds—all in the northwest Minnesota counties of Beltrami and Roseau, the state Animal Health Board said. In addition, 20 infected deer have been confirmed to date in the same area, with several additional suspect deer awaiting final test results.
“This bill puts Minnesota in the position of being a national leader in controlling and combating bovine TB,” said Sen. Rod Skoe, DFL-Clearbrook, an author of the bill.
“Up to this point, there really has been no road map for dealing with this issue and other states have had only marginal success,” Skoe said. “This bill helps Minnesota lead the way toward eradicating the disease in our state and helping other states develop aggressive and successful plans.”
The final legislative plan will lay the groundwork for USDA split-state status in order to focus bovine TB eradication efforts only in affected areas, he said. The plan offers cattle producers an option to accept an animal-buyout or extensive fencing to control animal movement and help control the spread of the disease.
In addition, herd testing will continue to be required until TB-free status is regained, and deer eradication efforts will continue. The Department of Agriculture, Board of Animal Health and DNR all cooperated on the comprehensive plan, he said.
“With this bill, we’ll make significant progress toward no additional TB-positive test results in the state,” Skoe said.
Landowners and tenants, and their agents designated in writing, can continue to take deer without a permit in the landowner/tenant area under the provisions of a special emergency rule that took effect March 31, said the DNR’s Schad. The rule is currently scheduled to expire Aug. 31, but the rule may be modified or ended earlier in the summer based on discussions with local residents and landowners. A final decision will be made in the next several weeks.
The DNR will finalize plans for the fall hunting seasons in that area by July, he said. Specific details on permit area boundaries, special and regular hunts, and other provisions will be announced mid-summer.
Schad added that he appreciates the cooperation of private landowners during a difficult time. “We couldn’t have accomplished what we did without the assistance of local citizens and federal sharpshooters. Both deserve our thanks,” he said.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/5ez2s5
The sharpshooting effort to remove deer started in February and ended Friday, the DNR said. Free-ranging deer, believed to be carriers of bovine TB to cattle, were targets of removal since the deer-hunting season closed last fall.
The concentrated bovine TB area for deer removal is basically northwest Beltrami County and southeast Roseau County, in the Skime area.
Brad Swenson Archive The deer population in the 164-square-mile core of the bovine TB disease management area was estimated at 800 animals during an aerial survey conducted in January before sharpshooting efforts began, the DNR said. Aerial sharpshooters took 416 deer and ground sharpshooters took 546 deer in and near the core area, bringing the 2008 sharpshooting total to 962 animals.
During the regular deer seasons, 1,449 deer were harvested in the bovine TB deer permit area, the DNR said. Hunters harvested an additional 120 deer a January special hunt. Since the close of the deer hunting seasons, landowners have taken an additional 125 deer in an area that was expanded to include private lands to the north of deer permit Area 101. In total, 2,656 deer have been taken from September 2007 to May 2008.
“The large take is evidence of the extraordinary effort that has been underway since autumn,” Dave Schad, DNR Fish and Wildlife Division director, said in a statement. “This has been a highly successful operation that has gone a long way toward achieving our goal of eliminating bovine TB in deer.”
The state of Minnesota is under the federal designation of Modified Accredited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the third of five categories which outlines strict regulations for the testing and movement of cattle across state lines for bovine TB.
Hopes are to see the state split into two zones, with a concentrated bovine TB management area in northwest Minnesota, and classifying the rest of the state as TB Free.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed into law last week measures to allow the Minnesota Board of Animal Health authority to increase livestock testing, tighten restrictions on animal movement, provide cost-share assistance for fencing in certain areas and offers to “buy out” livestock owners in the bovine TB management zone.
“This disease is an economic burden for our beef producers, and we are committed to eradicating it as quickly as possible,” state Assistant Agriculture Commissioner Joe Martin, the state’s bovine TB response coordinator, said last week.
“We had strong, bipartisan support for this legislation from legislators, producers, and industry groups such as the Minnesota State Cattlemen’s Association,” he said.
“This critical legislation will provide the Board of Animal Health the authority they need to restrict movement of livestock within the bovine TB management zone and implement split-state status,” said Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation President Kevin Paap. “The bill also provides significant resources to control and eradicate bovine TB, including a voluntary herd buyout for cattle producers in the management zone and cost-share money for fencing.”
Paap added that the new law “bans wildlife feeding in the zone and establishes a temporary assessment of $1 per head on all beef cattle sold in Minnesota. Money collected from this assessment will go to the Board of Animal Health for bovine TB control efforts. This assessment shows how cattlemen across Minnesota are willing to contribute toward the eradication of bovine TB.”
Since the initial 2005 discovery of bovine TB in Minnesota, the state has identified 11 infected beef cattle herds—all in the northwest Minnesota counties of Beltrami and Roseau, the state Animal Health Board said. In addition, 20 infected deer have been confirmed to date in the same area, with several additional suspect deer awaiting final test results.
“This bill puts Minnesota in the position of being a national leader in controlling and combating bovine TB,” said Sen. Rod Skoe, DFL-Clearbrook, an author of the bill.
“Up to this point, there really has been no road map for dealing with this issue and other states have had only marginal success,” Skoe said. “This bill helps Minnesota lead the way toward eradicating the disease in our state and helping other states develop aggressive and successful plans.”
The final legislative plan will lay the groundwork for USDA split-state status in order to focus bovine TB eradication efforts only in affected areas, he said. The plan offers cattle producers an option to accept an animal-buyout or extensive fencing to control animal movement and help control the spread of the disease.
In addition, herd testing will continue to be required until TB-free status is regained, and deer eradication efforts will continue. The Department of Agriculture, Board of Animal Health and DNR all cooperated on the comprehensive plan, he said.
“With this bill, we’ll make significant progress toward no additional TB-positive test results in the state,” Skoe said.
Landowners and tenants, and their agents designated in writing, can continue to take deer without a permit in the landowner/tenant area under the provisions of a special emergency rule that took effect March 31, said the DNR’s Schad. The rule is currently scheduled to expire Aug. 31, but the rule may be modified or ended earlier in the summer based on discussions with local residents and landowners. A final decision will be made in the next several weeks.
The DNR will finalize plans for the fall hunting seasons in that area by July, he said. Specific details on permit area boundaries, special and regular hunts, and other provisions will be announced mid-summer.
Schad added that he appreciates the cooperation of private landowners during a difficult time. “We couldn’t have accomplished what we did without the assistance of local citizens and federal sharpshooters. Both deserve our thanks,” he said.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/5ez2s5
Friday, May 09, 2008
WEST VIRGINIA NEWS: More CWD Appears in Hampshire County
BECKLEY, W.Va. — Hampshire County remains an enigma to the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources in its campaign to track down and understand why Chronic Wasting Disease is haunting deer in that popular hunting region.
Now that 11 more deer the DNR killed this spring have tested positive, the mystery has only deepened.
All told, 31 deer now have been afflicted with the ailment, a fatal neurological disorder found in deer and elk. To date, the only affected deer have turned up in Hampshire — a fact that puzzles the DNR’s assistant wildlife chief, Paul Johansen.
“That’s the $64,000 question,” he said Thursday.
“I’ve stayed up nights pondering that question. Why did it show up? How did it get here? The reality is we may never know. I guess the important thing is to make sure we do engage our management plan to try to put in place appropriate management strategies to try to address the disease.”
While not harmful to humans, cattle or other domestic animals, CWD is a death sentence to any deer or elk that contracts it.
Some hunter-harvested deer tested positive last fall in Hampshire, but so far, not a single CWD-infected whitetail has been discovered outside that county.
“We’re pleased to see from a distribution standpoint, looking at the landscape, all of those positives were pretty tightly confined to that geographic area around Slanesville, where the original index animal was,” Johansen said.
“We did not pick up any additional positives in that Yellow Springs area.”
For the past few years, the DNR has performed a statewide surveillance program but hasn’t found any CWD outside a small pocket of Hampshire, he said.
In fact, the original index animal surfaced Sept. 2, 2005, as part of the DNR’s roadkill surveillance, Johansen pointed out.
Besides roadkill vigilance, the DNR looks for the disease in targeted areas, seeking out any animals that exhibit the clinical signs of it.
“We try to get our hands on those as well,” he said.
Scientists believe the disorder is caused by abnormal, proteinaceous particles known as prions engaged in a slow assault of the brain, causing deer and elk to progressively become emaciated, display bizarre behavior and invariably die.
DNR Director Frank Jezioro said in a statement from his office that “some of the best wildlife biologists and veterinarians in the world” are working on CWD, including those at the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study in Athens, Ga.
“Landowner and hunter cooperation throughout this entire CWD surveillance effort in Hampshire County has been excellent,” he said.
“As we strive to meet this wildlife disease challenge and implement appropriate management strategies, the continued support and involvement of landowners and hunters will be essential.”
Source: http://tinyurl.com/3gm9j3
Now that 11 more deer the DNR killed this spring have tested positive, the mystery has only deepened.
All told, 31 deer now have been afflicted with the ailment, a fatal neurological disorder found in deer and elk. To date, the only affected deer have turned up in Hampshire — a fact that puzzles the DNR’s assistant wildlife chief, Paul Johansen.
“That’s the $64,000 question,” he said Thursday.
“I’ve stayed up nights pondering that question. Why did it show up? How did it get here? The reality is we may never know. I guess the important thing is to make sure we do engage our management plan to try to put in place appropriate management strategies to try to address the disease.”
While not harmful to humans, cattle or other domestic animals, CWD is a death sentence to any deer or elk that contracts it.
Some hunter-harvested deer tested positive last fall in Hampshire, but so far, not a single CWD-infected whitetail has been discovered outside that county.
“We’re pleased to see from a distribution standpoint, looking at the landscape, all of those positives were pretty tightly confined to that geographic area around Slanesville, where the original index animal was,” Johansen said.
“We did not pick up any additional positives in that Yellow Springs area.”
For the past few years, the DNR has performed a statewide surveillance program but hasn’t found any CWD outside a small pocket of Hampshire, he said.
In fact, the original index animal surfaced Sept. 2, 2005, as part of the DNR’s roadkill surveillance, Johansen pointed out.
Besides roadkill vigilance, the DNR looks for the disease in targeted areas, seeking out any animals that exhibit the clinical signs of it.
“We try to get our hands on those as well,” he said.
Scientists believe the disorder is caused by abnormal, proteinaceous particles known as prions engaged in a slow assault of the brain, causing deer and elk to progressively become emaciated, display bizarre behavior and invariably die.
DNR Director Frank Jezioro said in a statement from his office that “some of the best wildlife biologists and veterinarians in the world” are working on CWD, including those at the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study in Athens, Ga.
“Landowner and hunter cooperation throughout this entire CWD surveillance effort in Hampshire County has been excellent,” he said.
“As we strive to meet this wildlife disease challenge and implement appropriate management strategies, the continued support and involvement of landowners and hunters will be essential.”
Source: http://tinyurl.com/3gm9j3
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
NEW YORK NEWS: Deer Sightings on Staten Island Continue to Rise
There will be no deer hunting on Staten Island. Not anytime soon, probably not ever.
But there are deer aplenty, and in growing numbers, on Staten Island, the closest thing New York City has to a suburban borough, browsing in people’s yards, drawing double-takes at highway interchanges, getting hit by cars. There are so many deer that the state decided it needed to study them and figure out what to do about them.
According to the study, released on Friday, there are at least 24 deer, concentrated on the western side of the island, including at least two fawns. It is enough to constitute an unusual pest-control challenge in the nation’s largest city.
“Deer are beautiful animals, and we love to see them in the wild,” Suzanne Mattei, the regional director for the State Department of Environmental Conservation, said at an outdoor news conference at the Greenbelt Nature Center in the island’s lushly wooded heart. “But when they come into urban areas, we have to manage them carefully.”
The proposals made in the study are modest ones: more deer-crossing signs (eight were installed along the West Shore Expressway last year at the urging of Assemblyman Michael Cusick), some fencing and a public-education campaign.
“We want Staten Islanders to be deer-savvy,” said the deputy borough president, Ed Burke.
Officials warn that in addition to endangering drivers, deer are host to the ticks that carry Lyme disease.
And if unchecked, the deer could put a serious dent in Staten Island’s greenery, which is already threatened by development, said Joseph Pane, the state biologist who conducted the survey by traipsing through the woods for most of January and February.
“They’ll eat everything within reach, to the point where you have nothing growing,” Mr. Pane said, as if describing an attack by 350-pound rats with antlers. “They go after things as soon as they sprout and you have no seed source.”
While the survey took in only a fraction of the island’s wooded areas, Ms. Mattei said the department felt that 24 deer counted represented most of the herd.
“At least now we have data,” she said. “We have something more than just, ‘Golly gee, I saw a deer.’ ”
Deer sightings began to be reported with some frequency on Staten Island around 2000. State officials say the deer swam across the Arthur Kill from New Jersey, decades after having been wiped out on the island.
But old-timers in the island’s rugged southwest corner say the deer never left. “There have always been deer on Staten Island,” said Cherryl Mitchell, who runs a stable called Richer Farm in Charleston, just north of the Outerbridge Crossing. “My husband is a native Staten Islander, he’s 66 years old, and he’s seen them since he was 6 years old.”
Mrs. Mitchell, 57, said that when she moved to Charleston in 1979, she would see deer tracks, but after a wave of construction nearby, she started to see deer. She said she had been spotting one deer, which she named Grandpa, recognizable by a distinctly crooked nostril, for 18 years.
Mrs. Mitchell said she had also seen men with bows and arrows hunting the deer in Clay Pit Ponds State Park, adjoining her property. Last year, the conservation department received a spate of complaints about hunters shooting at deer.
Hunting, whether with bow and arrow or firearm, is illegal in New York City, which is why a harvest is not among the management options the state is considering. And though deer have natural predators elsewhere in the state, there are no plans to introduce bears or coyotes to Staten Island either.
“I think it’s going to be challenging enough dealing with the coexistence of the deer and the people,” Ms. Mattei said.
The deer survey, which will become an annual event, was based on sightings called in by residents in January and February. The sighting log reads like a tour of the island’s back roads and parking lots.
“Three deer, gully behind Target near Englewood Ave.”
“1/27/2008, six deer, skating pavilion, Arthur Kill Road.”
The sightings were concentrated in four areas: near Howland Hook in the northwest corner of the island, near Clay Pit Ponds State Park, near Mount Loretto and Tottenville at the southern tip, and around the Greenbelt. Mr. Pane bundled up, took clipboard in hand and went on the prowl.
Friday afternoon, Mrs. Mitchell led a reporter on her own deer tour in the woods just beyond her riding ring. In five minutes, she pointed out the tracks of at least six deer: does with rounded hoofprints, bucks with big pointy prints the length of a man’s finger, fawns with little prints.
Mrs. Mitchell had little use for the state and its scientist-bureaucrats. But she said she agreed with the conclusions of the study.
“They need to just properly put some fences along the highways, put some signs up and leave them the hell alone,” she said.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/5doymf
But there are deer aplenty, and in growing numbers, on Staten Island, the closest thing New York City has to a suburban borough, browsing in people’s yards, drawing double-takes at highway interchanges, getting hit by cars. There are so many deer that the state decided it needed to study them and figure out what to do about them.
According to the study, released on Friday, there are at least 24 deer, concentrated on the western side of the island, including at least two fawns. It is enough to constitute an unusual pest-control challenge in the nation’s largest city.
“Deer are beautiful animals, and we love to see them in the wild,” Suzanne Mattei, the regional director for the State Department of Environmental Conservation, said at an outdoor news conference at the Greenbelt Nature Center in the island’s lushly wooded heart. “But when they come into urban areas, we have to manage them carefully.”
The proposals made in the study are modest ones: more deer-crossing signs (eight were installed along the West Shore Expressway last year at the urging of Assemblyman Michael Cusick), some fencing and a public-education campaign.
“We want Staten Islanders to be deer-savvy,” said the deputy borough president, Ed Burke.
Officials warn that in addition to endangering drivers, deer are host to the ticks that carry Lyme disease.
And if unchecked, the deer could put a serious dent in Staten Island’s greenery, which is already threatened by development, said Joseph Pane, the state biologist who conducted the survey by traipsing through the woods for most of January and February.
“They’ll eat everything within reach, to the point where you have nothing growing,” Mr. Pane said, as if describing an attack by 350-pound rats with antlers. “They go after things as soon as they sprout and you have no seed source.”
While the survey took in only a fraction of the island’s wooded areas, Ms. Mattei said the department felt that 24 deer counted represented most of the herd.
“At least now we have data,” she said. “We have something more than just, ‘Golly gee, I saw a deer.’ ”
Deer sightings began to be reported with some frequency on Staten Island around 2000. State officials say the deer swam across the Arthur Kill from New Jersey, decades after having been wiped out on the island.
But old-timers in the island’s rugged southwest corner say the deer never left. “There have always been deer on Staten Island,” said Cherryl Mitchell, who runs a stable called Richer Farm in Charleston, just north of the Outerbridge Crossing. “My husband is a native Staten Islander, he’s 66 years old, and he’s seen them since he was 6 years old.”
Mrs. Mitchell, 57, said that when she moved to Charleston in 1979, she would see deer tracks, but after a wave of construction nearby, she started to see deer. She said she had been spotting one deer, which she named Grandpa, recognizable by a distinctly crooked nostril, for 18 years.
Mrs. Mitchell said she had also seen men with bows and arrows hunting the deer in Clay Pit Ponds State Park, adjoining her property. Last year, the conservation department received a spate of complaints about hunters shooting at deer.
Hunting, whether with bow and arrow or firearm, is illegal in New York City, which is why a harvest is not among the management options the state is considering. And though deer have natural predators elsewhere in the state, there are no plans to introduce bears or coyotes to Staten Island either.
“I think it’s going to be challenging enough dealing with the coexistence of the deer and the people,” Ms. Mattei said.
The deer survey, which will become an annual event, was based on sightings called in by residents in January and February. The sighting log reads like a tour of the island’s back roads and parking lots.
“Three deer, gully behind Target near Englewood Ave.”
“1/27/2008, six deer, skating pavilion, Arthur Kill Road.”
The sightings were concentrated in four areas: near Howland Hook in the northwest corner of the island, near Clay Pit Ponds State Park, near Mount Loretto and Tottenville at the southern tip, and around the Greenbelt. Mr. Pane bundled up, took clipboard in hand and went on the prowl.
Friday afternoon, Mrs. Mitchell led a reporter on her own deer tour in the woods just beyond her riding ring. In five minutes, she pointed out the tracks of at least six deer: does with rounded hoofprints, bucks with big pointy prints the length of a man’s finger, fawns with little prints.
Mrs. Mitchell had little use for the state and its scientist-bureaucrats. But she said she agreed with the conclusions of the study.
“They need to just properly put some fences along the highways, put some signs up and leave them the hell alone,” she said.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/5doymf
Monday, April 28, 2008
NEW JERSEY NEWS: Lowest Deer Harvest in 16 Years
During the 2007 and 2008 hunting seasons, New Jersey's deer hunters killed the least amount of whitetails in 16 years, according to newly released statistics.
The finding is reported in the state Division of Fish and Wildlife's just-published tally of the latest deer harvest. In it, the division says hunters took 47,017 animals in the Fall Bow, Youth Hunt, Permit Bow, 6-Day Firearm, Permit Muzzleloader, Permit Shotgun and Winter Bow hunting seasons.
That figure represents the fewest deer shot by hunters since the 1991 and 1992 seasons when 45,416 whitetails were culled. It falls far short of the 56,673 deer in 2006 and 2007, and pales in comparison to the high-water mark set in 2000 and 2001, when 77,444 deer were taken.
According to Fish and Wildlife, 17,467 of the most recent seasons' harvested deer were antlered and 29,549 were antlerless. As has been the case since the 1987 and 1988 seasons, most of the deer -- 17,094 -- were killed during the Permit Shotgun season. In 1999 and 2000, 28,498 deer were removed from the herd during Permit Shotgun season.
To find a Fall Bow season as slow as last year's, when 9,994 deer were arrowed, one needs to look to 1987 and 1988, when the tally was 8,483.
The anemic numbers are pretty much the same across the board: The 725 deer taken during the Youth Hunt is the second-lowest number since the hunt was initiated in 2001 and 2002; Permit Bow hunters, who took 6,086, fared worse than any Permit Bow participants since 1995 and 1996; 6-Day Firearm ("Buck Season") hunters managed 8,338 deer, fewer than in any season since 1995 and 1996.
However, there is one bright spot in the new numbers: The Winter Bow number of 1,232 is actually the third-best on record and is 110 more than reported for the comparable 2006-07 season.
Division of Fish and Wildlife assistant director Larry Herrighty said he'd like to see another year's worth of data before hypothesizing why the deer harvest is down so much.
"We don't see a pattern," he said. Herrighty added that a number of factors go into annual deer hunt numbers, including weather and hunter participation.
"During the early muzzleloader season there were heavy rains," he noted. "Even on opening day of buck season, the weather wasn't ideal."
The lower numbers could just be a sign that the efforts, by the division and the state Fish and Game Council, to winnow New Jersey's deer population are working. "We are attempting to decrease the population and, as we do, the harvest will go down," Herrighty said.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/3nbp6c
The finding is reported in the state Division of Fish and Wildlife's just-published tally of the latest deer harvest. In it, the division says hunters took 47,017 animals in the Fall Bow, Youth Hunt, Permit Bow, 6-Day Firearm, Permit Muzzleloader, Permit Shotgun and Winter Bow hunting seasons.
That figure represents the fewest deer shot by hunters since the 1991 and 1992 seasons when 45,416 whitetails were culled. It falls far short of the 56,673 deer in 2006 and 2007, and pales in comparison to the high-water mark set in 2000 and 2001, when 77,444 deer were taken.
According to Fish and Wildlife, 17,467 of the most recent seasons' harvested deer were antlered and 29,549 were antlerless. As has been the case since the 1987 and 1988 seasons, most of the deer -- 17,094 -- were killed during the Permit Shotgun season. In 1999 and 2000, 28,498 deer were removed from the herd during Permit Shotgun season.
To find a Fall Bow season as slow as last year's, when 9,994 deer were arrowed, one needs to look to 1987 and 1988, when the tally was 8,483.
The anemic numbers are pretty much the same across the board: The 725 deer taken during the Youth Hunt is the second-lowest number since the hunt was initiated in 2001 and 2002; Permit Bow hunters, who took 6,086, fared worse than any Permit Bow participants since 1995 and 1996; 6-Day Firearm ("Buck Season") hunters managed 8,338 deer, fewer than in any season since 1995 and 1996.
However, there is one bright spot in the new numbers: The Winter Bow number of 1,232 is actually the third-best on record and is 110 more than reported for the comparable 2006-07 season.
Division of Fish and Wildlife assistant director Larry Herrighty said he'd like to see another year's worth of data before hypothesizing why the deer harvest is down so much.
"We don't see a pattern," he said. Herrighty added that a number of factors go into annual deer hunt numbers, including weather and hunter participation.
"During the early muzzleloader season there were heavy rains," he noted. "Even on opening day of buck season, the weather wasn't ideal."
The lower numbers could just be a sign that the efforts, by the division and the state Fish and Game Council, to winnow New Jersey's deer population are working. "We are attempting to decrease the population and, as we do, the harvest will go down," Herrighty said.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/3nbp6c
Monday, April 21, 2008
WISCONSIN OPINION: The Science Says "Stop Baiting and Feeding"
It’s rarely a good idea to feed a wild animal, but it’s an especially bad idea to feed a wild deer.
That notion has gotten through to Wisconsin sportsmen. Now, it needs to get through to the state Legislature.
Last week, Wisconsin sportsmen vote, 54-46 percent, to ban the feeding and baiting of deer statewide. Baiting and feeding is already illegal in the 26 southern Wisconsin counties nearest to the 2002 outbreak of Chronic Wasting Disease.
The research is clear that baiting and feeding artificially concentrate deer and facilitate the spread of CWD and other diseases. Since deer, unlike bears, often move in groups, they feed together at the same locations. Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Biologist Ron Lichtie compares bait and feed piles to human beings at a buffet eating off the same plate.
Baiting also interferes with the normal deer hunt. Research shows:
* Feeding of deer increases reproduction and survival, which makes traditional herd control methods less effective and increases the need for earn-a-buck and October hunting seasons.
* Baiting and feeding cause deer to go nocturnal and concentrate deer on refuges, which makes a successful hunting experience more difficult.
* Baiting and feeding concentrate deer on private property -- especially parcels with the most bait -- and hinder opportunities for sportsmen who rely on public hunting lands.
But if you’re not inclined to believe the DNR, then perhaps you’ll believe the Wisconsin Farm Bureau. It raised the spectre of bovine tuberculosis, which has already been identified in Michigan and Minnesota, and the real possibility that the artificial concentration of deer threatens domestic livestock. The loss of Wisconsin’s TB-free status would cost state farmers nearly $2 million annually in additional testing costs.
Sportsmen and farmers have spoken up, but only the state Legislature can enact a baiting and feeding ban. It’s time for area lawmakers -- state Sens. Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma), Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse) and Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center), and state Reps. Terry Musser (R-Black River Falls), Sheryl Albers (R-Reedsburg) and Lee Nerison (R-Westby)-- to take a visible leadership role on this issue. The science is indisputable, and it should trump politics.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/5xvuzc
That notion has gotten through to Wisconsin sportsmen. Now, it needs to get through to the state Legislature.
Last week, Wisconsin sportsmen vote, 54-46 percent, to ban the feeding and baiting of deer statewide. Baiting and feeding is already illegal in the 26 southern Wisconsin counties nearest to the 2002 outbreak of Chronic Wasting Disease.
The research is clear that baiting and feeding artificially concentrate deer and facilitate the spread of CWD and other diseases. Since deer, unlike bears, often move in groups, they feed together at the same locations. Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Biologist Ron Lichtie compares bait and feed piles to human beings at a buffet eating off the same plate.
Baiting also interferes with the normal deer hunt. Research shows:
* Feeding of deer increases reproduction and survival, which makes traditional herd control methods less effective and increases the need for earn-a-buck and October hunting seasons.
* Baiting and feeding cause deer to go nocturnal and concentrate deer on refuges, which makes a successful hunting experience more difficult.
* Baiting and feeding concentrate deer on private property -- especially parcels with the most bait -- and hinder opportunities for sportsmen who rely on public hunting lands.
But if you’re not inclined to believe the DNR, then perhaps you’ll believe the Wisconsin Farm Bureau. It raised the spectre of bovine tuberculosis, which has already been identified in Michigan and Minnesota, and the real possibility that the artificial concentration of deer threatens domestic livestock. The loss of Wisconsin’s TB-free status would cost state farmers nearly $2 million annually in additional testing costs.
Sportsmen and farmers have spoken up, but only the state Legislature can enact a baiting and feeding ban. It’s time for area lawmakers -- state Sens. Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma), Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse) and Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center), and state Reps. Terry Musser (R-Black River Falls), Sheryl Albers (R-Reedsburg) and Lee Nerison (R-Westby)-- to take a visible leadership role on this issue. The science is indisputable, and it should trump politics.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/5xvuzc
Thursday, April 10, 2008
PENNSYLVANIA NEWS: Game Commission Approves Management Audit
Rooney: Get ready for a repeat of the Wisconsin experience.
Dan Moul used to hunt near Sinnemahoning in northcentral part of the state, but he stopped going a few years ago.
"There were more deer down here than there were up there," said Moul, a Republican state House representative from Conewago Township.
Other hunters stopped going, too, and several businesses in the Cameron County town have shut down as a result.
"The white-tailed deer is what a lot of these towns survive on," Moul said.
Moul said he's talked to representatives from the Game Commission about how displeased constituents are, but "I may as well have been hitting my head on the wall."
The state House of Representatives unanimously adopted a resolution earlier this week that calls for an independent, out-of-state party to conduct a study on the controversial deer-management program.
The Game Commission's goal has been to reduce the white-tailed deer population to ensure the herd is healthy, that the forest habitat can sustain wildlife and that the run-ins between humans and deer would diminish.
But some hunters argue the Game Commission has gone too far in reducing the herd, especially in the northern tier of the state.
Stephen Mohr, president of the Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania, said he's pleased the House approved the audit, which his organization pushed for. He questions how the Game Commission can determine how many tags should be sold if the management of the herd isn't based on numbers.
The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources hired a company several years ago to use video cameras and infrared equipment to help take a census of the deer during a flyover.
In some places in the northcentral area of the state, it found zero deer per square mile, Mohr said.
Anything below 15 deer per square mile is not considered a huntable population, he said.
The Game Commission welcomes the independent audit as long as it's done by a scientific group, spokesman Joe Kosack said.
If the study validates the Game Commission's program, that's great, Kosack said. If there are changes to consider, "we'd be willing to listen to them," Kosack said.
He said things are constantly changing and, in looking at the history of deer management, the Game Commission cannot please everyone.
Source: http://www.eveningsun.com/ci_8876115
Dan Moul used to hunt near Sinnemahoning in northcentral part of the state, but he stopped going a few years ago.
"There were more deer down here than there were up there," said Moul, a Republican state House representative from Conewago Township.
Other hunters stopped going, too, and several businesses in the Cameron County town have shut down as a result.
"The white-tailed deer is what a lot of these towns survive on," Moul said.
Moul said he's talked to representatives from the Game Commission about how displeased constituents are, but "I may as well have been hitting my head on the wall."
The state House of Representatives unanimously adopted a resolution earlier this week that calls for an independent, out-of-state party to conduct a study on the controversial deer-management program.
The Game Commission's goal has been to reduce the white-tailed deer population to ensure the herd is healthy, that the forest habitat can sustain wildlife and that the run-ins between humans and deer would diminish.
But some hunters argue the Game Commission has gone too far in reducing the herd, especially in the northern tier of the state.
Stephen Mohr, president of the Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania, said he's pleased the House approved the audit, which his organization pushed for. He questions how the Game Commission can determine how many tags should be sold if the management of the herd isn't based on numbers.
The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources hired a company several years ago to use video cameras and infrared equipment to help take a census of the deer during a flyover.
In some places in the northcentral area of the state, it found zero deer per square mile, Mohr said.
Anything below 15 deer per square mile is not considered a huntable population, he said.
The Game Commission welcomes the independent audit as long as it's done by a scientific group, spokesman Joe Kosack said.
If the study validates the Game Commission's program, that's great, Kosack said. If there are changes to consider, "we'd be willing to listen to them," Kosack said.
He said things are constantly changing and, in looking at the history of deer management, the Game Commission cannot please everyone.
Source: http://www.eveningsun.com/ci_8876115
Monday, April 07, 2008
VIRGINIA NEWS: Deer Population Threatens Vinyards
The deer population is on the rise, and many experts say it's due to a number of different factors, like their high reproductive rate, the absence of predators, and the increased nutrition from several plants - including grapes vonifera grapes to be exact, and that's why vineyards are gearing up for this year's growing season.
"The deer fence will go right along through here," says Chris Breiner, who manages the Stone Mountain Vineyard. He says deer are becoming more and more of a problem, "In the past we had an electric fence right there and then we had garlic sticks and other things to keep them out, last year that did not work as well since there was nothing in the woods they were moving more."
As the deer population rises, Breiner has to think of other means to protect his grapes, so this past week, he came up with a different plan.
"This is the plastic deer mesh, it comes with a roll that's a hundred feet and eight feet tall, it's supposedly can withstand 900 pounds of pressure before it will tear or rip," says Breiner. He hopes that 1800 feet of fence will deter deer from feasting on his grapes, "Deer are claustrophobic, they have bad peripheral vision so they stay on the top rows and the bottom rows and they come in on the edges they will not really go along the rows because they are very skittish animals, although sometimes they do get in there and panic"
Breiner's customers depend on the quality of his grapes, so keeping deer out is a huge priority.
"They were just on the move more we spent way too many man hours keeping them out, we probably lost, I estimate, last year 6 to 7 tons of fruit to the deer damage," says Breiner.
According to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, deer vehicle collisions and deer damage to agricultural and residential property continue to increase in the Commonwealth.
Source: http://www.whsv.com/news/headlines/17342629.html
"The deer fence will go right along through here," says Chris Breiner, who manages the Stone Mountain Vineyard. He says deer are becoming more and more of a problem, "In the past we had an electric fence right there and then we had garlic sticks and other things to keep them out, last year that did not work as well since there was nothing in the woods they were moving more."
As the deer population rises, Breiner has to think of other means to protect his grapes, so this past week, he came up with a different plan.
"This is the plastic deer mesh, it comes with a roll that's a hundred feet and eight feet tall, it's supposedly can withstand 900 pounds of pressure before it will tear or rip," says Breiner. He hopes that 1800 feet of fence will deter deer from feasting on his grapes, "Deer are claustrophobic, they have bad peripheral vision so they stay on the top rows and the bottom rows and they come in on the edges they will not really go along the rows because they are very skittish animals, although sometimes they do get in there and panic"
Breiner's customers depend on the quality of his grapes, so keeping deer out is a huge priority.
"They were just on the move more we spent way too many man hours keeping them out, we probably lost, I estimate, last year 6 to 7 tons of fruit to the deer damage," says Breiner.
According to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, deer vehicle collisions and deer damage to agricultural and residential property continue to increase in the Commonwealth.
Source: http://www.whsv.com/news/headlines/17342629.html
Thursday, April 03, 2008
MISSISSIPPI NEWS: Governor to Veto Deer Baiting Ban Bill
House bill 1089, the so-called "Deer Baiting Bill," has passed both the house and the senate. But word from the governor's office is that Haley Barbour plans to veto the bill, keeping it from becoming law.
But it may not matter whether it's law or not, because deer baiting is already a common practice here in Mississippi.
"When you go outside and you're in the woods, I just love being outdoors myself," said hunter, Bill McKee.
Many hunters like Bill McKee enjoy the thrill of the hunt, whether they bag the big buck or not, just hunting deer is enough for them. Still, McKee also keeps a feeder on his property.
"We have a lot of people that do it, matter of fact, I've got a feeder I keep out year round just to supplement the food for the deer," said McKee.
And McKee's not alone, I spoke with many hunter's who didn't want to talk on camera who say they may not hunt over corn feed or bait but they'll keep it on their property to keep the deer on their property. House wildlife committee chair, Bo Eaton says hunters want an even playing field.
"In Louisiana, it's legal, in Arkansas,it's legal and Texas and these hunters in the state want to have the same opportunity as those hunters in the other states that adjoin Mississippi," said Eaton.
For some it comes down to a matter of ethics, they say there's no fair chase no sportsmanship in killing a deer over bait.
But Eaton believes the decision to bait or not, should be left up to the hunter.
"What's best for the hunting public and this is an ethical issue that's before us and the hunters, in my opinion, if you feel like it's unethical then don't do it," said Eaton.
Last year, the wildlife commission was given authority to allow deer baiting. At this point, they are doing field tests to study how it affects the deer population.
Source: http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=8108723&nav=1L7u
But it may not matter whether it's law or not, because deer baiting is already a common practice here in Mississippi.
"When you go outside and you're in the woods, I just love being outdoors myself," said hunter, Bill McKee.
Many hunters like Bill McKee enjoy the thrill of the hunt, whether they bag the big buck or not, just hunting deer is enough for them. Still, McKee also keeps a feeder on his property.
"We have a lot of people that do it, matter of fact, I've got a feeder I keep out year round just to supplement the food for the deer," said McKee.
And McKee's not alone, I spoke with many hunter's who didn't want to talk on camera who say they may not hunt over corn feed or bait but they'll keep it on their property to keep the deer on their property. House wildlife committee chair, Bo Eaton says hunters want an even playing field.
"In Louisiana, it's legal, in Arkansas,it's legal and Texas and these hunters in the state want to have the same opportunity as those hunters in the other states that adjoin Mississippi," said Eaton.
For some it comes down to a matter of ethics, they say there's no fair chase no sportsmanship in killing a deer over bait.
But Eaton believes the decision to bait or not, should be left up to the hunter.
"What's best for the hunting public and this is an ethical issue that's before us and the hunters, in my opinion, if you feel like it's unethical then don't do it," said Eaton.
Last year, the wildlife commission was given authority to allow deer baiting. At this point, they are doing field tests to study how it affects the deer population.
Source: http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=8108723&nav=1L7u
WISCONSIN OPINION: October Deer Hunt is Back
Pat Durkin's latest column:
Now that Wisconsin again will offer an October gun season for antlerless deer — our second-most popular hunt when held statewide in recent years — critics say the state Department of Natural Resources is ignoring its customers.
Let's pause for those who seldom follow deer hunting's inner debates.
OK, you guys. Let's concede the lead paragraph is a contradiction that makes no sense. But critics believe hunters hate this early season, even though harvest data shows the four-day hunt trailed only the traditional November season for participation.
Got it? OK. Let's continue.
To make this hunt even more popular, the DNR will move it to Oct. 16-19. Previous October gun hunts were closer to Halloween, which overlapped bowhunting's prime time.
Readers might recall why the agency canceled these hunts in 2006 and 2007: A stakeholders committee, which included all state deer hunting groups, wanted to show the DNR we didn't need October gun hunts to reduce deer numbers.
The committee voted in July 2005 to try these tools instead during the two-year experiment: extra free antlerless tags, a statewide December antlerless gun-hunt, a longer archery season and a two-day October youth hunt.
The experiment included this benchmark: Hunters must achieve a two-year antlerless-to-buck harvest ratio of 2-to-1, or the October season would return in 2008.
The results are in, and only the Central Forest region met the 2-to-1 ratio. Well, technically, it didn't, but the DNR figured a 1.95-to-1 ratio was good enough for the government. (Remember, the DNR ignores its customers.) Therefore, the five deer-management units in this small area won't have an October gun hunt.
The antlerless-to-buck ratios averaged 1.6- to 1.75-to-1 in the other four DNR districts. If not for widespread earn-a-buck regulations, which hunting groups opposed, those averages would have been worse. The ratio was 1.2-to-1 for deer units without free antlerless tags, 1.7-to-1 for areas with unlimited free tags and 3-to-1 for earn-a-buck areas.
Further, in CWD (chronic wasting disease) zones, the ratio was 2.8-to-1 with earn-a-buck and 1.2-to-1 without it. This, despite hunters' promises to shoot more does and fawns if the DNR dropped earn-a-buck regulations in 2006.
It did, and they didn't. Lesson learned.
An objective person would agree hunters failed to meet goals set by their representatives. But objectivity is irrelevant in deer hunting. This is Ford vs. Chevy, Packers vs. Vikings, Gordon vs. Earnhardt.
That's why seven of 18 members on the Wisconsin Conservation Congress'big-game committee voted Saturday to reject the DNR's proposed 2008 deer regulations during a meeting at the Mead Wildlife Area near Milladore.
Before voting, they reviewed a lot of DNR data without dispute. For instance, the 2007 harvest showed a combined gun-archery kill of 518,573, Wisconsin's second-highest kill on record. The archery kill, 116,042, was a record.
They even heard appeals to their integrity from fellow committee members, reminding them that their representatives approved the 2006-07 experiment.
Ken Anderson of Eagle River said: "I don't enjoy someone saying the October hunt is being shoved down our throat. We had two years of warning. You guys all agreed to it; 2-to-1 was the ratio. We didn't get it done. Now you want to go back on what we agreed to?"
The opposition's response: The DNR shouldn't bully them. Hunter harmony and customer satisfaction would improve if the DNR dropped the October gun hunt.
It's odd that professed businessmen in the group made that argument. Whether it's the DNR, Wal-Mart or Joe's Tavern, few can define — and none can measure — customer satisfaction.
In deer hunting, we can't even link it to success. Some hunters weren't happy in 1971 when archers and gun-hunters combined to kill 77,357 deer. Judging by today's malcontents, a kill of nearly 520,000 deer didn't make hunters seven times happier than 37 years ago.
This much is certain: The big-game committee's majority realized that sacrificing October's gun season would not satisfy such a crowd.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/yrkfq6
Now that Wisconsin again will offer an October gun season for antlerless deer — our second-most popular hunt when held statewide in recent years — critics say the state Department of Natural Resources is ignoring its customers.
Let's pause for those who seldom follow deer hunting's inner debates.
OK, you guys. Let's concede the lead paragraph is a contradiction that makes no sense. But critics believe hunters hate this early season, even though harvest data shows the four-day hunt trailed only the traditional November season for participation.
Got it? OK. Let's continue.
To make this hunt even more popular, the DNR will move it to Oct. 16-19. Previous October gun hunts were closer to Halloween, which overlapped bowhunting's prime time.
Readers might recall why the agency canceled these hunts in 2006 and 2007: A stakeholders committee, which included all state deer hunting groups, wanted to show the DNR we didn't need October gun hunts to reduce deer numbers.
The committee voted in July 2005 to try these tools instead during the two-year experiment: extra free antlerless tags, a statewide December antlerless gun-hunt, a longer archery season and a two-day October youth hunt.
The experiment included this benchmark: Hunters must achieve a two-year antlerless-to-buck harvest ratio of 2-to-1, or the October season would return in 2008.
The results are in, and only the Central Forest region met the 2-to-1 ratio. Well, technically, it didn't, but the DNR figured a 1.95-to-1 ratio was good enough for the government. (Remember, the DNR ignores its customers.) Therefore, the five deer-management units in this small area won't have an October gun hunt.
The antlerless-to-buck ratios averaged 1.6- to 1.75-to-1 in the other four DNR districts. If not for widespread earn-a-buck regulations, which hunting groups opposed, those averages would have been worse. The ratio was 1.2-to-1 for deer units without free antlerless tags, 1.7-to-1 for areas with unlimited free tags and 3-to-1 for earn-a-buck areas.
Further, in CWD (chronic wasting disease) zones, the ratio was 2.8-to-1 with earn-a-buck and 1.2-to-1 without it. This, despite hunters' promises to shoot more does and fawns if the DNR dropped earn-a-buck regulations in 2006.
It did, and they didn't. Lesson learned.
An objective person would agree hunters failed to meet goals set by their representatives. But objectivity is irrelevant in deer hunting. This is Ford vs. Chevy, Packers vs. Vikings, Gordon vs. Earnhardt.
That's why seven of 18 members on the Wisconsin Conservation Congress'big-game committee voted Saturday to reject the DNR's proposed 2008 deer regulations during a meeting at the Mead Wildlife Area near Milladore.
Before voting, they reviewed a lot of DNR data without dispute. For instance, the 2007 harvest showed a combined gun-archery kill of 518,573, Wisconsin's second-highest kill on record. The archery kill, 116,042, was a record.
They even heard appeals to their integrity from fellow committee members, reminding them that their representatives approved the 2006-07 experiment.
Ken Anderson of Eagle River said: "I don't enjoy someone saying the October hunt is being shoved down our throat. We had two years of warning. You guys all agreed to it; 2-to-1 was the ratio. We didn't get it done. Now you want to go back on what we agreed to?"
The opposition's response: The DNR shouldn't bully them. Hunter harmony and customer satisfaction would improve if the DNR dropped the October gun hunt.
It's odd that professed businessmen in the group made that argument. Whether it's the DNR, Wal-Mart or Joe's Tavern, few can define — and none can measure — customer satisfaction.
In deer hunting, we can't even link it to success. Some hunters weren't happy in 1971 when archers and gun-hunters combined to kill 77,357 deer. Judging by today's malcontents, a kill of nearly 520,000 deer didn't make hunters seven times happier than 37 years ago.
This much is certain: The big-game committee's majority realized that sacrificing October's gun season would not satisfy such a crowd.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/yrkfq6
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
MINNESOTA NEWS: Emergency Bovine TB Rule Targets Deer, No Permit Required
Landowners, tenants and their designated agents can shoot deer without a permit in an expanded area surrounding where bovine tuberculosis (TB) has been found in cattle or deer in northwestern Minnesota, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Sharpshooters will also be used as part of an overall strategy to significantly reduce deer population density in and around the bovine TB management zone.
An emergency rule effective March 31 and continuing through Aug. 31 allows landowners, tenants and their agents designated in writing to take deer on their property with a firearm, bow or muzzleloader at any time.
The new landowner/tenant zone comprises a 934-square mile area of portions of Beltrami, Marshall, Roseau and Lake of the Woods counties. The area includes deer permit area 101 and an expanded area north to the Canadian border. The expanded area is bounded on the west by state highways 89 and 310 and on the east by the Thompson Forest Road, County Road 5 and state highways 11 and 313. Details, including a map of the area and the specific rule restrictions, are available from area DNR offices or on the DNR Web site at mndnr.gov/bovinetb.
"Implementing this emergency rule is another tool to help get ahead of this disease and ensure it doesn't persist in Minnesota's deer population," said Paul Telander, regional wildlife manager in northwestern Minnesota.
Provisions of the emergency landowner/tenant shooting rule allow deer of any age or sex to be taken without limit or license provided that before transporting the deer, landowners and tenants tag each deer taken with their name; the township, range, and section where the kill took place; and the date of the kill.
All deer must be field dressed at the time of the kill and carcasses - or heads if deer are retained in possession - must be taken to the Wannaska Forestry Office, Grygla Forestry Office, Thief Lake Wildlife Office, Olson's Skime Store or DJ's Salol Store within 48 hours of the kill so they can be tested. Possession tags are required for all deer retained in possession. Tags for both possession and transport will be available at drop-off points.
As the weather warms and deer carcass salvage becomes more difficult, a refrigerated truck will be stationed at Olson's Skime Store. Landowners and tenants are encouraged to
promptly bring deer to this station to help preserve as many carcasses as possible.
The emergency rule was enacted as part of an overall strategy that also includes expanded and special hunts as well as contracting with U.S. Department of Agriculture sharpshooters. Sharpshooters have taken 351 deer as of March 27.
During the first two weeks of April, the DNR will hire an aircraft to supplement sharpshooting efforts, Telander said, resulting in the closure of all wildlife management area lands within the TB management zone (deer permit area 101). WMAs scheduled to be closed include Golden Valley, Grygla, Hayes, Marbel, Mickinock, Moose River, Palmville, Wannaska, Wapiti, and portions of Reed Lake and Thief Lake. The following state forest roads will be signed closed beginning Monday morning: Morehouse, Stotts, Winner, Neheim, Penturen, Summer, North Moose River Dike, Moose River West, Moose River East, Luxemberger, Highwood East and West, Tofte,Palsberg, Black's Winner, Root, Mortenson, River Road (east of the private cabins), Thompson.
Permits allowing landowners to shoot deer have been available since March 18. To date, 50 permits have been issued and 33 deer taken. The new emergency rule replaces the permitting process, Telander said. Samples also have been obtained from three elk.
DNR officials tested more than 1,100 hunter-harvested deer for bovine TB in 2007. They discovered four infected animals, bringing the total number of infected deer to 17 since surveillance efforts began in 2005. Telander said sharpshooters and landowners have taken 384 deer so far in 2008. Two of those deer, all adults taken within the 164-square mile core area, showed signs of potential TB but lab tests are required to determine whether any infection is present.
"We need to keep the pressure on deer within this small area to reduce the risk of this disease becoming established in the deer population," Telander said. "The prevalence of the disease in wild deer remains low and is restricted to a small geographic region."
Source: http://www.crookstontimes.com/articles/2008/04/01/news/26news3.txt
An emergency rule effective March 31 and continuing through Aug. 31 allows landowners, tenants and their agents designated in writing to take deer on their property with a firearm, bow or muzzleloader at any time.
The new landowner/tenant zone comprises a 934-square mile area of portions of Beltrami, Marshall, Roseau and Lake of the Woods counties. The area includes deer permit area 101 and an expanded area north to the Canadian border. The expanded area is bounded on the west by state highways 89 and 310 and on the east by the Thompson Forest Road, County Road 5 and state highways 11 and 313. Details, including a map of the area and the specific rule restrictions, are available from area DNR offices or on the DNR Web site at mndnr.gov/bovinetb.
"Implementing this emergency rule is another tool to help get ahead of this disease and ensure it doesn't persist in Minnesota's deer population," said Paul Telander, regional wildlife manager in northwestern Minnesota.
Provisions of the emergency landowner/tenant shooting rule allow deer of any age or sex to be taken without limit or license provided that before transporting the deer, landowners and tenants tag each deer taken with their name; the township, range, and section where the kill took place; and the date of the kill.
All deer must be field dressed at the time of the kill and carcasses - or heads if deer are retained in possession - must be taken to the Wannaska Forestry Office, Grygla Forestry Office, Thief Lake Wildlife Office, Olson's Skime Store or DJ's Salol Store within 48 hours of the kill so they can be tested. Possession tags are required for all deer retained in possession. Tags for both possession and transport will be available at drop-off points.
As the weather warms and deer carcass salvage becomes more difficult, a refrigerated truck will be stationed at Olson's Skime Store. Landowners and tenants are encouraged to
promptly bring deer to this station to help preserve as many carcasses as possible.
The emergency rule was enacted as part of an overall strategy that also includes expanded and special hunts as well as contracting with U.S. Department of Agriculture sharpshooters. Sharpshooters have taken 351 deer as of March 27.
During the first two weeks of April, the DNR will hire an aircraft to supplement sharpshooting efforts, Telander said, resulting in the closure of all wildlife management area lands within the TB management zone (deer permit area 101). WMAs scheduled to be closed include Golden Valley, Grygla, Hayes, Marbel, Mickinock, Moose River, Palmville, Wannaska, Wapiti, and portions of Reed Lake and Thief Lake. The following state forest roads will be signed closed beginning Monday morning: Morehouse, Stotts, Winner, Neheim, Penturen, Summer, North Moose River Dike, Moose River West, Moose River East, Luxemberger, Highwood East and West, Tofte,Palsberg, Black's Winner, Root, Mortenson, River Road (east of the private cabins), Thompson.
Permits allowing landowners to shoot deer have been available since March 18. To date, 50 permits have been issued and 33 deer taken. The new emergency rule replaces the permitting process, Telander said. Samples also have been obtained from three elk.
DNR officials tested more than 1,100 hunter-harvested deer for bovine TB in 2007. They discovered four infected animals, bringing the total number of infected deer to 17 since surveillance efforts began in 2005. Telander said sharpshooters and landowners have taken 384 deer so far in 2008. Two of those deer, all adults taken within the 164-square mile core area, showed signs of potential TB but lab tests are required to determine whether any infection is present.
"We need to keep the pressure on deer within this small area to reduce the risk of this disease becoming established in the deer population," Telander said. "The prevalence of the disease in wild deer remains low and is restricted to a small geographic region."
Source: http://www.crookstontimes.com/articles/2008/04/01/news/26news3.txt
Saturday, March 29, 2008
UNITED STATES NEWS: Number of Hunters and Anglers Declines
Rooney: At a time when the United States population is growing by 2.5 million people per year, there has been a decline in the number of people engaging in hunting and fishing. While animal rights activists may look at this as a positive development, paradoxically I do not think this bodes well for animals. The dwindling number of hunters and anglers I fear mirrors the broader trend of Americans distancing themselves from nature. This is being driven mostly (I think) by a new generation of kids with more interest in video games than the outdoors (see http://tinyurl.com/2mbcpn).
STOWE, Vt. - Bob Shannon is an avid hunter, a fishing guide and owns a tackle shop, but he sometimes struggles to get his own son out into Vermont's woods and fields.
"He'll be sitting there with the video games," Shannon said of 9-year-old Alexander. "I finally had to lay down the law last summer: 'If it's a nice day, you're outside.'"
Shannon's challenge reflects a larger problem plaguing many state governments: Revenue from hunting and fishing license sales is plunging because of waning interest in the outdoors.
"We're losing our rural culture," said Steve Wright, a regional representative for the National Wildlife Federation. "There are so many distractions, and we're not recruiting young people into hunting and fishing."
Sales of Vermont hunting and fishing licenses have dropped more than 20 percent over the last 20 years, leaving the Fish and Wildlife Department pleading with lawmakers for extra funding.
Other states report similar drop-offs:
Arkansas hunting license sales dropped from about 345,000 in 1999 to about 319,000 in 2003.
Pennsylvania sold about 946,000 hunting licenses in 2006, down from just over a million in 1999, and a peak of 1.3 million in 1981.
Oregon had 100,000 fewer licensed anglers last year than in 1987, and 70,000 fewer licensed hunters.
West Virginia sold 154,763 resident hunting permits in 2006, a 17 percent decrease from 1997.
The trend means trouble for some fish and wildlife agencies, which use license revenue to finance preservation programs for endangered species like peregrine falcons, bald eagles and loons. Game wardens also help with law enforcement, joining searches for lost hikers and skiers.
In the search for new sources of revenue to support fish and wildlife programs, Vermont lawmakers are weighing legislation that would dedicate part of the state's sales tax revenues to the Fish and Wildlife Department.
"The issue here is that most of our fish and wildlife agencies were set up to fund conservation, based predominantly or entirely on one set of users" — hunters and anglers who pay license fees, according to Dave Chadwick, senior program associate with the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies in Washington.
"They're shouldering the whole burden for a benefit and an amenity that we all enjoy," Chadwick said.
Other fundraising strategies range from sales taxes on outdoor sporting goods, as in Texas, to Florida's surcharges on speeding tickets, said Douglas Shinkle, a policy associate at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Some states are trying to boost efforts to recruit new people — especially young people — into hunting and fishing.
A West Virginia legislator has proposed offering hunters' training courses in public schools, allowing seventh- through ninth-graders to opt for instruction in topics ranging from survival skills to gun safety.
Arkansas has used some of its dedicated sales tax revenue to recruit new hunters. However, the state's hunter education program graduated 11,891 people under 30 years old last year, down from 16,596 in 1998.
Vermont sponsors youth hunting weekends, typically three a year. Oregon has started youth mentoring programs that match kids up with experienced hunters. Minnesota has two staff members reaching out to the state's burgeoning Southeast Asian population, said Jay Johnson of the state Department of Natural Resources' hunter recruitment and retention program.
Wright said it might be an uphill battle because of everything from video games to the growth in structured activities like team sports and music lessons.
But Shannon said he has met with some success. After he laid down the law with Alexander last summer, the boy went out fishing almost every morning, he said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080329/ap_on_re_us/hunting_s_decline_2
STOWE, Vt. - Bob Shannon is an avid hunter, a fishing guide and owns a tackle shop, but he sometimes struggles to get his own son out into Vermont's woods and fields.
"He'll be sitting there with the video games," Shannon said of 9-year-old Alexander. "I finally had to lay down the law last summer: 'If it's a nice day, you're outside.'"
Shannon's challenge reflects a larger problem plaguing many state governments: Revenue from hunting and fishing license sales is plunging because of waning interest in the outdoors.
"We're losing our rural culture," said Steve Wright, a regional representative for the National Wildlife Federation. "There are so many distractions, and we're not recruiting young people into hunting and fishing."
Sales of Vermont hunting and fishing licenses have dropped more than 20 percent over the last 20 years, leaving the Fish and Wildlife Department pleading with lawmakers for extra funding.
Other states report similar drop-offs:
Arkansas hunting license sales dropped from about 345,000 in 1999 to about 319,000 in 2003.
Pennsylvania sold about 946,000 hunting licenses in 2006, down from just over a million in 1999, and a peak of 1.3 million in 1981.
Oregon had 100,000 fewer licensed anglers last year than in 1987, and 70,000 fewer licensed hunters.
West Virginia sold 154,763 resident hunting permits in 2006, a 17 percent decrease from 1997.
The trend means trouble for some fish and wildlife agencies, which use license revenue to finance preservation programs for endangered species like peregrine falcons, bald eagles and loons. Game wardens also help with law enforcement, joining searches for lost hikers and skiers.
In the search for new sources of revenue to support fish and wildlife programs, Vermont lawmakers are weighing legislation that would dedicate part of the state's sales tax revenues to the Fish and Wildlife Department.
"The issue here is that most of our fish and wildlife agencies were set up to fund conservation, based predominantly or entirely on one set of users" — hunters and anglers who pay license fees, according to Dave Chadwick, senior program associate with the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies in Washington.
"They're shouldering the whole burden for a benefit and an amenity that we all enjoy," Chadwick said.
Other fundraising strategies range from sales taxes on outdoor sporting goods, as in Texas, to Florida's surcharges on speeding tickets, said Douglas Shinkle, a policy associate at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Some states are trying to boost efforts to recruit new people — especially young people — into hunting and fishing.
A West Virginia legislator has proposed offering hunters' training courses in public schools, allowing seventh- through ninth-graders to opt for instruction in topics ranging from survival skills to gun safety.
Arkansas has used some of its dedicated sales tax revenue to recruit new hunters. However, the state's hunter education program graduated 11,891 people under 30 years old last year, down from 16,596 in 1998.
Vermont sponsors youth hunting weekends, typically three a year. Oregon has started youth mentoring programs that match kids up with experienced hunters. Minnesota has two staff members reaching out to the state's burgeoning Southeast Asian population, said Jay Johnson of the state Department of Natural Resources' hunter recruitment and retention program.
Wright said it might be an uphill battle because of everything from video games to the growth in structured activities like team sports and music lessons.
But Shannon said he has met with some success. After he laid down the law with Alexander last summer, the boy went out fishing almost every morning, he said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080329/ap_on_re_us/hunting_s_decline_2
Monday, March 24, 2008
CONNECTICUT OPINION: Reducing Deer Population Key to Fighting Lyme Disease
Winston Churchill famously remarked to Franklin D. Roosevelt that Hitler's war ought to be called "The Unnecessary War" because responsible governments of the democracies could so easily have prevented it, had they acted in time. Connecticut's decades-old Lyme disease epidemic can be accurately called "The Unnecessary Epidemic" because it too could have been nipped in the bud.
From 1996 to 2006 there have been 29,000 reported cases of Lyme in Connecticut, the majority among children and many with tragic, long-term effects. A great many more cases go unreported or are misdiagnosed. A more realistic number of cases is estimated by some to be 29,000 every year.
The root cause of Connecticut's epidemic is an unnatural, environmentally destructive population explosion of deer. The deer are not infected with the disease themselves, but they feed, transport and disperse the deer ticks that pass it on to humans. Just one tick-infested deer can facilitate the delivery of about 1 million deer tick eggs that it scatters as it walks through our backyards, parks, playgrounds, meadows and playing fields. The eggs hatch and turn into ticks that then infect their victims.
Deer numbers have gone from an estimated 12 (yes, you read that correctly, 12) in 1896 to approximately 150,000 today. Neither this number, nor the resulting Lyme epidemic, needs to continue any longer. It started in Connecticut; it can end here.
What to do? Controlling the deer population, which means culling the herd, has ended Lyme epidemics in parts of three New England states — Great Island, a peninsula on Cape Cod; Monhegan Island in Maine; and Mumford Cove in Groton. No other method has reduced Lyme case numbers, either in New England or elsewhere.
When deer populations are reduced to around 10 per square mile, the deer ticks that spread Lyme and other diseases become locally extinct. It takes a lot of deer to keep the tick species reproducing successfully in an area. But when there are no ticks left, there is no Lyme disease.
Much of the work that led to this understanding was done here by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, funded by the state. We now need a policy to let people know about this research and why it should lead to legislation to control the deer population.
The Connecticut Coalition to Eradicate Lyme Disease was recently formed for just this reason. It is supported by the Connecticut Audubon Society, the Merritt Parkway Conservancy, seven of Connecticut's Regional Councils of Government representing more than 70 towns, plus emergency physicians, pediatricians, Lyme disease task forces, veterinarians and many others.
But what may seem obvious to most people is not so to others. Some believe that ticks do not need large numbers of deer for survival, but can live just as well on other animals. Others claim that deer management only works on islands; or that it doesn't work at all and tick numbers go up instead of down when deer numbers decline.
Even more far-fetched is the notion that all the white-footed mice, mammals and songbirds in Connecticut would have to be killed to end Lyme disease. None of this is true. The towns that are now free of their epidemics liberated themselves by controlling deer numbers, nothing else. And the animals and birds are all thriving and do not sustain the deer tick populations.
According to a recent joint publication of the Connecticut Department of Public Health, Yale University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, current attempts at prevention of Lyme disease through personal protection such as inspecting one's body for ticks and using tick-killing chemicals on one's property were "not found to be an effective strategy to prevent Lyme disease." These measures failed to stop the growth or spread of the Lyme disease epidemic.
This is why we need a reliable source of information, promulgated by the state Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control. We can then develop a strategy based upon the work of our research scientists with 25 years of experience in Connecticut.
As the good news and its implications become more widely known, the next steps should include a public airing of the alternatives that confront us: Do we act now to control deer numbers and the incidence of Lyme disease? Or do we let both continue to rise inexorably?
It is to be hoped that Gov. M. Jodi Rell and state legislators will lead new statewide efforts to bring an end to Lyme disease. House Bill 5852, sponsored by the Environment Committee, is currently under review in Hartford to address the issue, but it needs the support of citizens and concerned legislators.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/273szl
From 1996 to 2006 there have been 29,000 reported cases of Lyme in Connecticut, the majority among children and many with tragic, long-term effects. A great many more cases go unreported or are misdiagnosed. A more realistic number of cases is estimated by some to be 29,000 every year.
The root cause of Connecticut's epidemic is an unnatural, environmentally destructive population explosion of deer. The deer are not infected with the disease themselves, but they feed, transport and disperse the deer ticks that pass it on to humans. Just one tick-infested deer can facilitate the delivery of about 1 million deer tick eggs that it scatters as it walks through our backyards, parks, playgrounds, meadows and playing fields. The eggs hatch and turn into ticks that then infect their victims.
Deer numbers have gone from an estimated 12 (yes, you read that correctly, 12) in 1896 to approximately 150,000 today. Neither this number, nor the resulting Lyme epidemic, needs to continue any longer. It started in Connecticut; it can end here.
What to do? Controlling the deer population, which means culling the herd, has ended Lyme epidemics in parts of three New England states — Great Island, a peninsula on Cape Cod; Monhegan Island in Maine; and Mumford Cove in Groton. No other method has reduced Lyme case numbers, either in New England or elsewhere.
When deer populations are reduced to around 10 per square mile, the deer ticks that spread Lyme and other diseases become locally extinct. It takes a lot of deer to keep the tick species reproducing successfully in an area. But when there are no ticks left, there is no Lyme disease.
Much of the work that led to this understanding was done here by the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, funded by the state. We now need a policy to let people know about this research and why it should lead to legislation to control the deer population.
The Connecticut Coalition to Eradicate Lyme Disease was recently formed for just this reason. It is supported by the Connecticut Audubon Society, the Merritt Parkway Conservancy, seven of Connecticut's Regional Councils of Government representing more than 70 towns, plus emergency physicians, pediatricians, Lyme disease task forces, veterinarians and many others.
But what may seem obvious to most people is not so to others. Some believe that ticks do not need large numbers of deer for survival, but can live just as well on other animals. Others claim that deer management only works on islands; or that it doesn't work at all and tick numbers go up instead of down when deer numbers decline.
Even more far-fetched is the notion that all the white-footed mice, mammals and songbirds in Connecticut would have to be killed to end Lyme disease. None of this is true. The towns that are now free of their epidemics liberated themselves by controlling deer numbers, nothing else. And the animals and birds are all thriving and do not sustain the deer tick populations.
According to a recent joint publication of the Connecticut Department of Public Health, Yale University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, current attempts at prevention of Lyme disease through personal protection such as inspecting one's body for ticks and using tick-killing chemicals on one's property were "not found to be an effective strategy to prevent Lyme disease." These measures failed to stop the growth or spread of the Lyme disease epidemic.
This is why we need a reliable source of information, promulgated by the state Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control. We can then develop a strategy based upon the work of our research scientists with 25 years of experience in Connecticut.
As the good news and its implications become more widely known, the next steps should include a public airing of the alternatives that confront us: Do we act now to control deer numbers and the incidence of Lyme disease? Or do we let both continue to rise inexorably?
It is to be hoped that Gov. M. Jodi Rell and state legislators will lead new statewide efforts to bring an end to Lyme disease. House Bill 5852, sponsored by the Environment Committee, is currently under review in Hartford to address the issue, but it needs the support of citizens and concerned legislators.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/273szl
Friday, March 21, 2008
PENNSYLVANIA NEWS: 2007 Harvest Down 11%
HARRISBURG, Pa., March 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania
Game Commission today reported that hunters harvested an estimated 323,070
deer in the state's 2007-08 seasons. That's down 11 percent from the
previous seasons' harvest.
Hunters took 109,200 antlered deer in the 2007-08 seasons, down 19
percent from the previous license year's harvest of 135,290. Also, hunters
harvested 213,870 antlerless deer in 2007-08, a five percent drop from the
226,270 antlerless deer taken in 2006-07.
"What stands out most when looking over the harvest data is the
difference in the opening day deer kill of the two-week firearms season,"
said Dr. Christopher Rosenberry, Game Commission Deer Section Supervisor.
"Report cards sent in by hunters show the antlered deer harvest on the
opening day, Nov. 26, dropped more than 50 percent from 2006. Daily
harvests for the rest of the two-week season, Nov. 27-Dec. 8, were similar
to 2006.
"The firearms season's opening day antlerless deer harvest also dropped
nearly 50 percent from 2006. However, the antlerless harvest throughout the
remainder of the two-week season increased and, in due course, erased some
of the opening day's harvest shortfall."
Based on past year's results, Rosenberry noted that it wasn't
surprising that the drop in opening day harvests had a larger effect on the
antlered harvest than the antlerless harvest.
"Historically, a majority of the antlered deer harvest occurs on
opening day, whereas the antlerless harvest is typically more evenly
distributed across the entire two weeks," Rosenberry said.
Bureau of Wildlife Management personnel currently are working to
develop antlerless deer license allocation recommendations for the April
Board meeting. Calvin W. DuBrock, Game Commission Bureau of Wildlife
Management director, said that in addition to harvest data, the staff will
be looking at population trend data, deer reproduction data, forest
regeneration data, input from five new Citizen Advisory Committees, and
hunter survey results.
Harvest estimates for 2007-08 seasons are based on 124,569 usable
harvest report cards (40,482 antlered; 84,087 antlerless) returned by
hunters to the Commission and 25,400 deer (7,338 antlered; 18,062
antlerless) examined by Game Commission personnel in the field and at
processors.
For an explanation of the agency's deer harvest estimating procedure,
visit the Game Commission's website (http://www.pgc.state.pa.us), click on "Deer
Program" in the "Quick Clicks" box in the right-hand corner of the
homepage, then scroll down and select "Deer Harvest Estimates" brochure. To
view a peer-reviewed article published in the Journal of Wildlife
Management (2004) about the agency's deer harvest estimating procedure, go
the "Deer Program" section, scroll down and choose "Communication,
Education and Outreach to Citizens," and then select "Reporting rate
variability and precision of white-tailed deer harvest estimates in
Pennsylvania" in the "Science Publications" listing.
Yearling bucks comprised 56 percent of the 2007-08 antlered harvest,
which is the same percentage posted in 2006-07. Button bucks and doe fawns
were 24 percent and 20 percent, respectively, of the antlerless harvest,
and almost identical to 2006-07 season rates.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/2jfunm
Game Commission today reported that hunters harvested an estimated 323,070
deer in the state's 2007-08 seasons. That's down 11 percent from the
previous seasons' harvest.
Hunters took 109,200 antlered deer in the 2007-08 seasons, down 19
percent from the previous license year's harvest of 135,290. Also, hunters
harvested 213,870 antlerless deer in 2007-08, a five percent drop from the
226,270 antlerless deer taken in 2006-07.
"What stands out most when looking over the harvest data is the
difference in the opening day deer kill of the two-week firearms season,"
said Dr. Christopher Rosenberry, Game Commission Deer Section Supervisor.
"Report cards sent in by hunters show the antlered deer harvest on the
opening day, Nov. 26, dropped more than 50 percent from 2006. Daily
harvests for the rest of the two-week season, Nov. 27-Dec. 8, were similar
to 2006.
"The firearms season's opening day antlerless deer harvest also dropped
nearly 50 percent from 2006. However, the antlerless harvest throughout the
remainder of the two-week season increased and, in due course, erased some
of the opening day's harvest shortfall."
Based on past year's results, Rosenberry noted that it wasn't
surprising that the drop in opening day harvests had a larger effect on the
antlered harvest than the antlerless harvest.
"Historically, a majority of the antlered deer harvest occurs on
opening day, whereas the antlerless harvest is typically more evenly
distributed across the entire two weeks," Rosenberry said.
Bureau of Wildlife Management personnel currently are working to
develop antlerless deer license allocation recommendations for the April
Board meeting. Calvin W. DuBrock, Game Commission Bureau of Wildlife
Management director, said that in addition to harvest data, the staff will
be looking at population trend data, deer reproduction data, forest
regeneration data, input from five new Citizen Advisory Committees, and
hunter survey results.
Harvest estimates for 2007-08 seasons are based on 124,569 usable
harvest report cards (40,482 antlered; 84,087 antlerless) returned by
hunters to the Commission and 25,400 deer (7,338 antlered; 18,062
antlerless) examined by Game Commission personnel in the field and at
processors.
For an explanation of the agency's deer harvest estimating procedure,
visit the Game Commission's website (http://www.pgc.state.pa.us), click on "Deer
Program" in the "Quick Clicks" box in the right-hand corner of the
homepage, then scroll down and select "Deer Harvest Estimates" brochure. To
view a peer-reviewed article published in the Journal of Wildlife
Management (2004) about the agency's deer harvest estimating procedure, go
the "Deer Program" section, scroll down and choose "Communication,
Education and Outreach to Citizens," and then select "Reporting rate
variability and precision of white-tailed deer harvest estimates in
Pennsylvania" in the "Science Publications" listing.
Yearling bucks comprised 56 percent of the 2007-08 antlered harvest,
which is the same percentage posted in 2006-07. Button bucks and doe fawns
were 24 percent and 20 percent, respectively, of the antlerless harvest,
and almost identical to 2006-07 season rates.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/2jfunm
Thursday, March 13, 2008
RESEARCH NEWS: Artificial Feeding Endangers Deer Health
It’s difficult to argue with data from sound scientific studies.
Three Wisconsin wildlife biologists have evidence from their studies in Wood County that support a hypothesis that fed deer are more likely to transmit diseases because they have more deer-to-deer contacts when feeding close to one another. Deer may even become aggressive with each other during these situations.
If a deer disease is transmitted through the animal’s digestive tract, deer at a feeding station could become infected with some transmissible diseases without direct contact with another animal.
It shouldn’t matter if the deer are fed so they can be observed or hunted. Whether one calls it feeding or baiting, it’s basically the same as far as deer reactions.
Abbey Thompson, Michael Samuel and Timothy Van Deelen, were all at the University of Wisconsin when the study was conducted during the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 winters.
Data from this study shows that providing shelled corn to deer in troughs, piles or spread over areas, increases deer-to-deer contact rates and also provides many opportunities for indirect contacts, compared to natural browsing.
Supplemental feeding poses risks for both direct and indirect disease transmission due to higher deer concentration and more intensive use of the area, compared to control sites, Van Deelen and his colleagues report in the Journal of Wildlife Management.
In their paper, “Alternative Feeding Strategies and Potential Disease Transmission in Wisconsin White-Tailed Deer,” the researchers make their case that none of the feeding strategies they studied substantially reduced the potential risk for disease transmission. Therefore, they say, banning supplemental feeding is warranted.
Some hunters and politicians have argued that by changing how deer are fed or baited would reduce or eliminate the potential for disease transmission. They suggest that smaller piles, for example, could reduce the chances of transmission.
Not so, Abbey, Samuel and Van Deelen report.
The study was conducted at Sandhill Wildlife Area, near Babcock, Wis., in Wood County. Four upland feeding sites were chosen. Sites, where deer traditionally concentrated during winter, were used as control (no food provided) sites.
Deer populations were 34 and 18 deer per square mile of habitat during 2003-2004 and 2004-2005, respectively.
Six experimental treatments were conducted at each of the four feeding sites, including providing two gallons of shelled corn, replenished daily and unlimited shelled corn, replenished daily.
The feed was offered in three ways — in a pile, spread on the ground and in a trough.
Motion-sensing digital cameras were used to monitor deer using the feeding and control sites.
The researchers studied images, taken at 15 second intervals for 15 minutes, to calculate deer-use minutes, behavioral interactions and distances between deer.
“Deer become more food-stressed and less selective in what they eat from early to late winter and our experiment was designed to balance all these things,” Van Deelen said.
“The upshot is, relative to foraging in a normal winter situation, the different limitations on baiting, such as spreading food, putting it in a pile or in a trough or limiting it to two gallons had very minor impact on reducing deer use minutes over bait sites,” Van Deelen said.
The researchers added another sub-experiment to their study.
“Deer pellets (fecal pellets) from the area were added to the corn to determine if the deer would avoid eating the pellets,” Van Deelen said. “Relative to corn, they were eating about a quarter of the pellets mixed in.”
Van Deelen believes that if corn is on the ground and if the infectious disease is passed through the digestive system of a deer, there is a mechanism for infecting animals over a bait site because deer pellets are consumed by the deer.
Direct contact between deer also provides another mechanism of transmission.
“Abbey demonstrated that fecal-oral transmission can occur in a wild setting,” Van Deelen said. “On the other hand, when deer are eating browse, held aloft and not replaced during the winter, the transmission mechanism is not there.”
The researchers believe banning feeding and baiting statewide makes sense.
“Why would you place a mechanism of disease transmission out among healthy deer, when there is one area generating infected deer?” Van Deelen said. “If you want to protect a deer herd, a ban on baiting and feeding makes sense in the presence of chronic wasting disease and tuberculosis.”
Source: http://www.rivervalleynewspapers.com/articles/2008/03/13/outdoors/01davis.txt
Three Wisconsin wildlife biologists have evidence from their studies in Wood County that support a hypothesis that fed deer are more likely to transmit diseases because they have more deer-to-deer contacts when feeding close to one another. Deer may even become aggressive with each other during these situations.
If a deer disease is transmitted through the animal’s digestive tract, deer at a feeding station could become infected with some transmissible diseases without direct contact with another animal.
It shouldn’t matter if the deer are fed so they can be observed or hunted. Whether one calls it feeding or baiting, it’s basically the same as far as deer reactions.
Abbey Thompson, Michael Samuel and Timothy Van Deelen, were all at the University of Wisconsin when the study was conducted during the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 winters.
Data from this study shows that providing shelled corn to deer in troughs, piles or spread over areas, increases deer-to-deer contact rates and also provides many opportunities for indirect contacts, compared to natural browsing.
Supplemental feeding poses risks for both direct and indirect disease transmission due to higher deer concentration and more intensive use of the area, compared to control sites, Van Deelen and his colleagues report in the Journal of Wildlife Management.
In their paper, “Alternative Feeding Strategies and Potential Disease Transmission in Wisconsin White-Tailed Deer,” the researchers make their case that none of the feeding strategies they studied substantially reduced the potential risk for disease transmission. Therefore, they say, banning supplemental feeding is warranted.
Some hunters and politicians have argued that by changing how deer are fed or baited would reduce or eliminate the potential for disease transmission. They suggest that smaller piles, for example, could reduce the chances of transmission.
Not so, Abbey, Samuel and Van Deelen report.
The study was conducted at Sandhill Wildlife Area, near Babcock, Wis., in Wood County. Four upland feeding sites were chosen. Sites, where deer traditionally concentrated during winter, were used as control (no food provided) sites.
Deer populations were 34 and 18 deer per square mile of habitat during 2003-2004 and 2004-2005, respectively.
Six experimental treatments were conducted at each of the four feeding sites, including providing two gallons of shelled corn, replenished daily and unlimited shelled corn, replenished daily.
The feed was offered in three ways — in a pile, spread on the ground and in a trough.
Motion-sensing digital cameras were used to monitor deer using the feeding and control sites.
The researchers studied images, taken at 15 second intervals for 15 minutes, to calculate deer-use minutes, behavioral interactions and distances between deer.
“Deer become more food-stressed and less selective in what they eat from early to late winter and our experiment was designed to balance all these things,” Van Deelen said.
“The upshot is, relative to foraging in a normal winter situation, the different limitations on baiting, such as spreading food, putting it in a pile or in a trough or limiting it to two gallons had very minor impact on reducing deer use minutes over bait sites,” Van Deelen said.
The researchers added another sub-experiment to their study.
“Deer pellets (fecal pellets) from the area were added to the corn to determine if the deer would avoid eating the pellets,” Van Deelen said. “Relative to corn, they were eating about a quarter of the pellets mixed in.”
Van Deelen believes that if corn is on the ground and if the infectious disease is passed through the digestive system of a deer, there is a mechanism for infecting animals over a bait site because deer pellets are consumed by the deer.
Direct contact between deer also provides another mechanism of transmission.
“Abbey demonstrated that fecal-oral transmission can occur in a wild setting,” Van Deelen said. “On the other hand, when deer are eating browse, held aloft and not replaced during the winter, the transmission mechanism is not there.”
The researchers believe banning feeding and baiting statewide makes sense.
“Why would you place a mechanism of disease transmission out among healthy deer, when there is one area generating infected deer?” Van Deelen said. “If you want to protect a deer herd, a ban on baiting and feeding makes sense in the presence of chronic wasting disease and tuberculosis.”
Source: http://www.rivervalleynewspapers.com/articles/2008/03/13/outdoors/01davis.txt
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
WISCONSIN NEWS: 2007 Harvest Third Highest Ever
The 2007 deer hunt turned out to be the third most harvested deer season in Wisconsin history, producing 518,573 deer statewide.
While the state's total deer harvest produced near-record numbers DNR experts say the Headwaters area here in northern Wisconsin was just about average compared to past years.
Last night, hunters from around the Northwoods met with the local DNR to discuss the past year and the upcoming deer season.
The annual meeting is used to exchange information and review what happened last year and how the harvest is going so far this year.
DNR officials say hunter input is vital to determine the status of the state's deer herd.
Ron Eckstein, a local DNR Wildlife Biologist, says, "What hunters tell us is specifics about the exact area where they're hunting. So from their deer stand in that perspective, what they're seeing and what's going on. So you need both perspectives, the broader perspective and the hunter's perspective to put together a season that will harvest a lot of deer and meet our management goals."
Eckstein believes this year's season will be just as good as last and that hunters around the state will again harvest in high numbers.
Source: http://www.wjfw.com/stories.html?sku=20080311230135
While the state's total deer harvest produced near-record numbers DNR experts say the Headwaters area here in northern Wisconsin was just about average compared to past years.
Last night, hunters from around the Northwoods met with the local DNR to discuss the past year and the upcoming deer season.
The annual meeting is used to exchange information and review what happened last year and how the harvest is going so far this year.
DNR officials say hunter input is vital to determine the status of the state's deer herd.
Ron Eckstein, a local DNR Wildlife Biologist, says, "What hunters tell us is specifics about the exact area where they're hunting. So from their deer stand in that perspective, what they're seeing and what's going on. So you need both perspectives, the broader perspective and the hunter's perspective to put together a season that will harvest a lot of deer and meet our management goals."
Eckstein believes this year's season will be just as good as last and that hunters around the state will again harvest in high numbers.
Source: http://www.wjfw.com/stories.html?sku=20080311230135
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
SCOTLAND NEWS: Animal Rights Group Objects to Island of Rum Red Deer Cull
ANIMAL rights activists have attacked Scottish Natural Heritage over a plan to have commercial shooting parties kill deer on a national nature reserve.
The environment quango carries out an annual "maintenance cull" of about 100 of the 1,200 red deer on the island of Rum, which it owns.
However, it is now offering the chance for a qualified stalker to take clients to the island to shoot 40 red deer stags. It is also inviting suggestions as to how a cull of about 50-60 hinds could be carried out independently.
It says the scheme is similar to facilities offered by commercial estates and is part of efforts to encourage economic diversity on the island.
David Maclennan, SNH's area manager for the Western Isles and Rum, said: "A deer cull has to take place. We can do it ourselves at significant cost to the taxpayer, or it can be a viable opportunity that, hopefully, businesses can benefit from."
SNH will provide the use of ponies and other equipment to remove shot deer from the hill and the use of the organisation's own larder facilities on the island.
But anti-hunting lobbyists Advocates for Animals have described the scheme as shocking. A spokesman said: "I am sure the public would be shocked to learn that the killing of deer for sport and financial gain in a national nature reserve is being promoted in this manner.
"Encouraging people to pay to come and shoot our deer for entertainment is contradictory to ethical forms of eco-tourism such as wildlife watching and photography."
He added: "Shooting must only be undertaken as a last resort and then by fully trained and competent marksmen."
Source: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Fury-at-shooting-parties-on.3862861.jp
The environment quango carries out an annual "maintenance cull" of about 100 of the 1,200 red deer on the island of Rum, which it owns.
However, it is now offering the chance for a qualified stalker to take clients to the island to shoot 40 red deer stags. It is also inviting suggestions as to how a cull of about 50-60 hinds could be carried out independently.
It says the scheme is similar to facilities offered by commercial estates and is part of efforts to encourage economic diversity on the island.
David Maclennan, SNH's area manager for the Western Isles and Rum, said: "A deer cull has to take place. We can do it ourselves at significant cost to the taxpayer, or it can be a viable opportunity that, hopefully, businesses can benefit from."
SNH will provide the use of ponies and other equipment to remove shot deer from the hill and the use of the organisation's own larder facilities on the island.
But anti-hunting lobbyists Advocates for Animals have described the scheme as shocking. A spokesman said: "I am sure the public would be shocked to learn that the killing of deer for sport and financial gain in a national nature reserve is being promoted in this manner.
"Encouraging people to pay to come and shoot our deer for entertainment is contradictory to ethical forms of eco-tourism such as wildlife watching and photography."
He added: "Shooting must only be undertaken as a last resort and then by fully trained and competent marksmen."
Source: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Fury-at-shooting-parties-on.3862861.jp
AUSTRALIA NEWS: Population Explosion of Exotic Deer In Snowy Mountains
The National Parks and Wildlife Service says there has been an "explosion" of feral deer numbers in the Snowy Mountains.
Snowy Mountains region area manager, Pam O'Brien, says many of the deer have come over the border from Victoria or been released from farms.
She says the deer can devastate native flora and the parks and wildlife service has set up cameras to monitor them as it works out how to address the problem.
"There's always been deer around in very small numbers and in very small groups, but at the moment we're seeing them throughout the park in all of the different vegetation communities," she said.
"They're even moving higher up in elevation and up above the tree line."
She says remote cameras have been set up in the national park to monitor deer numbers.
"The deer will often be in the timbered areas, but then they'll come out onto private property to graze at night," she said.
"So one of the areas that we're looking for in the near future is working with the Rural Land Protection Board and neighbouring land owners that are having a problem with deer."
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/11/2185909.htm
Snowy Mountains region area manager, Pam O'Brien, says many of the deer have come over the border from Victoria or been released from farms.
She says the deer can devastate native flora and the parks and wildlife service has set up cameras to monitor them as it works out how to address the problem.
"There's always been deer around in very small numbers and in very small groups, but at the moment we're seeing them throughout the park in all of the different vegetation communities," she said.
"They're even moving higher up in elevation and up above the tree line."
She says remote cameras have been set up in the national park to monitor deer numbers.
"The deer will often be in the timbered areas, but then they'll come out onto private property to graze at night," she said.
"So one of the areas that we're looking for in the near future is working with the Rural Land Protection Board and neighbouring land owners that are having a problem with deer."
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/11/2185909.htm
Monday, March 10, 2008
UK NEWS: MP Outrage Over Deer Cull, Translocation Alternative Encouraged
Nearly 1,200 deer have been culled in Richmond Park in the past six years, figures show.
The revelation has prompted calls for the Royal Parks Agency not to shoot so many of their red and fallow deer as part of the management of the herd and instead relocate the animals.
The number of deer shot has risen from 168 in 2002 to at least 237 in the current cull, which ends on Thursday.
Those which are shot include young animals, elderly beasts and those with imperfections which could lead to birth defects in future generations.
Today, Richmond Park Liberal Democrat MP Susan Kramer said she was shocked by how many deer were being killed. She said: "In my mind I have always thought it was a fairly limited number of elderly deer.
"It would be nice if people could see if there was an alternative, where the deer could be removed or relocated.
"We would all be much more relieved if there was a way of managing this without requiring a major cull."
Sian Berry, the Green candidate for London Mayor, backed the cull but was concerned that carrying it out at night may not be the most humane way to thin out the herd. She said: "It may be done to spare the public the spectacle but it may not be the best way to ensure you target the correct animals and that it is the least cruel and clean way."
The Royal Parks Agency said the aim of the deer culling in Richmond Park was to keep the population at about 650 for "optimum deer welfare". Currently, there are 300 red and 350 fallow deer.
A spokeswoman said: "The current stocking densities have been determined by scientific study and on the advice of experts. If we did not limit the size of the herd then there would not be enough food available for the deer.
"If populations were not controlled then there would be welfare issues with the herd such as low body fat, malnutrition and high incidence of death from exposure to cold in winter."
Rejecting the idea of closing the park for a daytime cull, she added: "The cull is carried out in a humane way by highly-skilled staff with many years of experience."
The spokeswoman said the deer could not be relocated into the wild and tranquilising and moving them would be "stressful" for the animals.
The park's red and fallow population peaked in 1985 at about 1,000 head of deer. A further, 366 deer have been killed in Bushy Park, near Hampton Court, since 2002.
Deer have been kept in London's royal parks since medieval times when they were hunted.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/yuresj
The revelation has prompted calls for the Royal Parks Agency not to shoot so many of their red and fallow deer as part of the management of the herd and instead relocate the animals.
The number of deer shot has risen from 168 in 2002 to at least 237 in the current cull, which ends on Thursday.
Those which are shot include young animals, elderly beasts and those with imperfections which could lead to birth defects in future generations.
Today, Richmond Park Liberal Democrat MP Susan Kramer said she was shocked by how many deer were being killed. She said: "In my mind I have always thought it was a fairly limited number of elderly deer.
"It would be nice if people could see if there was an alternative, where the deer could be removed or relocated.
"We would all be much more relieved if there was a way of managing this without requiring a major cull."
Sian Berry, the Green candidate for London Mayor, backed the cull but was concerned that carrying it out at night may not be the most humane way to thin out the herd. She said: "It may be done to spare the public the spectacle but it may not be the best way to ensure you target the correct animals and that it is the least cruel and clean way."
The Royal Parks Agency said the aim of the deer culling in Richmond Park was to keep the population at about 650 for "optimum deer welfare". Currently, there are 300 red and 350 fallow deer.
A spokeswoman said: "The current stocking densities have been determined by scientific study and on the advice of experts. If we did not limit the size of the herd then there would not be enough food available for the deer.
"If populations were not controlled then there would be welfare issues with the herd such as low body fat, malnutrition and high incidence of death from exposure to cold in winter."
Rejecting the idea of closing the park for a daytime cull, she added: "The cull is carried out in a humane way by highly-skilled staff with many years of experience."
The spokeswoman said the deer could not be relocated into the wild and tranquilising and moving them would be "stressful" for the animals.
The park's red and fallow population peaked in 1985 at about 1,000 head of deer. A further, 366 deer have been killed in Bushy Park, near Hampton Court, since 2002.
Deer have been kept in London's royal parks since medieval times when they were hunted.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/yuresj
NEW HAMPSHIRE NEWS: 2007 Biggest Deer Harvest in 40 Years
CONCORD — New Hampshire's estimated 2007 hunter harvest of 13,416 deer was the highest in recent years and, when verified and finalized, will likely result in the highest "official" harvest in forty years (since 1967, when 14,204 deer were taken).
The preliminary 2007 results represent a 14 percent increase over last year's (2006) final tally of 11,766 deer. The deer hunting season closed in the state on Dec. 15, the final day of archery deer season.
"It is noteworthy that the 2007 harvest was the highest deer harvest in four decades," said Kent Gustafson, deer project leader at the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. "The increase for 2007 is the fourth year in a row that the kill has gone up, reflecting recent mild winters that have been easier for deer to survive and widespread late-season snow this year, which made it easier for hunters to find and see deer."
New Hampshire has an estimated population of about 90,000 deer. The 2007 fall harvest of about 15 percent of the herd is in line with objectives outlined in the state's 10-year Big Game Management Plan, according to Gustafson.
Final official numbers from the 2007 hunting seasons, including detailed analysis of the sex, age and distribution on a Wildlife Management Unit basis, will be available in the 2007 New Hampshire Wildlife Harvest Summary, which will be published in late March or early April of 2008 and posted on this website.
The successful 2007 deer hunting season is a reminder that hunting activities are a significant contributor to New Hampshire's economy — according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, more than 60,000 people hunted in New Hampshire in 2006, generating more than $80 million of hunting-related expenditures in the state.
Source: http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080308/NEWS22/745371342/-1/FOSSPORTS
The preliminary 2007 results represent a 14 percent increase over last year's (2006) final tally of 11,766 deer. The deer hunting season closed in the state on Dec. 15, the final day of archery deer season.
"It is noteworthy that the 2007 harvest was the highest deer harvest in four decades," said Kent Gustafson, deer project leader at the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. "The increase for 2007 is the fourth year in a row that the kill has gone up, reflecting recent mild winters that have been easier for deer to survive and widespread late-season snow this year, which made it easier for hunters to find and see deer."
New Hampshire has an estimated population of about 90,000 deer. The 2007 fall harvest of about 15 percent of the herd is in line with objectives outlined in the state's 10-year Big Game Management Plan, according to Gustafson.
Final official numbers from the 2007 hunting seasons, including detailed analysis of the sex, age and distribution on a Wildlife Management Unit basis, will be available in the 2007 New Hampshire Wildlife Harvest Summary, which will be published in late March or early April of 2008 and posted on this website.
The successful 2007 deer hunting season is a reminder that hunting activities are a significant contributor to New Hampshire's economy — according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, more than 60,000 people hunted in New Hampshire in 2006, generating more than $80 million of hunting-related expenditures in the state.
Source: http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080308/NEWS22/745371342/-1/FOSSPORTS
Friday, March 07, 2008
ALBERTA NEWS: Opposition to CWD Cull
A rising body count has fuelled protests by Provost-area residents against a government deer cull designed to stop the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD).
The latest pictures, snapped Feb. 28 16 km north of Provost (292 km southeast of Edmonton) by Duane Morrell, a member of the Provost and District Fish and Game Association, show the grim reality of the systematic killing.
Bloody deer carcasses litter the snow-covered fields. A helicopter carries the bodies, dangling by cables, to an eight-metre deep pit.
Their heads removed for testing, but their meat and hides unharvested, scores of deer are stacked up along the bottom of the trench.
"After following the helicopter around and witnessing the amount of deer harvested on the 28th, there is no possible way that the deer could be processed in the four-hour time period allowed by the government, leading to the disposal of mass quantities of meat that any hunter would face charges for," Morrell said.
Dave Schmidt explained that association members consider the cull to be overkill - taking a high number of animals for the number of deer testing positive for the disease - and resent the province's methods and the cost of the cull.
But he adds that a protest campaign targeting the current minister of Sustainable Resource Development, Ted Morton, is helping publicize their concerns.
"We're just trying to offer ways and means of doing what they're doing," he said. "But legally and hunteresque-ly and, of course, with all of the meat getting used."
While Morton was unavailable to comment yesterday, in a letter in the Provost News last month he described the cull as a tough but necessary measure to stop the spread of CWD from Saskatchewan.
"Once the program and the testing of the animals are completed, we plan to hold public open houses to share the results of this effort," he said.
Department spokesman Darcy Whiteside said the cull has turned up three positive cases of CWD this year, with seven pending.
And while he couldn't give a total of deer killed, he said some two-thirds of the meat and hides are harvested.
Source: http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2008/03/07/4937126-sun.html
The latest pictures, snapped Feb. 28 16 km north of Provost (292 km southeast of Edmonton) by Duane Morrell, a member of the Provost and District Fish and Game Association, show the grim reality of the systematic killing.
Bloody deer carcasses litter the snow-covered fields. A helicopter carries the bodies, dangling by cables, to an eight-metre deep pit.
Their heads removed for testing, but their meat and hides unharvested, scores of deer are stacked up along the bottom of the trench.
"After following the helicopter around and witnessing the amount of deer harvested on the 28th, there is no possible way that the deer could be processed in the four-hour time period allowed by the government, leading to the disposal of mass quantities of meat that any hunter would face charges for," Morrell said.
Dave Schmidt explained that association members consider the cull to be overkill - taking a high number of animals for the number of deer testing positive for the disease - and resent the province's methods and the cost of the cull.
But he adds that a protest campaign targeting the current minister of Sustainable Resource Development, Ted Morton, is helping publicize their concerns.
"We're just trying to offer ways and means of doing what they're doing," he said. "But legally and hunteresque-ly and, of course, with all of the meat getting used."
While Morton was unavailable to comment yesterday, in a letter in the Provost News last month he described the cull as a tough but necessary measure to stop the spread of CWD from Saskatchewan.
"Once the program and the testing of the animals are completed, we plan to hold public open houses to share the results of this effort," he said.
Department spokesman Darcy Whiteside said the cull has turned up three positive cases of CWD this year, with seven pending.
And while he couldn't give a total of deer killed, he said some two-thirds of the meat and hides are harvested.
Source: http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2008/03/07/4937126-sun.html
MICHIGAN NEWS: Bovine TB Found In Deer Beyond Containment Zone
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has confirmed that a deer harvested late in the hunting season last year in Shiawassee County, just north of Livingston County, tested positive for bovine tuberculosis.
Whether that indicates the disease has spread to this part of the state is unclear, although DNR veterinarian Dan O'Brien said such cases rarely occur in isolation.
To determine that, the DNR will test all cattle herds within a 10-mile radius of where the Shiawassee County deer was found, as well as other deer in the area. The cattle tests should be complete within six months. Animals that the tests indicate may have TB will have to be killed for further testing. The majority of deer tests will be performed during the fall hunting season.
Originally a cattle disease, bovine tuberculosis is one of three types of TB, according to the DNR's Web site. The bovine strain can infect most mammals, though transmission to humans is rare.
The DNR has known about bovine TB infections in the Michigan deer population for more than a decade, O'Brien said. Since the disease was found in wild deer in 1994, the DNR has conducted a program to control or eradicate the disease. The core area where bovine TB cases have been found is in the northeastern Lower Peninsula counties of Montmorency, Alpena, Oscoda and Alcona. Animals have tested positive for bovine TB in Antrim, Crawford, Emmet, Iosco, Mecosta, Osceola, Otsego, Presque Isle and Roscommon counties.
The TB-positive deer killed near Owosso in December more than 100 miles south of the area known as Michigan's "TB Zone."
It is too early to know whether the infection has spread.
"We'll certainly know more once we complete our surveillance testing," O'Brien said. He said it is possible the deer may have been brought to the county from the northeastern part of the state by a person.
Tuberculosis in deer is a concern for farmers as well as hunters. Once infected, deer can spread the disease to previously uninfected cattle. A bovine TB infection in a cattle herd can affect a farmer's ability to sell the cattle.
The DNR does not recommend eating animals that show signs of tuberculosis. Hunters should look for abscesses inside the rib cage or on lung tissue as a sign of TB when they field-dress their deer.
Because animals in the early stages of a TB infection do not display symptoms visible to the naked eye, thoroughly cooking meat to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit is the best way to kill the bacteria.
"Anybody who's adequately cooked their meat shouldn't have any problems," O'Brien said.
Hunters who believe they may have found a deer infected with TB should call the Department of Agriculture at (517) 336-5030. Those who wish to have their deer tested for TB during hunting season can drop their deer's heads off at an DNR check station.
To reduce the risk of TB infection while harvesting deer, O'Brien recommends hunters wear rubber gloves when gutting deer. One of the biggest risks of bovine TB infection for hunters is cutting themselves while processing their deer.
If you believe you may have been exposed to bovine TB or cut yourself while harvesting your deer, O'Brien recommends consulting a physician.
Source: http://www.dailypressandargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080306/NEWS01/803060317/1002/NEWS01
Whether that indicates the disease has spread to this part of the state is unclear, although DNR veterinarian Dan O'Brien said such cases rarely occur in isolation.
To determine that, the DNR will test all cattle herds within a 10-mile radius of where the Shiawassee County deer was found, as well as other deer in the area. The cattle tests should be complete within six months. Animals that the tests indicate may have TB will have to be killed for further testing. The majority of deer tests will be performed during the fall hunting season.
Originally a cattle disease, bovine tuberculosis is one of three types of TB, according to the DNR's Web site. The bovine strain can infect most mammals, though transmission to humans is rare.
The DNR has known about bovine TB infections in the Michigan deer population for more than a decade, O'Brien said. Since the disease was found in wild deer in 1994, the DNR has conducted a program to control or eradicate the disease. The core area where bovine TB cases have been found is in the northeastern Lower Peninsula counties of Montmorency, Alpena, Oscoda and Alcona. Animals have tested positive for bovine TB in Antrim, Crawford, Emmet, Iosco, Mecosta, Osceola, Otsego, Presque Isle and Roscommon counties.
The TB-positive deer killed near Owosso in December more than 100 miles south of the area known as Michigan's "TB Zone."
It is too early to know whether the infection has spread.
"We'll certainly know more once we complete our surveillance testing," O'Brien said. He said it is possible the deer may have been brought to the county from the northeastern part of the state by a person.
Tuberculosis in deer is a concern for farmers as well as hunters. Once infected, deer can spread the disease to previously uninfected cattle. A bovine TB infection in a cattle herd can affect a farmer's ability to sell the cattle.
The DNR does not recommend eating animals that show signs of tuberculosis. Hunters should look for abscesses inside the rib cage or on lung tissue as a sign of TB when they field-dress their deer.
Because animals in the early stages of a TB infection do not display symptoms visible to the naked eye, thoroughly cooking meat to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit is the best way to kill the bacteria.
"Anybody who's adequately cooked their meat shouldn't have any problems," O'Brien said.
Hunters who believe they may have found a deer infected with TB should call the Department of Agriculture at (517) 336-5030. Those who wish to have their deer tested for TB during hunting season can drop their deer's heads off at an DNR check station.
To reduce the risk of TB infection while harvesting deer, O'Brien recommends hunters wear rubber gloves when gutting deer. One of the biggest risks of bovine TB infection for hunters is cutting themselves while processing their deer.
If you believe you may have been exposed to bovine TB or cut yourself while harvesting your deer, O'Brien recommends consulting a physician.
Source: http://www.dailypressandargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080306/NEWS01/803060317/1002/NEWS01
INDIANA NEWS: A Near-Record Deer Havest in 2007
A viral disease reportedly affecting white-tailed deer appeared to have a minimal impact on the 2007 hunting seasons in Indiana, the Department of Natural Resources said.
According to a statement released today, hunters harvested 124,427 deer, compared to 125,381, a decrease of less than 1 percent.
“The big thing for me was that number,” said Chad Stewart, deer research biologist for the DNR. “We were guessing the harvest was going to be down a lot more than it was this year.”
A widespread outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), a viral disease transmitted by biting flies, led researchers to expect a significant drop year over year. Instead, the statement said, hunters recorded the third-best season on record in 2007 and were within 1,000 deer of the all-time mark of 125,526 set in 2005.
“That’s not to say (EHD) didn’t affect harvests in some parts of the state,” Stewart said. “The southwestern part of the state had a noticeable drop in harvest level, but that seems to have been made up elsewhere in the state.”
The central and west-central parts of Indiana both recorded good numbers. “Where EHD affected counties like Clay, Fountain, Parke, Putnam, Sullivan, and Vermillion in 2006, (numbers) all bounced back in a big way in 2007,” Stewart said. “In most cases, antlered harvests were up to 2005 levels.”
That’s potentially good news for counties like Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Martin, Pike, Spencer, and Crawford, where harvest levels dropped at least 20 percent from 2006, Stewart said, since deer which survive EHD exhibit an immune response that can be passed on to their young, providing protection if the disease occurs in the next year.
Other highlights of the 2007 season include hunters’ success in harvesting female deer in the latter part of the firearms season and the muzzleloader season, which Stewart said plays an important role in controlling deer populations.
“Antlerless deer are shot at a two-to-one margin over the last nine days of the firearms season, and 80 percent of the harvest during the muzzleloader season is antlerless, with the majority of those being does,” Stewart said. “Without those efforts, the deer herds in some areas could rise dramatically.”
A total of 1,275 deer were harvested in Porter County last year: 530 antlered and 745 antlerless.
Source: http://www.chestertontribune.com/Environment/373%20hoosier_hunters_take_124427_deer.htm
According to a statement released today, hunters harvested 124,427 deer, compared to 125,381, a decrease of less than 1 percent.
“The big thing for me was that number,” said Chad Stewart, deer research biologist for the DNR. “We were guessing the harvest was going to be down a lot more than it was this year.”
A widespread outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD), a viral disease transmitted by biting flies, led researchers to expect a significant drop year over year. Instead, the statement said, hunters recorded the third-best season on record in 2007 and were within 1,000 deer of the all-time mark of 125,526 set in 2005.
“That’s not to say (EHD) didn’t affect harvests in some parts of the state,” Stewart said. “The southwestern part of the state had a noticeable drop in harvest level, but that seems to have been made up elsewhere in the state.”
The central and west-central parts of Indiana both recorded good numbers. “Where EHD affected counties like Clay, Fountain, Parke, Putnam, Sullivan, and Vermillion in 2006, (numbers) all bounced back in a big way in 2007,” Stewart said. “In most cases, antlered harvests were up to 2005 levels.”
That’s potentially good news for counties like Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Martin, Pike, Spencer, and Crawford, where harvest levels dropped at least 20 percent from 2006, Stewart said, since deer which survive EHD exhibit an immune response that can be passed on to their young, providing protection if the disease occurs in the next year.
Other highlights of the 2007 season include hunters’ success in harvesting female deer in the latter part of the firearms season and the muzzleloader season, which Stewart said plays an important role in controlling deer populations.
“Antlerless deer are shot at a two-to-one margin over the last nine days of the firearms season, and 80 percent of the harvest during the muzzleloader season is antlerless, with the majority of those being does,” Stewart said. “Without those efforts, the deer herds in some areas could rise dramatically.”
A total of 1,275 deer were harvested in Porter County last year: 530 antlered and 745 antlerless.
Source: http://www.chestertontribune.com/Environment/373%20hoosier_hunters_take_124427_deer.htm
Friday, February 29, 2008
NEW JERSEY NEWS: South Mountain Cull Over, 67 Deer Per Square Mile Killed
Essex County's South Mountain Reservation has 213 fewer deer after a monthlong hunt that ended today.
With no safety or security problems reported during the length of the hunt, county officials said they were pleased with the first year's results.
Since Jan. 29, a dozen volunteer sharpshooters have worked from tree stands at stations throughout the reservation to curb the deer population. The hunt took place on Tuesdays and Thursdays, though it was shortened from 10 days to 8½ because of inclement weather and the Presidents Day holiday.
"This program was a huge success," said Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo. "We are 12 years too late. (If we had started 12 years ago), we would not have the problem we have today."
Sharpshooters exceeded the county's goal of culling 150 deer from the 2,047-acre park two weeks ago. County leaders and environmental groups say the deer have overpopulated the park, ruined its underbrush and are a nuisance for drivers and residents living nearby.
Dan Bernier, a consultant hired from Union County to oversee the hunt, said each of the animals killed was checked for age and gender to learn more about the population of the South Mountain herd. Yesterday, 22 deer were killed. One male and three females were killed in the morning session, and five males and 13 females were killed in the afternoon session.
Of the 213 animals killed over the course of the hunt, 88 were male and 125 were female. Nearly all of the does were pregnant, some with twins. Bernier estimated the culling prevented an additional 125 deer from being born in the reservation.
Though the county executive acknowledged he'd gotten phone calls and letters from residents and deer activists objecting to the hunt, he said the hunt wasn't something he wanted to do, it was something that had to be done.
The county executive estimated the cost of the hunt at just under $60,000, factoring in Bernier's contract, overtime for sheriff's deputies and park employees and the cost of butchering the animals. The venison -- estimated at more than 15,000 pounds -- was donated to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey.
DiVincenzo said he planned to bring the marksmen back to South Mountain, which stretches through South Orange, Maplewood, Millburn and West Orange, and to other parks in the future.
"There's a major problem in the entire county," DiVincenzo said. "I plan to expand it next year."
Source: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/essex_hunt_culls_213_deer_from.html
With no safety or security problems reported during the length of the hunt, county officials said they were pleased with the first year's results.
Since Jan. 29, a dozen volunteer sharpshooters have worked from tree stands at stations throughout the reservation to curb the deer population. The hunt took place on Tuesdays and Thursdays, though it was shortened from 10 days to 8½ because of inclement weather and the Presidents Day holiday.
"This program was a huge success," said Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo. "We are 12 years too late. (If we had started 12 years ago), we would not have the problem we have today."
Sharpshooters exceeded the county's goal of culling 150 deer from the 2,047-acre park two weeks ago. County leaders and environmental groups say the deer have overpopulated the park, ruined its underbrush and are a nuisance for drivers and residents living nearby.
Dan Bernier, a consultant hired from Union County to oversee the hunt, said each of the animals killed was checked for age and gender to learn more about the population of the South Mountain herd. Yesterday, 22 deer were killed. One male and three females were killed in the morning session, and five males and 13 females were killed in the afternoon session.
Of the 213 animals killed over the course of the hunt, 88 were male and 125 were female. Nearly all of the does were pregnant, some with twins. Bernier estimated the culling prevented an additional 125 deer from being born in the reservation.
Though the county executive acknowledged he'd gotten phone calls and letters from residents and deer activists objecting to the hunt, he said the hunt wasn't something he wanted to do, it was something that had to be done.
The county executive estimated the cost of the hunt at just under $60,000, factoring in Bernier's contract, overtime for sheriff's deputies and park employees and the cost of butchering the animals. The venison -- estimated at more than 15,000 pounds -- was donated to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey.
DiVincenzo said he planned to bring the marksmen back to South Mountain, which stretches through South Orange, Maplewood, Millburn and West Orange, and to other parks in the future.
"There's a major problem in the entire county," DiVincenzo said. "I plan to expand it next year."
Source: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/essex_hunt_culls_213_deer_from.html
TEXAS NEWS: Over 300 Deer Per Square Mile at Kerrville Schreiner Park--Officials Consider "Doing Something About It"
The white-tailed deer population in Kerrville Schreiner Park has grown too big, prompting the city to consider taking actions.
Options include managed hunts for bowhunters, relocating spikes and does elsewhere in the state, and/or trapping deer and having them processed for meat.
The park’s deer capacity is 65. “Sixty-five is a stretch for us, and we’re at 300 right now,” said Kristine Ondrias, the city’s director of general services.
The 38 “exotics” and buck deer in the park would be left alone, she told the Kerrville City Council on Tuesday.
According to Mike Krueger, district leader for the Edwards Plateau Wildlife District of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, the deer have overgrazed the park’s 517 acres, leaving insufficient vegetation or habitat.
Ondrias said deformities are showing up in the deer herd, such as mutated hind quarters and curved hooves, and species are “getting smaller and smaller.”
She said vehicular accidents involving deer along highways near the park are a problem, as are aggressive deer during the breeding season.
Property owners in the Oak Hollow and Riverhills areas have complained.
The goal of the wildlife management program is to restore the balance of the park system and manage a healthy population of deer.
“The public won’t notice much at all,” Ondrias said of a reduced deer herd, “just that we have healthier, bigger deer.”
The managed hunts for bowhunters — the least cost intensive scenario for the city — would be offered three days in December. Qualifying individuals would have to attend a bowhunters education course.
Councilman Chuck Coleman asked about managed hunts in the park at other times of the year. Ondrias said they would be a possibility through special TPWD permits.
Another option for controlling the deer population is for the city is to replace 17,000 feet of fence in Kerrville Schreiner Park, which Krueger advocates, to “knock down the population of deer.” But the taller fence would cost about $350,000.
Ondrias said hiring a professional to trap and transport the deer would cost $40,000 or $150 per deer. She said the city should go after grants available for trapping and releasing deer.
The drawback of relocating deer is that the process is stressful on the animals and up to 60 percent of them don’t survive the relocation process, Ondrias said.
She said meat from deer trapped in the park and then “processed” or killed, would be distributed to charities in Kerr County.
The council is to consider a resolution endorsing city staff’s recommendations at its March 11 meeting.
Source: http://stories.dailytimes.com/story.lasso?ewcd=d1963816767f3eb9
Options include managed hunts for bowhunters, relocating spikes and does elsewhere in the state, and/or trapping deer and having them processed for meat.
The park’s deer capacity is 65. “Sixty-five is a stretch for us, and we’re at 300 right now,” said Kristine Ondrias, the city’s director of general services.
The 38 “exotics” and buck deer in the park would be left alone, she told the Kerrville City Council on Tuesday.
According to Mike Krueger, district leader for the Edwards Plateau Wildlife District of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, the deer have overgrazed the park’s 517 acres, leaving insufficient vegetation or habitat.
Ondrias said deformities are showing up in the deer herd, such as mutated hind quarters and curved hooves, and species are “getting smaller and smaller.”
She said vehicular accidents involving deer along highways near the park are a problem, as are aggressive deer during the breeding season.
Property owners in the Oak Hollow and Riverhills areas have complained.
The goal of the wildlife management program is to restore the balance of the park system and manage a healthy population of deer.
“The public won’t notice much at all,” Ondrias said of a reduced deer herd, “just that we have healthier, bigger deer.”
The managed hunts for bowhunters — the least cost intensive scenario for the city — would be offered three days in December. Qualifying individuals would have to attend a bowhunters education course.
Councilman Chuck Coleman asked about managed hunts in the park at other times of the year. Ondrias said they would be a possibility through special TPWD permits.
Another option for controlling the deer population is for the city is to replace 17,000 feet of fence in Kerrville Schreiner Park, which Krueger advocates, to “knock down the population of deer.” But the taller fence would cost about $350,000.
Ondrias said hiring a professional to trap and transport the deer would cost $40,000 or $150 per deer. She said the city should go after grants available for trapping and releasing deer.
The drawback of relocating deer is that the process is stressful on the animals and up to 60 percent of them don’t survive the relocation process, Ondrias said.
She said meat from deer trapped in the park and then “processed” or killed, would be distributed to charities in Kerr County.
The council is to consider a resolution endorsing city staff’s recommendations at its March 11 meeting.
Source: http://stories.dailytimes.com/story.lasso?ewcd=d1963816767f3eb9
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
MINNESOTA NEWS: Deer Harvest 4th Largest Ever
Slightly more than 260,000 deer were harvested by Minnesota hunters during 2007, the fourth-highest deer harvest ever recorded, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Lou Cornicelli, DNR big game program coordinator, said "Once again, Minnesota deer hunters enjoyed another great deer season. The last five years have yielded the top five harvests ever recorded."
Before 2003, Minnesota hunters never had killed 250,000 deer in any one season. During the last five years, he said, total deer harvest exceeded that each year.
Nearly 500,000 deer hunters enjoyed long seasons and liberal bag limits.
Firearms hunters harvested 224,250 deer while archery and muzzleloader hunters harvested 24,200 and 12,000 deer respectively.
During the early antlerless season, which was expanded to 23 areas in 2007, hunters tagged 7,166 deer.
Overall, the statewide firearms harvest was down 2 percent, archery was 4 percent lower and muzzleloader harvest decreased 11 percent from 2006.
Cornicelli said the declines likely were caused by management changes that reduced the number of deer that could be taken in some areas.
A final report, which includes more detailed harvest information, will be available online at mndnr.gov/hunting/deer.
For the 2008 season, the deadline for the either-sex permit application is Thursday, Sept. 4. Archery deer hunting will begin Sept. 13.
The early antlerless deer season will be the weekend of Oct. 11-12. The statewide firearms deer hunting season will open on Nov. 8. The muzzleloader season will open Nov. 29.
Source: http://www.newrichmond-news.com/articles/index.cfm?id=9591§ion=Outdoor%20News&property_id=27
Lou Cornicelli, DNR big game program coordinator, said "Once again, Minnesota deer hunters enjoyed another great deer season. The last five years have yielded the top five harvests ever recorded."
Before 2003, Minnesota hunters never had killed 250,000 deer in any one season. During the last five years, he said, total deer harvest exceeded that each year.
Nearly 500,000 deer hunters enjoyed long seasons and liberal bag limits.
Firearms hunters harvested 224,250 deer while archery and muzzleloader hunters harvested 24,200 and 12,000 deer respectively.
During the early antlerless season, which was expanded to 23 areas in 2007, hunters tagged 7,166 deer.
Overall, the statewide firearms harvest was down 2 percent, archery was 4 percent lower and muzzleloader harvest decreased 11 percent from 2006.
Cornicelli said the declines likely were caused by management changes that reduced the number of deer that could be taken in some areas.
A final report, which includes more detailed harvest information, will be available online at mndnr.gov/hunting/deer.
For the 2008 season, the deadline for the either-sex permit application is Thursday, Sept. 4. Archery deer hunting will begin Sept. 13.
The early antlerless deer season will be the weekend of Oct. 11-12. The statewide firearms deer hunting season will open on Nov. 8. The muzzleloader season will open Nov. 29.
Source: http://www.newrichmond-news.com/articles/index.cfm?id=9591§ion=Outdoor%20News&property_id=27
WISCONSIN NEWS: Winter Sports Deer Impacts
Thanks OB for sending this me this story on deer impacts, literally.
A Lomira man was critically injured early Sunday when his snowmobile struck a deer in the Town of Lomira, bringing to at least seven the number of people injured in snowmobile accidents across the state over the weekend.
Ted S. Curtis, 36, was taken by his wife to St. Agnes Hospital in Fond du Lac, according to the Dodge County Sheriff's Department. He was in critical condition Sunday, a hospital spokeswoman said. The accident happened about 3:40 a.m. on County Highway H.
In the Town of Hubbard, in Dodge County, four people, including two children, were injured when two snowmobiles collided head-on about 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
A 37-year-old Iron Ridge man was operating his snowmobile with his 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter aboard when he crested a hill and crashed into a snowmobile, according to Dodge County authorities. The second vehicle was operated by a 38-year-old Iron Ridge man, the only one of the four wearing a helmet.
The 37-year-old man and his daughter were airlifted to a hospital.
In Marathon County, a deputy suffered minor injuries early Saturday morning when he was run over by an intoxicated snowmobiler.
The Sheriff's Department had received a call about 3 a.m. of three men who were acting suspiciously at a bar and refusing to leave. When deputies responded, one person fled on a snowmobile.
On Friday, a Sawyer County sheriff's deputy struck a snowmobile that swerved in front of her patrol car as she was responding to a domestic disturbance report about 6:30 p.m. A 50-year-old Minnesota man on the snowmobile suffered a broken leg. The deputy suffered a minor wrist injury.
Source: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=721531
A Lomira man was critically injured early Sunday when his snowmobile struck a deer in the Town of Lomira, bringing to at least seven the number of people injured in snowmobile accidents across the state over the weekend.
Ted S. Curtis, 36, was taken by his wife to St. Agnes Hospital in Fond du Lac, according to the Dodge County Sheriff's Department. He was in critical condition Sunday, a hospital spokeswoman said. The accident happened about 3:40 a.m. on County Highway H.
In the Town of Hubbard, in Dodge County, four people, including two children, were injured when two snowmobiles collided head-on about 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
A 37-year-old Iron Ridge man was operating his snowmobile with his 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter aboard when he crested a hill and crashed into a snowmobile, according to Dodge County authorities. The second vehicle was operated by a 38-year-old Iron Ridge man, the only one of the four wearing a helmet.
The 37-year-old man and his daughter were airlifted to a hospital.
In Marathon County, a deputy suffered minor injuries early Saturday morning when he was run over by an intoxicated snowmobiler.
The Sheriff's Department had received a call about 3 a.m. of three men who were acting suspiciously at a bar and refusing to leave. When deputies responded, one person fled on a snowmobile.
On Friday, a Sawyer County sheriff's deputy struck a snowmobile that swerved in front of her patrol car as she was responding to a domestic disturbance report about 6:30 p.m. A 50-year-old Minnesota man on the snowmobile suffered a broken leg. The deputy suffered a minor wrist injury.
Source: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=721531
NEW YORK NEWS: Deer Pose Problems at Binghamton University
Most people on campus have seen them at least once. They can be seen by M-Lot, in the Nature Preserve — anywhere except the interior of the Brain, the main road around the campus. They collect at all hours of the night, wandering aimlessly around campus, stumbling onto roads without care for cars. No, this group is not made up of drunk girls coming back from State Street, or pledges from a fraternity.
This group is taking over campus and wreaking havoc on its environment.
They are deer.
The deer that populate Binghamton University’s campus have made themselves at home, and the campus has proven to be a very good home indeed, given their numbers.
“The main reason is a lack of predators, natural or human,” said Dylan Horvath, the steward of the Nature Preserve. “Deer are very adaptable and have been dealing with the lack of natural food.”
This lack of predators has created a haven for deer.
“The deer have figured out that they are not hunted the closer they are to human habitation,” Horvath said. “So we see more of them coming into our natural areas and onto campus.”
Natural predators, he said, can no longer control the deer population — the best means of natural control, wolves and coyotes, were hunted out a century ago.
“Hunting by people is the only substitute that we have for keeping deer populations down,” he said.
Every ecosystem has a carrying capacity, or a maximum number at which a population can be sustained, for its inhabitants. According to Horvath, the carrying capacity of the natural areas has been exceeded.
The exact number of deer is hard to determine, but estimates have been made.
“We’ve counted up to 25 to 30 deer in College-in-the-Woods, which should only have about three naturally,” Horvath said. “There is probably a similar number in the actual Nature Preserve, but they are harder to count.”
Horvath noted that it is hard to tell if the CIW deer move back and forth between the residential community and the Preseve.
“Conservatively, there are probably 45 deer overall,” Horvath said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if the number was well over 50. During hunting season we get an influx of neighboring deer.”
While the idea of an army of deer living in the Nature Preserve may seem funny, it actually has an adverse effect on the environment.
“The deer have eaten probably 99 percent of our wildflowers and have almost stopped forest regeneration,” Horvath said.
This issue of regeneration is significant because of its impact on other species.
There is also the safety issue of students in their cars. Lt. Madeline Bay, of Binghamton’s New York State University Police, explained that even with the large number of deer on campus, there are only three or four accidents a year — a number which has remained steady over time.
“It’s one of those things where people have to be alert,” Bay said. “As long as people go slow and obey the speed limits there is usually no problem.”
Julian Shepherd, Ph. D, associate professor of biological sciences and chair of the Committee on the University Environment, said he also hasn’t received many complaints relating to the deer.
“There is no plan,” Shepherd said. “We talk about options sometimes but think that it would be controversial.”
Any answer to the deer issue would be complicated.
“There are two solutions,” Horvath said. “Change the deer behavior or reduce their population.”
Hunting would reduce the deer populations, but carries a lot of concerns and issues, Horvath explained, including safety, public support and permits.
“Hunting is a very remote possibility for now,” Horvath added. “The chances of hunting being allowed anytime soon are low.”
Horvath said some students had tried to set up a deer exclusion fence in CIW and the Nature Preserve to see if there was regrowth, but complications like people littering the area with beer cans have also affected regrowth.
Problems with solutions have made people reluctant to implement measures.
“Frankly, a lot of us would like to see the deer populations decrease,” Shepherd, in regard to the issues, said. “But we don’t want to do it.”
Horvath believes it is a tough situation, because the conditions that have made a deer problem are mostly caused by humans, and the animals have no choice but to adapt.
“On the one hand the deer are wonderful ‘ambassadors’ of nature and people love seeing them,” he said in an e-mail. “On the other hand, ecologically, and to some extent safety-wise, they are a problem.”
All this, Horvath says, makes for an interesting and touchy problem, especially with the deer’s impact on the forest itself.
“Unfortunately, our forests don’t have the luxury of waiting for nature to take its course, but we may have to,” he said.
Source: http://bupipedream.com/new/index.php/articles/view/7209
This group is taking over campus and wreaking havoc on its environment.
They are deer.
The deer that populate Binghamton University’s campus have made themselves at home, and the campus has proven to be a very good home indeed, given their numbers.
“The main reason is a lack of predators, natural or human,” said Dylan Horvath, the steward of the Nature Preserve. “Deer are very adaptable and have been dealing with the lack of natural food.”
This lack of predators has created a haven for deer.
“The deer have figured out that they are not hunted the closer they are to human habitation,” Horvath said. “So we see more of them coming into our natural areas and onto campus.”
Natural predators, he said, can no longer control the deer population — the best means of natural control, wolves and coyotes, were hunted out a century ago.
“Hunting by people is the only substitute that we have for keeping deer populations down,” he said.
Every ecosystem has a carrying capacity, or a maximum number at which a population can be sustained, for its inhabitants. According to Horvath, the carrying capacity of the natural areas has been exceeded.
The exact number of deer is hard to determine, but estimates have been made.
“We’ve counted up to 25 to 30 deer in College-in-the-Woods, which should only have about three naturally,” Horvath said. “There is probably a similar number in the actual Nature Preserve, but they are harder to count.”
Horvath noted that it is hard to tell if the CIW deer move back and forth between the residential community and the Preseve.
“Conservatively, there are probably 45 deer overall,” Horvath said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if the number was well over 50. During hunting season we get an influx of neighboring deer.”
While the idea of an army of deer living in the Nature Preserve may seem funny, it actually has an adverse effect on the environment.
“The deer have eaten probably 99 percent of our wildflowers and have almost stopped forest regeneration,” Horvath said.
This issue of regeneration is significant because of its impact on other species.
There is also the safety issue of students in their cars. Lt. Madeline Bay, of Binghamton’s New York State University Police, explained that even with the large number of deer on campus, there are only three or four accidents a year — a number which has remained steady over time.
“It’s one of those things where people have to be alert,” Bay said. “As long as people go slow and obey the speed limits there is usually no problem.”
Julian Shepherd, Ph. D, associate professor of biological sciences and chair of the Committee on the University Environment, said he also hasn’t received many complaints relating to the deer.
“There is no plan,” Shepherd said. “We talk about options sometimes but think that it would be controversial.”
Any answer to the deer issue would be complicated.
“There are two solutions,” Horvath said. “Change the deer behavior or reduce their population.”
Hunting would reduce the deer populations, but carries a lot of concerns and issues, Horvath explained, including safety, public support and permits.
“Hunting is a very remote possibility for now,” Horvath added. “The chances of hunting being allowed anytime soon are low.”
Horvath said some students had tried to set up a deer exclusion fence in CIW and the Nature Preserve to see if there was regrowth, but complications like people littering the area with beer cans have also affected regrowth.
Problems with solutions have made people reluctant to implement measures.
“Frankly, a lot of us would like to see the deer populations decrease,” Shepherd, in regard to the issues, said. “But we don’t want to do it.”
Horvath believes it is a tough situation, because the conditions that have made a deer problem are mostly caused by humans, and the animals have no choice but to adapt.
“On the one hand the deer are wonderful ‘ambassadors’ of nature and people love seeing them,” he said in an e-mail. “On the other hand, ecologically, and to some extent safety-wise, they are a problem.”
All this, Horvath says, makes for an interesting and touchy problem, especially with the deer’s impact on the forest itself.
“Unfortunately, our forests don’t have the luxury of waiting for nature to take its course, but we may have to,” he said.
Source: http://bupipedream.com/new/index.php/articles/view/7209
Monday, February 25, 2008
NEW YORK NEWS: 2007 Deer Harvest Up 16% Over 2006
The state's hunters harvested about 220,000 deer during the 2007 season, a 16 percent increase over the previous season, said Pete Grannis, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation this week.
Speaking before a group of outdoor writers at a luncheon meeting Wednesday in Albany, Grannis said numbers rose in every deer hunting category the DEC tracks: bucks, antlerless deer (females and young males), takes by muzzleloaders and takes by bowhunters.
At the same time, he noted, the number of hunter-related shooting accidents hit a record low, 14, although there were five fatalities. Also, researchers detected no cases of Chronic Wasting Disease during the season, despite testing nearly 7,500 deer.
Source:
http://www.syracuse.com/articles/sports/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/120376052334840.xml&coll=1
Speaking before a group of outdoor writers at a luncheon meeting Wednesday in Albany, Grannis said numbers rose in every deer hunting category the DEC tracks: bucks, antlerless deer (females and young males), takes by muzzleloaders and takes by bowhunters.
At the same time, he noted, the number of hunter-related shooting accidents hit a record low, 14, although there were five fatalities. Also, researchers detected no cases of Chronic Wasting Disease during the season, despite testing nearly 7,500 deer.
Source:
http://www.syracuse.com/articles/sports/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/120376052334840.xml&coll=1
NORTH CAROLINA NEWS: Will Contraceptives Stabilize Island Deer Population?
Ed. note: Birth control usually does not work for urban deer populations because they are not closed populations. Contraceptives could work on Bald Head if the island is isolated enough prevent immigration and emigration--it will be interesting to watch this situation develop.
BALD HEAD ISLAND (AP) — Officials on Bald Head Island are now working with university researchers to see if they can use contraceptives to limit the deer population there.
Village officials had been using a controlled hunt to cull the herd. That program reduced the number of deer from 500 to about 120 in five years.
The village has now decided to work with the University of North Carolina at Wilmington to test the contraceptive method, now that the herd is a manageable size.
Researchers tell the Wilmington Star-News they have started fitting deer with radio collars to see if the deer are staying on the island or migrating across the shoals to southern New Hanover County.
The research will cost the village more than $60,000 over two years.
Source:
http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080225/NRSTAFF/494129785
BALD HEAD ISLAND (AP) — Officials on Bald Head Island are now working with university researchers to see if they can use contraceptives to limit the deer population there.
Village officials had been using a controlled hunt to cull the herd. That program reduced the number of deer from 500 to about 120 in five years.
The village has now decided to work with the University of North Carolina at Wilmington to test the contraceptive method, now that the herd is a manageable size.
Researchers tell the Wilmington Star-News they have started fitting deer with radio collars to see if the deer are staying on the island or migrating across the shoals to southern New Hanover County.
The research will cost the village more than $60,000 over two years.
Source:
http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080225/NRSTAFF/494129785
Thursday, February 21, 2008
WISCONSIN OPINION: Overabundant Deer Vs. National Parks
The latest Pat Durkin column:
SHILOH, Tenn. — While approaching a row of cannons on a famous site called the Hornet's Nest at the Shiloh National Military Park last weekend, my thoughts shifted from the Civil War's awful carnage to the annoyance of avoiding deer pellets wherever I stepped.
Minutes later, I studied the shoreline of the Bloody Pond, another tragic site from 146 years ago. I tried to envision the horror of soldiers and horses, Union and Confederate, taking their final drinks. I tried to grasp the futility of trying to sate thirst caused by fear, fatigue and massive hemorrhage.
Then I noticed cloven hoof marks of whitetails pocking the mud everywhere I looked. The spell broken, I moved on.
After a short walk, I saw large wire cages protecting young trees in Sarah Bell's peach orchard as I approached the eastern end of the Hornet's Nest. When I spotted W. George Manse's cabin in the orchard's corner, a harsh browse line in the adjoining woods validated the need for the peach trees' cages. Overpopulated deer are hell on buds and twigs.
Then, I recalled Jeff Shaara mentioned Shiloh's deer and this orchard in his book, "Civil War Battlefields." Shaara wrote: "The peach trees there today are maintained in the original location of the orchard, though keeping the trees healthy is a constant headache since the park's enormous deer population delights in devouring the trees' delicious leaves and blossoms."
My U.S. Park Service leaflet said Miss Bell's orchard was in full bloom on April 6, 1862, as Confederate troops hammered the Union's left flank. Shaara is more specific: "There are no more poetic descriptions of battle than those written by soldiers who fought here, several of whom described how the fully blossoming trees were so cut by the storm of musket fire that the white petals swirled around the men like a snowstorm."
Problems caused by deer aren't unique to this national park. Whether it's deer browsing down the woods of Shiloh in Tennessee, Gettysburg in Pennsylvania or Great Smoky Mountains in eastern Tennessee and North Carolina, or elk strip-mining the herbage of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota or Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, we see the pitiful results of overprotection. This is what happens when we set aside treasured areas, then allow almost all forms of human recreation except hunting.
Our nation forever will owe Theodore Roosevelt and other visionaries for setting aside millions of acres for national parks. What Roosevelt couldn't have foreseen was a society 100 years later so disconnected from nature and the food chain that it lacks the common sense and political courage to prevent one species from wreaking havoc on lands that once held diverse species.
Meanwhile, that society somehow produces people who righteously try to remove species they deem alien or exotic if it threatens a native ecosystem. Whether it's lake trout in Yellowstone Lake, or elk and mule deer in Channel Islands National Park off California, the Park Service wants them dead or gone.
Fascinating. If someone took a species from somewhere else in North America and released it where it wasn't living when Europeans arrived 400 years ago, the Park Service crusades with a zealot's conviction, dismissing protests as naïve and uneducated.
But when a species is native to a national park and destroying its home from within, the Park Service merely mopes and hopes the problem goes away. When hunters outside park boundaries don't shoot enough animals to make a difference, the Park Service crafts expensive sharp-shooting plans rather than work with qualified hunters who would solve the problem and be grateful for the opportunity.
The feds should consider Wisconsin's approach. When ecologists show just cause to open a state park to deer hunting, we hold hearings, let everyone bark and open the park to controlled hunts.
A few weeks later, everyone is back to normal, their outrage looking for a new perch. The system works.
Source:
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080221/GPG07/802210566/1233/GPGsports
SHILOH, Tenn. — While approaching a row of cannons on a famous site called the Hornet's Nest at the Shiloh National Military Park last weekend, my thoughts shifted from the Civil War's awful carnage to the annoyance of avoiding deer pellets wherever I stepped.
Minutes later, I studied the shoreline of the Bloody Pond, another tragic site from 146 years ago. I tried to envision the horror of soldiers and horses, Union and Confederate, taking their final drinks. I tried to grasp the futility of trying to sate thirst caused by fear, fatigue and massive hemorrhage.
Then I noticed cloven hoof marks of whitetails pocking the mud everywhere I looked. The spell broken, I moved on.
After a short walk, I saw large wire cages protecting young trees in Sarah Bell's peach orchard as I approached the eastern end of the Hornet's Nest. When I spotted W. George Manse's cabin in the orchard's corner, a harsh browse line in the adjoining woods validated the need for the peach trees' cages. Overpopulated deer are hell on buds and twigs.
Then, I recalled Jeff Shaara mentioned Shiloh's deer and this orchard in his book, "Civil War Battlefields." Shaara wrote: "The peach trees there today are maintained in the original location of the orchard, though keeping the trees healthy is a constant headache since the park's enormous deer population delights in devouring the trees' delicious leaves and blossoms."
My U.S. Park Service leaflet said Miss Bell's orchard was in full bloom on April 6, 1862, as Confederate troops hammered the Union's left flank. Shaara is more specific: "There are no more poetic descriptions of battle than those written by soldiers who fought here, several of whom described how the fully blossoming trees were so cut by the storm of musket fire that the white petals swirled around the men like a snowstorm."
Problems caused by deer aren't unique to this national park. Whether it's deer browsing down the woods of Shiloh in Tennessee, Gettysburg in Pennsylvania or Great Smoky Mountains in eastern Tennessee and North Carolina, or elk strip-mining the herbage of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota or Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, we see the pitiful results of overprotection. This is what happens when we set aside treasured areas, then allow almost all forms of human recreation except hunting.
Our nation forever will owe Theodore Roosevelt and other visionaries for setting aside millions of acres for national parks. What Roosevelt couldn't have foreseen was a society 100 years later so disconnected from nature and the food chain that it lacks the common sense and political courage to prevent one species from wreaking havoc on lands that once held diverse species.
Meanwhile, that society somehow produces people who righteously try to remove species they deem alien or exotic if it threatens a native ecosystem. Whether it's lake trout in Yellowstone Lake, or elk and mule deer in Channel Islands National Park off California, the Park Service wants them dead or gone.
Fascinating. If someone took a species from somewhere else in North America and released it where it wasn't living when Europeans arrived 400 years ago, the Park Service crusades with a zealot's conviction, dismissing protests as naïve and uneducated.
But when a species is native to a national park and destroying its home from within, the Park Service merely mopes and hopes the problem goes away. When hunters outside park boundaries don't shoot enough animals to make a difference, the Park Service crafts expensive sharp-shooting plans rather than work with qualified hunters who would solve the problem and be grateful for the opportunity.
The feds should consider Wisconsin's approach. When ecologists show just cause to open a state park to deer hunting, we hold hearings, let everyone bark and open the park to controlled hunts.
A few weeks later, everyone is back to normal, their outrage looking for a new perch. The system works.
Source:
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080221/GPG07/802210566/1233/GPGsports
Monday, February 18, 2008
MARYLAND NEWS: 62 Deer Culled at Goucher College
Hunters are finished the business of thinning the deer population at Goucher College in Towson. Concerns over a growing herd forced administrators to call for control measures. As Tim Williams reports, hunters are finished until more studies are done.
As they walk their daily route through the Goucher college campus, the company of deer has become common for the Oettinger family.
April teaches at the school.
"Sometimes we'd see the herd of male deer with the large antlers would be right over here and we would see them hopping back and forth and it would drive our dogs to abstraction," she said.
But now there are 62 less deer in the herd than there were at the end of last year.
"While the college was closed for the winter break, over five days, state licensed deer cooperators came to campus and did a managed bow hunt," said Goucher College spokesperson Kristen Keener.
At about 200 white-tailed deer, the population for the campus was considered out of control. The State Department of Natural Resources estimates there should only be 40.
Hunters first tried to single out animals that were sick or injured because relocation and shooting them with birth control were too expensive and time consuming.
"Of the 62 animals that were removed, seven of them previously had been injured, perhaps as the result of a car collision or poachers who found their way onto campus," Keener said.
The hunt was not unopposed. Some students and alumni were against it from the beginning; others favored the idea.
Students received emails just before the holiday alerting them.
A Goucher spokesperson says with campus expansion, thinning will protect the landscape.
"For me, [I stopped] walking through the woods because of lyme disease and the deer ticks, particularly with the dogs. Now that we have our little boy, we just don't take the trails," Oettinger said.
"The college's administrators are here to protect the well-being of the students, faculty and staff, so any measure that perhaps endangers their well-being is of great concern," Keener said.
No other controlled hunts are scheduled at this time.
Source: http://wjz.com/local/deer.goucher.hunting.2.656312.html
As they walk their daily route through the Goucher college campus, the company of deer has become common for the Oettinger family.
April teaches at the school.
"Sometimes we'd see the herd of male deer with the large antlers would be right over here and we would see them hopping back and forth and it would drive our dogs to abstraction," she said.
But now there are 62 less deer in the herd than there were at the end of last year.
"While the college was closed for the winter break, over five days, state licensed deer cooperators came to campus and did a managed bow hunt," said Goucher College spokesperson Kristen Keener.
At about 200 white-tailed deer, the population for the campus was considered out of control. The State Department of Natural Resources estimates there should only be 40.
Hunters first tried to single out animals that were sick or injured because relocation and shooting them with birth control were too expensive and time consuming.
"Of the 62 animals that were removed, seven of them previously had been injured, perhaps as the result of a car collision or poachers who found their way onto campus," Keener said.
The hunt was not unopposed. Some students and alumni were against it from the beginning; others favored the idea.
Students received emails just before the holiday alerting them.
A Goucher spokesperson says with campus expansion, thinning will protect the landscape.
"For me, [I stopped] walking through the woods because of lyme disease and the deer ticks, particularly with the dogs. Now that we have our little boy, we just don't take the trails," Oettinger said.
"The college's administrators are here to protect the well-being of the students, faculty and staff, so any measure that perhaps endangers their well-being is of great concern," Keener said.
No other controlled hunts are scheduled at this time.
Source: http://wjz.com/local/deer.goucher.hunting.2.656312.html
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