PENNSYLVANIA NEWS: A Quick Survey of the Deer Wars

Where things stand:

In 2008, the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee of the state assembly was directed to study the Pennsylvania Game Commission's deer management program.

In 2009, they hired the Wildlife Management Institute as a consultant to perform the review.

In 2010, the Wildlife Management Institute completed their report. Click to view The Deer Management Program of the Pennsylvania Game Commission: a comprehensive review and evaluation.

Some of the legislators were not happy with aspects of the report. Some of these legislators admitted not knowing enough and wanting to learn more, but others made a series of tragically stupid comments and asserted fallacies as truths while berating biologists. A transcript is here.

And the third lawsuit by Unified Sportsman of Pennsylvania may be resolved later this year.

The Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania and the Game Commission may finally be headed toward a resolution of their long-running feud over deer management.

A source close to the case revealed that the discovery phase of the lawsuit the group filed in 2007 in Commonwealth Court against the agency has finally been completed.

And both sides - the Unified Sportsmen represented by attorney Charles Haws, of Barley Snyder LLC in Reading, and the commission, represented by the state Office of the Attorney General - have agreed to a Nov. 29 deadline for filing motions in the case.

A court date of 10 a.m. on Feb. 28, 2011, has been set in the event that the lawsuit is not decided before.

Official details about the lawsuit were hard to come by, but it was clear by this issue's deadline that efforts have been made to settle the case out of court. Although, a call to Haws' office went unreturned, and the Game Commission would release no information.

Source: Outdoors.com

Special thanks to a PA source.

WEST VIRGINIA NEWS: Record Harvest in Charleston

In it's fifth year, Charleston's urban deer hunt set a new record.

City Manager David Molgaard says 60 deer were killed during the several month-long season that ended Dec. 31. Forty-two animals were does.

The number of deer killed grew from 2009 even though less permits were issued in 2010. There were 184 permits issued in 2009 and only 124 in 2010.

Source: WSAZ

NEW JERSEY NEWS: Union County to Reduce Deer Population

Union County has allowed 8 hunters to reduce the deer population in the Ash Brook reservation by 60 animals.

The hunt targets the white-tailed deer population, which county officials say is over-browsing forests in the park, damaging the landscaping of private homes in the area, spreading Lyme disease and leading to some car accidents.

The county estimates there are 140 to 150 deer on the 1.75-square-mile reservation, a number they would like to reduce to 35 but anticipate falling short because there aren’t enough hunters and the season is too short.

Source: NJ.com

RESEARCH NEWS: New Virus Found in Deer Hunters

A smallpox-like disease (but less virulent) has been identified in hunters that field-dressed deer with open wounds on their hands.

Two similar skin infections in hunters who field dressed white-tailed deer led to the identification of a new parapoxvirus, which can mimic other infections and lead to diagnostic delays, according to researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In both cases, the hunters, one from Virginia and one from Connecticut, cut their fingers in November 2008 while field dressing deer that appeared healthy at the time of death, according to the researchers, who reported their findings in the Dec 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (abstract here).

Patients with parapoxvirus infections typically have a single lesion, developing over 4 to 8 weeks, that progresses through four stages—papule, vesicle, shallow annular ulcer, and scab—that heals with little or no scarring.

Infections can recur, and smallpox vaccination doesn't block parapoxvirus infection. The group noted that human infections are likely underreported, because many patients may not seek medical care because of the usually self-limited nature of the disease.

The clinical course was similar for both patients. About 7 weeks after the field dressing injury the hunters sought medical care for a nodule at the wound site that didn't heal. In the case of the Virginia patient, doctors removed and biopsied the lesion, but it recurred about a month later. The Connecticut hunter was treated with antibiotics, and his doctors biopsied the lesion. In both instances, specimens were sent to the CDC for evaluation.

Source: CIDRAP

TEXAS NEWS: Town Confronts Very Very Large Deer Population

Ten years ago, the City of Fair Oaks Ranch took a survey and counted 2,800 white-tailed deer within city limits.

Back then the city took some steps to control the population.

In a recent survey, more than 5,700 white-tailed and axis deer were counted within the city limits.

This is why for the past nine months, the city has been studying a variety of options to control the population - everything from bringing in sharpshooters to trap and relocate programs.

The city occupies 7.2 square miles of land. That puts the deer density at nearly 800 deer per square mile, or 1.25 deer per acre. Wow...

IOWA NEWS: Deer Harvest 2010

The Iowa DNR is reporting 108,000 deer harvested so far in the 2010 season. This is prompting fewer complaints from farmers, and more complaints from hunters.

"It’s hard for hunters who are seeing about 30 percent fewer deer from the population peak," said Tom Litchfield, DNR deer biologist. "We are reaching population goals throughout eastern Iowa. Even in the far southeast corner, the deer herd is at middle to late 1990s levels."

Source: KCCI

OHIO NEWS: Deer Reduction Planned for Dayton Metropark

A deer cull is planned for Hills and Dales, a small urban park in a Dayton suburb.

Sharpshooters from Five Rivers MetroParks will thin the deer herd in Hills and Dales Park for the first time this year, with the nighttime shoots beginning as early as this weekend and continuing into the winter.

Michael Enright, MetroParks’ conservation biologist, said the latest aerial infrared survey showed 22 deer in and around the small park on the Kettering-Oakwood border. That population has changed little since 2003, but Enright said it is almost three times higher than the 20 deer per square mile recommendation, and over time, the forest has begun to show damage.

This is the first cull to take place at Hills and Dales. A few years back, Oakwood residents opposed any culling in the municipality. However, the city does not have jurisdiction over the Metropark. The park is in a very affluent area, so it will be interesting to see how this develops.

Source: Dayton Daily News

BRITISH COLUMBIA NEWS: Sidney Island Deer Cull to Expand

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

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

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

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

Source: Vancouver Sun

PENNSYLVANIA NEWS: Judge Clears Valley Forge Deer Cull Plans

Valley Forge National Historical Park can proceed with its controversial plan to use sharpshooters to radically reduce its deer population, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Calling the imminent plan a looming "bloodbath," animal-rights advocates, who were awaiting the outcome of a suit filed last year, had requested an injunction late Tuesday night to stop it.

But U.S. District Judge Mitchell S. Goldberg ruled against that suit Wednesday, thus making moot the injunction requested by Friends of Animals and a Chester County group, Compassion for Animals - Respect for the Environment.

The deer management plan calls for reducing the population from 1200 to 200 deer over several years. Deer densities at Valley Forge currently exceed 250 per square mile.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

VIRGINIA NEWS: Fairfax County Opinion Poll on Deer Culling

Fairfax County is trying to gauge its residents opinions on deer and a proposed deer management plan. The data come from 6,376 respondents. Some highlights:

66.5 percent of respondents would prefer the deer population decrease.

45.9 percent of respondents are very concerned they will be in a deer-vehicle collision within 12 months.

50.4 percent are very concerned they will contract Lyme disease within 12 months. (62.7 percent believe deer are directly related to the risk of transmitting the disease)

62.7 percent support public managed deer hunts

66.4 percent support the Archery Program to help manage the deer population

64.2 percent are not at all familiar with the current Fairfax County deer management program.

59.5 percent oppose no deer population control efforts; 12.2 percent of respondents support no deer population control efforts.

Source: Fairfax County

UK NEWS: Latest Deer Collision Figures

Around 74,000 deer are hit on Britain's roads every year, according to figures from breakdown service Autonational Rescue.

Such accidents can cause up to 700 human casualties, including several fatalities, and annually cost more than 21 million pounds in damage, according to the data.

"There are probably around 200 accidents a day involving deer," said Autonational marketing manager Ronan Hart.

"It's a much bigger problem than people realise and not something that happens once in a blue moon to motorists," added a spokesman for deer protection organisation, The Deer Initiative.

Source: AFP

ILLINOIS NEWS: Quelling Concerns About Culling Safety

When culls are planned in or near residential areas, residents often raise concerns about safety. This is completely understandable--no one wants bullets flying past their heads while they get their mail, wash their car, or walk the dog. But controlled hunts can be surprisingly safe. Here are some of the safety checks in place for the Will County Forest Preserve culling efforts.

Kiran said the district’s police officers are in training now for the project. To qualify to be Illinois Department of Natural Resources sharpshooters, each must shoot five bullets into a 1.9-inch target from 50 yards.

In the forest preserves, the officers will not fire at targets more than 50 yards away, and they will always shoot downward from stands or by using the terrain. They will also only shoot into the parks at a distance of at least 300 feet from the parks’ boundaries.

Culling would be done at night, when the parks are closed to visitors. Moreover, ballistic ammunition is used to prevent richochets. These bullets disintegrate as soon as they hit any object.

Village President Joe Cook is not convinced (or at least his constituents are not convinced).

Cook says he believes the district should consider shotguns or even bows and use hunters, who know the considerations for safely bringing game down.

“Hunter management works well and safely,” he said, “and you only reach 70 — 80 yards with a bow — a far cry from two to three miles with a high-powered rifle.”

Source: Herald News

OHIO NEWS: Deer Tick Populations Expand, Hunters and Hikers At-Risk

Hunters and hikers should be wary of a potentially disease-carrying parasite that has established a foothold in Ohio, the state Department of Natural Resources warns.

A reproducing population of black-legged ticks, or deer ticks, has been found in Coshocton County, said Glen Needham, an entomologist with Ohio State University.

The tick, which can carry Lyme disease, is fairly common in surrounding states, and hikers have come across single ticks in Ohio for years. But scientists didn't discover a population large enough to reproduce and sustain itself until this past spring, he said.

Some deer ticks carry Lyme Disease, the most common arthropod-transmitted disease in the U.S. Last year, there were 30,000 cases of Lyme confirmed by the CDC. It is an emerging disease, one that most Ohio residents have little or no experience with. Deer play an important role in moving ticks long distances.

Source: Columbus Dispatch

RESEARCH NEWS: A CWD Vaccine On the Horizon?

Chronic wasting disease has cast a pall over the Wisconsin deer herd and the state's deer hunting tradition since it was discovered in 2001.

One could argue the only good CWD-related news in the last decade is the nightmare scenario has not played out - the disease has not jumped the species barrier to affect humans or livestock.

Wisconsin wildlife managers have taken aggressive measures to initially try to eradicate the disease and more recently to reduce its spread. The disease is now found in a 9,000-square-mile area of south-central Wisconsin.

The primary tools have been deer reduction efforts (hunting or sharpshooting) and transport prohibitions on deer and elk.

Canadian researchers are testing a CWD vaccine they hope will add another tool to the tool box.

A Canadian team has made some promising advances, and a vaccine might be commercially available in 2 years, assuming they can raise the funding needed for development. The logistics of administering the vaccine to wild deer might prove insurmountable. However, it holds a lot of promise for captive and farmed deer.

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

PENNSYLVANIA NEWS: Valley Forge Moves Forward with Deer Cull Plans

Officials at Valley Forge National Historical Park say deer will be shot there starting next month, ending a yearlong delay and commencing a controversial plan to dramatically thin the herd.

An animal rights group is contemplating protests and legal action.

The 5.3 square mile Park's deer reduction goal is quite large; the four year plan calls for reducing deer numbers from 1277 to 165-185.

Park Superintendent Michael Caldwell said Monday that the deer-driven degradation at the park made it imperative to proceed.

"We believe the best course is to go forward at this point," he said. "We'll await the legal process as it unfolds."

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

USA NEWS: State Farm Annual Deer-Vehicle Collisions Report

While the number of miles driven by U.S. motorists over the past five years has increased just 2 percent, the number of deer-vehicle collisions in this country during that time has grown by ten times that amount.

Using its claims data, State Farm, the nation’s leading auto insurer estimates 2.3 million collisions between deer and vehicles occurred in the U.S. during the two-year period between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2010. That’s 21.1 percent more than five years earlier. To put it another way, during your reading of this paragraph, a collision between a deer and vehicle will likely have taken place (they are much more likely during the last three months of the year and in the early evening).

Likelihood of Deer-Vehicle Collisions

For the fourth year in a row, West Virginia tops the list of those states where a driver is most likely to collide with a deer. Using its claims data in conjunction with state licensed driver counts from the Federal Highway Administration, State Farm calculates the chances of a West Virginia driver striking a deer over the next 12 months at 1 in 42.

Iowa is second on the list. The likelihood of a licensed driver in Iowa striking a deer within the next year is 1 in 67. Michigan (1 in 70) is third. Fourth and fifth on the list are South Dakota (1 in 76) and Montana (1 in 82).

Pennsylvania is sixth, followed by North Dakota and Wisconsin. Arkansas and Minnesota round out the top 10.

The average property damage cost of these incidents was $3,103, up 1.7 percent from a year ago.



Source: State Farm

NEW JERSEY NEWS: Task Force Recommends Cull

Hopewell Township's Deer Task Force recommends a hunt to control its deer population.

The task force, created in 2009, summarized its report at Monday night’s Township Committee meeting. Former township Mayor Bill Cane, co-chairman of the task force with Denise Moser, said the report reflected the opinion of most of the task force members.

The report said increased hunting and other measures are needed to reduce Lyme disease, which is spread by deer ticks, motor vehicle accidents involving deer and damage to crops and landscaping.

The report pointed to impacts on the community.

The report says there has been an annual average of 170 reportable cases of Lyme disease in the township from 2007 to 2009 and an annual average of 567 deer-vehicle collisions during that same three-year period. Some township farmers have reported crop losses due to deer at more than $5,000 annually, the report said.

One person spoke about natural areas.

Tom Niederer, a township resident and past president of the New Jersey Forestry Association, said, “White-tailed deer are the greatest threats to our forest. Part of the stewardship of the forest is wildlife management, including deer control. Our forests will decline precipitously unless something is about the deer.”

The recommendation has been made, but a decision is still forthcoming.

Source: Hopewell Valley News

MICHIGAN NEWS: Bluetongue Detected in Lower Peninsula

There appears to be another isolated case of EHD in the western part of Michigan's lower peninsula.

An often fatal viral disease, Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, has been found in white-tailed deer in Berrien, Cass and Ottawa counties in the past two weeks, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

The disease, relatively rare this far north, is characterized by extensive hemorrhages and is transmitted by a biting fly called a midge. White-tailed deer usually show signs of being sick about seven days after exposure, with their symptoms developing fast.

The disease is common in the southern U.S. where deer population appear to have evolved some immunity. It is still rare in the northern U.S. and is often fatal.

Cooley said owners who discover dead deer suspected of having EHD should call their nearest DNRE office to report it. DNRE officials can collect more fresh specimens to test the disease to determine its spread. Carcasses also can be buried at a sufficient depth so that body parts are not showing, or they can be disposed of at landfills that accept household solid waste.

The first documented case of EHD in white-tailed deer in Michigan was in 1955.

Additional cases occurred in 1974 and 2006, 2008 and 2009 in various counties in the state.

I suspect EHD outbreaks in the northern U.S. will become more common in the coming decades with climate change, but I do not have any good data to back this speculation up.

Source: South Bend Tribune

TEXAS NEWS: Feeding Ban Lifted at Hollywood Park

In response to drought, a feeding ban has been lifted at Hollywood Park.

Hollywood Park has overturned an 8-year-old ban on feeding deer within the suburb, dismaying state wildlife officials and reigniting a long-running battle on how residents can best manage the city’s deer population.

Proponents said the move to rescind the ban was justified, saying the deer population is thinning because of the recent drought.

The feeding ban has been successful in reducing deer numbers. Reversing the feeding ban will make it more difficult for the park to manage deer populations in the long term. The city is still conducting deer relocations and looking for ranchers to take deer.

Kevin Schwausch, a big-game specialist for the state, agreed that the number of deer in Hollywood Park had decreased but said it was a result of the city’s efforts in managing its deer population.

“Just because your management is starting to work, it doesn’t mean you should stop,” Schwausch said.

Source: MySanAntonio.com

OREGON NEWS: Ashland Residents Want Action on Deer Problem

Residents on Monday called on Mayor John Stromberg to curb the city's growing deer population by allowing bow hunting and sterilization.

At a community meeting in City Council chambers after a series of aggressive deer encounters were reported over the summer, Stromberg said there is no easy solution to the deer problem. He said city officials will continue to study the issue in consultation with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists.

The problem, according to residents, is the deer are becoming habituated to people and are attacking both residents and pets. This has not lead to any serious injuries yet.

Ashland has seen an increase in deer in recent years, Vargas said. The deer have become less afraid of humans, leading some to become aggressive during breeding and fawning seasons, roughly between May and August, he said.

This summer several residents reported being attacked by deer, especially while walking their dogs, which deer can mistake for predators. Aggressive deer have been known to rear up on their hind legs and try to stomp on people and their dogs. There were no reports of serious injuries from deer attacks in the city this summer.

The issue is polarizing, and even if action is taken, there are no easy lasting solution to this emerging problem.

Source: Ashland Daily Tidings