I say "Let's arm the squirrels!!"
Posted on 12/01/2004 4:36:16 AM PST by Tom D.
Landscape Architects: Deer Are Designing Future Look of Forests
MILLERTON, N.Y. -- The deer rose out of a distant swamp before dawn to browse in a hay field on a recent day. Then, as the sun came up, they made their way into a hillside forest, looking for concealment.
But the forest offered few hiding places. It has lots of tall, mature conifers and hardwoods, some 100 years old. Under them, virtually nothing grows -- no seedlings, no saplings, no bushes, and only a few ferns. The floor of this forest, like others around the country, has been stripped clean by whitetail deer.
It's deer-hunting season across the land -- a time when Americans are reminded that bountiful whitetails have their costs. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said earlier this month that animal-vehicle crashes, mostly involving deer, killed more than 200 people last year and caused an estimated $1 billion-plus in property damage. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says deer cause more than $400 million in yearly crop damage, not including home gardens and ornamental shrubbery.
But below the radar of most people, whitetails have been eating their way toward a more lasting legacy: They are wreaking ecological havoc in forests across the nation. They have become de facto forest managers, determining today what many forests will look like 100 years from now, say forest experts.
"Deer have stopped the regeneration of our forests in many areas," says Peter Pinchot, a Yale-educated director of the 1,400-acre Milford Experimental Forest on the Poconos Plateau in Pennsylvania. That means little trees aren't growing up to eventually replace big trees.
Example: oaks. Deer love acorns. Surviving acorns sprout seedlings. Deer love them, too. Surviving seedlings become saplings. Deer strip them of leaves and bark. They die.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I couldn't see the rest of the article. Where does the environmental crowd play into this story? When I was young, my ma was a leftie type, and she used to point out the deer from the car--oooh ohhh, look at the deer!--and she also referred to hunters in disparaging terms--beer swillers, drunks--and probably opposed deer hunting at some point if she got the opportunity. Is that how the enviros figure into this story? Here in NJ, we got plenty of deer. It's hunting season this week, I think. I don't hunt so I have no idea what the limit is on deer, and how that jives with our deer population. I'm always looking out for em while driving, that's for sure. Deer are definitely plentiful, and definitely a factor in the smaller growth and saplings, etc.
Only a week?? In Michigan we have deer hunting for months rifle season, Bow season and muzzle load season and the deer are still like rats, they are everywhere!!
My lefty in-laws live in a rich town in Connecticut. Hate Bush, Loved Kerry. Love the environment. They HATE deer. The deer ruin their gardens. They just wish SOMEONE could do SOMETHING about the dang deer. I mentioned hunting and they were horrified! There has to be some other way ...
Just across the Delaware from NJ is a "wildflower preserve". It is enclosed by a very expensive fence, about 12 feet high, with electric gates to let cars in and out. Why is this fence there? To keep the damn deer out.
Who, exactly, does Mr. Sterba thinks is his audience in this article*? 6-year olds?
* Rhetorical question
"... whitetails have been eating their way toward a more lasting legacy: They are wreaking ecological havoc in forests across the nation."
No way. It's all Bush's fault. And SUVs.
Here in Alabama, deer season starts on 15 October for bow hunting. Gun season starts in mid-November. The season ends the last day of January.
My in-laws own 400 acres of mountain land. We've taken 11 deer this year and the place is still covered in deer. In one location, about as big as a football field, we saw 14 deer this last weekend. It's a major crossing area where several deer trails converge. I took my first deer there this weekend.
The main reason for the lack of new growth described in this article is the lack of logging. Mature trees with their thick canopy prevent the emergence of new growth. Selective logging to thin the mature trees so that sunlight will reach the forest floor allowing for the new growth to emerge. It's also good for the deer since there will be more new growth for them as well. We've also planted 10 acres of food plots.
The selective logging also leaves a lot of tree tops which the deer use for food sources and cover. It's not uncommon to find fawns hidden in the tree tops left from the logging.
Those with private land can manage their property to provide a better forest and increased wildlife if the environmentalists nazis will keep out of the way.
This reminds me of what goats have done to areas where they are turned loose to feed for "free" to be harvested later for "free" meat. On some formerly lush Carribean islands they have eaten every bit of vegetation until all that are left are heavily thorned bushes and trees. Natural selection in action.
In S.C., we hunt them from August to January, some areas using dogs and bait. And they're still overpopulated.
Time for a reality check. It's pencils and paper, boys. The deer did just fine before you came to save them. And architecture has never improved upon the New England saltbox or the Parthenon. Get over it.
Ah, but it's true. Deer are he mammal version of Locusts - very destructive. This is not an article supporting environmentalists. It's an argument for venison stew.
There are also occasional special hunts to lower the saturation level of deer in a particular park or forest. These hunts typically last only a few days, and are announced late in the season with little or no public notice.
There are also other areas where the local community doesn't allow hunting at all and instead brings in "sharpshooters" and pays them to limit their Deer population. Princeton and Bridgewater New Jersey are both guilty of this idiocy. If I'm not mistaken, the meat and hides are all "disposed of".
Apart from the usual safety gear, weapon, and other implements of traditional deer hunting, in New Jersey there is one other thing you need....a lawyer.
Now that I've been in New Jersey long enough to get the lay of the land, I get the impression that the state realizes the costs of such severe limits on hunting, but they are unable to do much about it given the generation or two of constant anti-gun and anti-hunting indoctrination they've done.
Of course I could be wrong. It could be that the state is just run by a bunch of dim witted, tree hugging lefties that wouldn't know how to scratch their nether region without an environmental impact statement, and a state appointed committee.
what are these? sounds good
I'm guessing that he is actually trying to use reason to change the minds of those opposed to hunting. Of course, you and I know that using reason on a lefty is pointless.
I say "Let's arm the squirrels!!"
DEER ARE VERMIN!!! Why the hell they get protection by our own government is insane to me. They are just giant RATS!
There are more deer in my state than there are people!
There are more White Tail Deer in the US today than there were when the pilgrims landed!
You can see dead dear on the highways everywhere, and for every dead deer is a far too common story of tragedy for a human being of human family that had the misfortune of having the giant rat jump out in front of them.
Are you referring to deer or PETA?
All hunters are part of PETA's greater plan.
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