Posted on 01/11/2010 10:49:08 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
SYRACUSE, NY--The Chair of the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology at SUNY Syracuse says deer overpopulation is a greater threat to biodiversity in New York state than global warming.
Donald Leopold explained that "climate change isn't eliminating species, only moving their ranges."
Deer overpopulation, on the other hand, does eliminate other species, he noted.
"No other real or perceived threat is so pervasive throughout the entire state, nor eliminates the majority, if not all, of the understory of natural communities, greatly reducing the diversity of our natural communities and the function of these communities," Leopold explained.
"Ignoring what deer are doing... is worse than throwing litter on the highways, driving gas guzzlers, not recycling, and many other actions."
Leopold, who also serves as a Distinguished Teaching Professor in the program, researches "drivers of diversity and causes of varity in terrestrial and wetland ecosystems." According to his website he has published over fifty-five peer-reviewed papers, six books, six book chapters, six invited book reviews, three proceedings, and many miscellaneous publications, all generally about topics in forest and wetland ecology, and native plants.
“I’m sure that the deer are very impressed by the fences as they hurdle over them. “
Ha! I rented an old fallow farm on the edge of the Cuyahoga Valley Reservation. Feds put an end to hunting in the park. There were deer everywhere. I had to extend my garden fence to 10 feet high to stop them eatin’ my food! Every season, my buds and I took 15 to 20 deer on the 110 acre farm and wood lot. And here the deer are big!
Then the Park Service took over 105 of the 110 acres. I live in town now. Sure do miss the old farm though. Pretty cold in the winter though. The house was built in 1836. No insulation. But plenty of wood for the furnace!
Exterminate the vermin.
Vermin, it’s what’s for dinner.
Not to worry though... in the upcoming shtf scenario most, if not all, of the Nation's deer population is expected to be wiped out within the first six months...
Latest Weather Channel Headline 01-11-10:
DEER THREATEN GORE’S GLOBAL FLATULENCE!
3 years in a row the birds ate my cherries just as they got red. I cut down the tree I got so mad.
Years ago, I was coming back from the store and saw a deer. It was a young doe who had tried to go over a chain link fence and caught BOTH her legs in the little diamonds in the top of the fence.
She was darn lucky it was both, because I’m sure if it had been only one, she would have broke it trying to get free. But as it was, it was like she was hogtied, and couldn’t get enough leverage to really do anything except flop around.
So I get back to the house and get a pair of heavy duty wire cutters and head back. She was not happy at all about me getting close!
I made sure I cut both wires as quick as I could... within about 2 1/2 seconds, she was already about 60 yards down the fence line and she jumped.
She was juiced alright! Cleared the fence without even trying, probably went about 9 feet in the air!!
“I think most of these “scientists” are cracked.”
Leopold? Didn’t he have a brother ? Loeb I think.
I’ve read that Kudzu is actually quite nutritious and could be used as a food source...I also read someplace that is has potential as a high grade biodesal fuel source!
“Ignoring what deer are doing... throwing litter on the highways, driving gas guzzlers, not recycling, and many other actions..... is bad.”
Bless this man! I figured out one would accomplish the same by eliminating all deer in Pennsylvania as one would to cancel out the greenhouse gas emitted by half the cattle in Pennsylvania, - - that is if one believed that CO2 was in any way harmful.
Deer eat food farmers are trying to produce for humans as well as for their livestock as well as decimating the forest.
>>> Deer are not Bambi! Plus they taste good and are low in fat. Yummy!!!<<<
True enough. The same goes for Canada geese and wild turkey, too. Hunt these animals so they provide food for people. When I visited my hometown (East Lyme, Conn.), I was startled to see that the forest in my backyard had been literally eaten away up to about 5 feet off the ground by deer, and I walked away with a dozen ticks. Reducing the deer population by a large percentage would be great start towards regenerating the forest. I was also startled by how many geese and turkey were wandering around suburban Connecticut. I guess I’ve been in Alaska too long, but my first impulse was to fill the freezer.
BZZZZZZZZT - Wrong answer.
There are so many deer because people have killed off or driven away their natural predators - including people !
Indians and settlers ate them. So did cougars, coyotes, wolves, bear, etc.
Flown across the country lately ? The vast majority of it is "habitat" for gazillions of animules. People occupy a tiny portion of the land.
I was over at Cape Hatteras several yrs. ago.
Pulled up to the parking lot for the lighthouse and wow!
Deer grazing 100 yds. from the lighthouse.
Never thought of deer being on the Outer Banks.
if we could start a rumor that deer are eavesdropping our phone conversations from the Cheney ranch for Halliburton and also adding far more CO2 to the atmosphere , maybe we could get some Birkenstock-wearing libtards to take up hunting.(or at least quit feeding the deer in the city)
That is even a misperception. Human occupied land is also being occupied by critters.
In my suburban location I have 30 species of birds visiting. I don't know how many species nest in my yard but there are many. I have many resident squirrels and chipmunks.
Skunks tear up my yard regularly. In trying to trap the skunks I caught one cat and one small dog and 5 coons and 2 possums. The neighbor teen girl came to see one of the coons. she was upset that I had trapped it and insisted I release it in its habitat. She was flabbergasted when I told her that this is its habitat. It lives here.
The buzzards come here from up north and have adapted the neighborhood trees for roosts. In the evening there are from 50 to far in excess of a hundred circling before roost time.
Last year my oak trees shed an abundance of acorns. I was upset because I didn't know how to clean them up. I vacillated. The deer came from who knows where early mornings and gobbled them all up.
On the lake nearby we have tons of geese and mallards that stay here for the winter. They can be found everywhere there is grass in abundance including the road way into and in massive chemical plant. Wild turkeies are not uncommon on 4 lane hiways and they pay the whizzing traffic no minde y
Down the hill from me a neighbor had a small dog disappear... the wildlife people said probably a coyote. Not to worry though, the 2 wolves that escaped from the city zoo will probably take care of it./p>
Our local county park has put up several deer fences due to overgrazing. Never used to see them there before, and this is after several controlled hunts they’ve had this year.
My Sister gets all bent out of shape because they’re out there killing Bambi & Friends. She usually calms down when I explain to her that the alternative is to have them all slowly starve to death.
I wholeheartedly agree. I have two houses; one in Pa. and the other in NJ. One is 26 years old and the other 58 years old. When they were built there were few if any deer in these neighborhoods. This business about us encroaching on their territory is bunk.
Their populations have exploded in these time scales. Now any kind of shrubbery will be eaten with few exceptions. The one property had a large wooded area with undergrowth including berries of several kinds which supported all kinds of birds and wildlife. The undergrowth is all gone.
I have hit 7 deer in this time span all in the last 15 years. Each collision killed the deer but caused thousands of dollars damage to my cars, and could have caused serious injury to others if I had swerved to avoid contact.
More people will die of deer collisions I predict in 2009 than will die of swine flu, and yet states and municipalities do nothing to control the populations in either state. If anything they hamper hunting by limiting the seasons and locations within the states.
In 1900 there were no deer in New Jersey. Now by all accounts there are more than when the first settlers arrived, and it is an economic and environmental disaster as the professor descibes.
All public lands should be open all year to hunting and a bounty paid for does. That would finally take the population back to a reasonablr level. As it is the geometric growth will continue and more states will have the problems we have.
There’s a reason why women like windows in bathrooms.
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