insurance companies are becoming as big a scapegoat as coyotes around here....
No, in pa it ain't insurance Co's, they get thier pay whether you hit a tree, a dog, a deer or guard rail. Makes no difference to them. Urban legend. how do we know? The head of Pa's deer managment has said publicly many times that insurance has never come to him and asked for anything.... but he will gladly tell you who has. Sportsman, who want to follow the fad of QDM and its hollow promises of big booners if you buy thier products for food plots, large timber companies like collins pine and Kane timber who do NOT want to have to spend any of thier money to replant trees after harvesting them for 150 years in pa. They are miffed that after taking from pa's forests for 150 years they might have to give something back in replanting or nutrients for the soil already stressed by acid rain. Conservationists are at EVERY Pa meeting asking for more help for bog turtles, allegheny wood rats, bats, eagles, otters, and they feel deer are taking money and habitat away from thier special interests. Heck even Pa's chapter donated money to Dr. Alts herd reduction program because they feel the herd is "out of control" and overpopulated. They are at every meeting urging more reductions and with those reductions will come thicker forests for turkeys.
Audubon in Pa is a powerfull lobby asking for herd reductions. Saying that the overabundance of deer in pa is causing problems for every other species in pa. And the old time guys at the PGC are looooong gone, now replaced by eco-weenies from PSU, some of whom don't even hunt. Audubon is just a convenient conservation group for hire. They donated 1.3 million dollars to the PA Game Commission to study herd reductions for pa, and thier largest contributer for that project was Theresa Heinzs' endowments. An environmental group very powerfull in Pa.
I have no idea what drives NY to reduce its herd, but in pa its ecological extremism from conservation groups, a few sportsman, Audubon, QDMA and big timber. (pa has the largest certified forests in the U.S.) Certified timber brings higher prices than normal timber sales. remember a few years ago when Home Depot was picketed by environmental groups for selling wood from forests that were not sustainable???? Well, with certification Home Depot has the eco-wacko's off thier backs and its was worth paying the higher premiums.
Do a search on "sustainable forestry" +pennsylvania +deer and read till your heart is content.... you might learns things you never imagined.
The fad of QDM is fading, as it has not produced anything close to what it promises, but the environmental and timber groups will still pressure the PGC for less deer to benefit the forest. Even if Gary Alt leaves PA, that pressure to reduce will still be there somewhat. They just won't have thier 'boy' Gary to be the hatchet man anymore and will have to find another lackey to do the dirty work of cutting the herd.
What are we trying to fix in PA and NY?
