ORIGINAL: thecontractor
Let's not kids ourselves here in thinking that Dr. Alt and the PGC is doing this to improve the ecosystem. I'm not a wildlife biologist by any means by I am quite confident that I have spent enough time in the woods to know that our forests were not in trouble because of the PA deer herd. Our forests are in trouble because of humans. Big companies are moving in and the deer and other wildlife are being slaughtered because of it. Land developers are continuously buying up land and building wal-marts, lowes, etc etc. I have an uncle in allegheny county that sais that the deer come right into the housing developement to forage on ornamental plants that are not even native to PA.......... that means that the deer are being driven to eat plants that aren't even natural to their diet. I see no need for a wal-mart to be built 10 miles away from each other. In a 30 mile radius, their are two wal-marts already and they are building another one........................ and i live in the MOUNTAINS where developement should be nil. It's crazy, and that's why our forests can't handle the deer population. Which I'm sorry I have yet to see a starving deer in my kneck of the woods. I have lots more to say but it would take all day for me to type it. I'm very very angry right now so I'll give it a few days. Also I would like to add that there is one more week left of rifle season but I won't be stepping another foot in the woods this year to harvest a deer.
Contractor, it's not much different in the east end of the state, but if you spend as much time in the woods as you claim to then you should notice the effects of overbrowsing. Take a walk in the woods in early spring and look for oak saplings. The squirrels have been planting acorn (what there are of them) all fall but you won't find any. They become deer salad before they get a foot tall. The forrests need time to regenerate. Where I hunted 30 years ago was a good mix of oak, maple, beech, ash, cherry and poplar trees. I can take you into the same area today and most of the oaks have died off, and all I see now is Maples and a few Cherrys . Deer don't eat maples and they produce no mast for wildlife. I say we give it a couple more years before we start complaining.