Another PA Deer Issue
11-05-2005, 09:54 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Wilmington Delaware USA
Posts: 699
Another PA Deer Issue
Posted on Sat, Nov. 05, 2005
Seeking an approach to growing deer herds
Are they wildlife to be protected or a scourge to be removed? Two forums will seek to find an answer.
By Don Sapatkin
Inquirer Staff Writer
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In the woods at Valley Forge, visibility is exceptional. Dead branches and yellowing leaves dot the ground. Mature oaks and maples tower above. Two feet, four feet, six feet up is nothing but air - and the deer frolicking in the distance.
If it weren't for them, "we'd have a hard time walking through here," said Deirdre Gibson, a park resource manager, who barely had to lift her feet the other day. Songbirds are scarce. Wildflowers are gone. Deer occasionally appear on the grass roof atop the park's cave-like visitor center, searching for food.
As one of the largest undeveloped chunks of land in the Pennsylvania suburbs, Valley Forge National Historical Park is the center of a power struggle between people and deer.
And for the growing number of residents who view the animals more as a scourge to be removed than as wildlife to be appreciated, this season brings mixed news.
The good news is that the park has begun a process that could lead to the removal of hundreds of deer. Elsewhere in the suburbs, more controlled hunts are planned to thin the herd, and interest in the issue is growing. Public forums will be held in Montgomery County next Saturday and in Chester County four nights later.
The bad news is that the national park's deer population grew an estimated 21 percent in the last year alone. Statewide, license purchases by hunters, the key tool for managing deer, are down 10 percent, a potential concern. And anecdotal evidence suggests suburban herds may have already grown.
"There are more deer in Montgomery County than fleas on a pack of stray dogs," state Wildlife Conservation Officer Tim Wenrich wrote in his annual hunting forecast. Scott Frederick, a wildlife conservation officer in upper Chester County, noted a rise in farmers planning to shoot because of crop damage.
But hard facts needed to tackle the problem are elusive.
Both forums will offer overviews of the deer issue, some nuts-and-bolts advice for homeowners, and discussion of what other communities are doing.
On Monday, for example, archers shot 16 deer at the fourth annual controlled hunt in Montgomery County's Lorimer Park.
"It has stabilized vehicle accidents in the area; underbrush is coming back, and the neighbors have complained a lot less about deer getting their landscaping," Superintendent Scott Morgan said.
Norristown Farm Park will hold its first hunts a month from now. The New Jersey Audubon Society is studying how to restore destroyed habitat at five sanctuaries after a policy change that made killing deer an option for the first time.
Valley Forge has dramatically changed its laissez-faire approach as well.
Whitetail deer disappeared from the area shortly before the arrival of George Washington's starving soldiers, and reappeared several decades ago. The population has doubled since 1997, when a new counting method was introduced. The herd is now estimated at 1,400 - about 15 times the maximum that biologists believe the land can sustain before compromising forest regeneration.
Records indicate 100 car accidents caused by deer in an average year. Birders report an absence of thrushes and warblers that used to nest in shrubs and young trees. Around the park, 10-foot fences protect 30 "exclosures," areas that showcase what will grow inside (viburnum, laurel) and out (almost nothing).
Evidence from the fenced forests will become part of an Environmental Impact Statement, the slow federal procedure for change. Just getting to this point took Congressional action pushed by frustrated neighbors. Next in what is likely to be at least a two-year process will be public meetings in the spring.
Controversy is guaranteed.
"Our mission is to preserve wildlife," said Gibson, "not to" - she searched for a neutral word - "reduce wildlife. But we're way past the point where we have to deal with it."
In interviews as well as in a briefing paper on the Web, park service officials talk openly about the need to hear public opinion on methods ranging from birth control to lethal force. Although most biologists believe removal is the only effective tool in open areas - sharpshooters are used at Gettysburg - the park service's language is striking in comparison to the Pennsylvania Game Commission's approach.
Most commission funds come from the sale of hunting licenses, and other ways to manage deer are rarely discussed. Fairmount Park went to the General Assembly several years ago to speed action on its request to use professional sharpshooters instead of hunters in city parks.
Valley Forge, by contrast, would need a vote by Congress to allow hunters rather than sharpshooters.
Two Public Forums: Deer in the Suburbs
Nov. 12 in Audubon
What:Deer in Your Backyard: How to Deal With the Challenges of Overabundant Deer in Your Community.
When: 8:30 a.m. to noon (seminar) and 1 to 3 p.m. (field trips). Free.
Where:Mill Grove Audubon Center, 1201 Pawlings Rd. (off Route 422).
Sponsored by: More than 50 organizations (working through the Ecosystem Management Project).
Information: 814-278-7719 or www.ecosysmp.com.
Seeking an approach to growing deer herds
Are they wildlife to be protected or a scourge to be removed? Two forums will seek to find an answer.
By Don Sapatkin
Inquirer Staff Writer
[/align]
In the woods at Valley Forge, visibility is exceptional. Dead branches and yellowing leaves dot the ground. Mature oaks and maples tower above. Two feet, four feet, six feet up is nothing but air - and the deer frolicking in the distance.
If it weren't for them, "we'd have a hard time walking through here," said Deirdre Gibson, a park resource manager, who barely had to lift her feet the other day. Songbirds are scarce. Wildflowers are gone. Deer occasionally appear on the grass roof atop the park's cave-like visitor center, searching for food.
As one of the largest undeveloped chunks of land in the Pennsylvania suburbs, Valley Forge National Historical Park is the center of a power struggle between people and deer.
And for the growing number of residents who view the animals more as a scourge to be removed than as wildlife to be appreciated, this season brings mixed news.
The good news is that the park has begun a process that could lead to the removal of hundreds of deer. Elsewhere in the suburbs, more controlled hunts are planned to thin the herd, and interest in the issue is growing. Public forums will be held in Montgomery County next Saturday and in Chester County four nights later.
The bad news is that the national park's deer population grew an estimated 21 percent in the last year alone. Statewide, license purchases by hunters, the key tool for managing deer, are down 10 percent, a potential concern. And anecdotal evidence suggests suburban herds may have already grown.
"There are more deer in Montgomery County than fleas on a pack of stray dogs," state Wildlife Conservation Officer Tim Wenrich wrote in his annual hunting forecast. Scott Frederick, a wildlife conservation officer in upper Chester County, noted a rise in farmers planning to shoot because of crop damage.
But hard facts needed to tackle the problem are elusive.
Both forums will offer overviews of the deer issue, some nuts-and-bolts advice for homeowners, and discussion of what other communities are doing.
On Monday, for example, archers shot 16 deer at the fourth annual controlled hunt in Montgomery County's Lorimer Park.
"It has stabilized vehicle accidents in the area; underbrush is coming back, and the neighbors have complained a lot less about deer getting their landscaping," Superintendent Scott Morgan said.
Norristown Farm Park will hold its first hunts a month from now. The New Jersey Audubon Society is studying how to restore destroyed habitat at five sanctuaries after a policy change that made killing deer an option for the first time.
Valley Forge has dramatically changed its laissez-faire approach as well.
Whitetail deer disappeared from the area shortly before the arrival of George Washington's starving soldiers, and reappeared several decades ago. The population has doubled since 1997, when a new counting method was introduced. The herd is now estimated at 1,400 - about 15 times the maximum that biologists believe the land can sustain before compromising forest regeneration.
Records indicate 100 car accidents caused by deer in an average year. Birders report an absence of thrushes and warblers that used to nest in shrubs and young trees. Around the park, 10-foot fences protect 30 "exclosures," areas that showcase what will grow inside (viburnum, laurel) and out (almost nothing).
Evidence from the fenced forests will become part of an Environmental Impact Statement, the slow federal procedure for change. Just getting to this point took Congressional action pushed by frustrated neighbors. Next in what is likely to be at least a two-year process will be public meetings in the spring.
Controversy is guaranteed.
"Our mission is to preserve wildlife," said Gibson, "not to" - she searched for a neutral word - "reduce wildlife. But we're way past the point where we have to deal with it."
In interviews as well as in a briefing paper on the Web, park service officials talk openly about the need to hear public opinion on methods ranging from birth control to lethal force. Although most biologists believe removal is the only effective tool in open areas - sharpshooters are used at Gettysburg - the park service's language is striking in comparison to the Pennsylvania Game Commission's approach.
Most commission funds come from the sale of hunting licenses, and other ways to manage deer are rarely discussed. Fairmount Park went to the General Assembly several years ago to speed action on its request to use professional sharpshooters instead of hunters in city parks.
Valley Forge, by contrast, would need a vote by Congress to allow hunters rather than sharpshooters.
Two Public Forums: Deer in the Suburbs
Nov. 12 in Audubon
What:Deer in Your Backyard: How to Deal With the Challenges of Overabundant Deer in Your Community.
When: 8:30 a.m. to noon (seminar) and 1 to 3 p.m. (field trips). Free.
Where:Mill Grove Audubon Center, 1201 Pawlings Rd. (off Route 422).
Sponsored by: More than 50 organizations (working through the Ecosystem Management Project).
Information: 814-278-7719 or www.ecosysmp.com.
11-05-2005, 10:24 AM
#2
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 15,452
RE: Another PA Deer Issue
Places like valley forge just fuels the PGC to fool the non=hunter and twist the truth to up the doe tags.which of course we all know is a a scam. The deer in valley forge and places like it needs to be taken out by licensed hunters. Not paid marksman with auto weapons bait and flood lights like Gettysburg. The terrain is huntable without endangering the residents I drove thru the place already and dont understand why they dont open it for special hunts.Change the stinkin law and lets get on with it. Mean while 40 miles up the road around my place deer are just not doing well. many I talk to around here have hunted most the bow season and might see i or 2 deer a week.
11-05-2005, 09:37 PM
#4
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Garfield NJ USA
Posts: 3,067
RE: Another PA Deer Issue
Here's the kicker, they can generate a revenue by selling tags/special permits and having special hunts. Instead they'll probably end up hiring snipers to shoot the deer with high powered, silenced rifles using night vision scopes for about $1500 per deer.Like the fools in the Princeton area did.
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