NYC deer
01-14-2015, 08:25 AM
#1
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: The "empire" state-NY
Posts: 583
NYC deer
To me, the solution is obvious; in fact, Nassau county has an extended January season this year,iirc.
3304% deer population increase in 6 years!
The source:
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/14/75...y-deer-problem
Out of the wild
Deer are invading New York City, and we don't know how to stop them
By Brendan O'Connor
Just before Christmas of last year, John Caminiti, who lives in Staten Island, New York City’s least populated borough, watched traffic come to a standstill outside the Staten Island Mall. "It got quiet all of a sudden," Caminiti told me. "I look around, and there was a big buck, standing right on the fringe of the wilderness and the mall. A calm came over people."
Staten Island is located a half-hour by ferry off the southern tip of Manhattan, and the Caminitis have lived here for almost a century. "My grandmother was a baby when my great-grandfather brought her over here," he said. At that time, the island had practically no deer. Then the island had a few deer. Now there are a lot of deer, and they are everywhere.
Nobody really knows where the herds came from. The Staten Island Advance reported sightings as far back as 1991; according to The New York Times, deer began appearing "with some frequency" around 2000.
In 2008, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation conducted a survey of Staten Island’s deer population. The biologist who searched the woods estimated there were approximately 24 white-tailed deer in the borough. Last winter, the New York City Parks Department conducted an aerial, infrared survey of the island and found 793 individuals — an apparent 3,304 percent increase in just six years.
"an apparent 3,304 percent increase in the deer population in just six years"
Deer on the island have gone from a rarity to a delight to a problem with no immediate solution. "I never saw a deer until I went away to college," Sam Immo, a 23-year-old Staten Island native, told me. "When my friends and I were learning to drive, driving at night was a non-issue," she said. "The first time I almost hit a deer, I was flabbergasted."
The consequences of white-tailed deer overabundance extend beyond trampled gardens, the spread of tick-borne disease, or even car collisions. (The Department of Sanitation had a contractor remove 34 "large dead deer" from Staten Island’s roads in 2013.) Too many deer will ruin an ecosystem for years to come, leaving forests barren; eventually, the deer’s insatiable appetite will lead to its own starvation. While Staten Island, New York City’s greenest borough, hasn’t quite reached that point, without management efforts in place, the island will get there soon enough. Under favorable conditions, deer populations can double every two to three years. Staten Island — an area just shy of 60 square miles — might expect its deer population to reach 3,000 by 2017.
It’s a pattern that has unfolded across the American Northeast and Midwest over the past 30 years. White-tailed deer — once on the brink of extirpation in the United States — find refuge in the parks, backyards, and golf courses of suburban and exurban America. Humans are largely at fault: the way we develop things, with our fondness for cultivated, abrupt treelines, wide-open soccer fields, and the absence of hunters and predators are ideal for deer. As far as they are concerned, Staten Island — best views of the Manhattan skyline in the tri-state metropolitan area! — is as nice a place to live as any. Unmanaged, however, the population will become an increasingly expensive problem, with any semblance of balance difficult to restore. That one of New York City’s five boroughs will soon be overrun with hundred-pound pests (some with horns), at this point, seems inevitable.
3304% deer population increase in 6 years!
The source:
http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/14/75...y-deer-problem
Out of the wild
Deer are invading New York City, and we don't know how to stop them
By Brendan O'Connor
Just before Christmas of last year, John Caminiti, who lives in Staten Island, New York City’s least populated borough, watched traffic come to a standstill outside the Staten Island Mall. "It got quiet all of a sudden," Caminiti told me. "I look around, and there was a big buck, standing right on the fringe of the wilderness and the mall. A calm came over people."
Staten Island is located a half-hour by ferry off the southern tip of Manhattan, and the Caminitis have lived here for almost a century. "My grandmother was a baby when my great-grandfather brought her over here," he said. At that time, the island had practically no deer. Then the island had a few deer. Now there are a lot of deer, and they are everywhere.
Nobody really knows where the herds came from. The Staten Island Advance reported sightings as far back as 1991; according to The New York Times, deer began appearing "with some frequency" around 2000.
In 2008, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation conducted a survey of Staten Island’s deer population. The biologist who searched the woods estimated there were approximately 24 white-tailed deer in the borough. Last winter, the New York City Parks Department conducted an aerial, infrared survey of the island and found 793 individuals — an apparent 3,304 percent increase in just six years.
"an apparent 3,304 percent increase in the deer population in just six years"
Deer on the island have gone from a rarity to a delight to a problem with no immediate solution. "I never saw a deer until I went away to college," Sam Immo, a 23-year-old Staten Island native, told me. "When my friends and I were learning to drive, driving at night was a non-issue," she said. "The first time I almost hit a deer, I was flabbergasted."
The consequences of white-tailed deer overabundance extend beyond trampled gardens, the spread of tick-borne disease, or even car collisions. (The Department of Sanitation had a contractor remove 34 "large dead deer" from Staten Island’s roads in 2013.) Too many deer will ruin an ecosystem for years to come, leaving forests barren; eventually, the deer’s insatiable appetite will lead to its own starvation. While Staten Island, New York City’s greenest borough, hasn’t quite reached that point, without management efforts in place, the island will get there soon enough. Under favorable conditions, deer populations can double every two to three years. Staten Island — an area just shy of 60 square miles — might expect its deer population to reach 3,000 by 2017.
It’s a pattern that has unfolded across the American Northeast and Midwest over the past 30 years. White-tailed deer — once on the brink of extirpation in the United States — find refuge in the parks, backyards, and golf courses of suburban and exurban America. Humans are largely at fault: the way we develop things, with our fondness for cultivated, abrupt treelines, wide-open soccer fields, and the absence of hunters and predators are ideal for deer. As far as they are concerned, Staten Island — best views of the Manhattan skyline in the tri-state metropolitan area! — is as nice a place to live as any. Unmanaged, however, the population will become an increasingly expensive problem, with any semblance of balance difficult to restore. That one of New York City’s five boroughs will soon be overrun with hundred-pound pests (some with horns), at this point, seems inevitable.
Last edited by ModernPrimitive; 01-18-2015 at 06:38 AM.
01-14-2015, 01:15 PM
#2
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: gilbert az
Posts: 1,168
well this is no suprise to me the same thing is happening in my former home town western new york as well mainly because all the tree huggers don't want "their" deer shot but want somethiing done like spending untold monies on a sterilization program or some other crazy scheme. what they need to do is get some bow hunters that pass some sort of class/test to get in there and take them out ! i used to shoot nuisance deer on a farm at night with a light mounted on my shotgun in very close proximity to homes with no problems at all it can be done if they really want to fix the problem. the deer and turkey are showing up in places you would never imagine them!!! by the way all that meat can feed a lot of hungry folks veterans in particular.
01-15-2015, 04:46 AM
#4
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: The "empire" state-NY
Posts: 583
The cynical answer-
a special class would mean a special permit which means "enhanced revenue" for NY...
I believe the current extended season I mentioned was by fee based permit only, somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
Clearly, the herd in question needs to be reduced; discussion of sterilization,etc, is absurd.
a special class would mean a special permit which means "enhanced revenue" for NY...
I believe the current extended season I mentioned was by fee based permit only, somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
Clearly, the herd in question needs to be reduced; discussion of sterilization,etc, is absurd.
01-17-2015, 01:38 PM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: gilbert az
Posts: 1,168
The cynical answer-
a special class would mean a special permit which means "enhanced revenue" for NY...
I believe the current extended season I mentioned was by fee based permit only, somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
Clearly, the herd in question needs to be reduced; discussion of sterilization,etc, is absurd.
a special class would mean a special permit which means "enhanced revenue" for NY...
I believe the current extended season I mentioned was by fee based permit only, somebody correct me if I'm wrong.
Clearly, the herd in question needs to be reduced; discussion of sterilization,etc, is absurd.
01-18-2015, 05:34 AM
#9
Typical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: The "empire" state-NY
Posts: 583
And in other, very similar news: 85 deer/sq mi
When I was a kid in rural NY it was rare, and actually exciting, to see a deer while driving; a buck in a field!? Forget it, that was pull over, stop the car and let's have a look!
Now, it's like playing dodg'em driving down the road. One reason for this is that everything is posted. Everything.
Former farm land has been carved up into tiny, 3-5 acre, parcels and it's all posted every 5'!
Public land is over run with hunters, but that doesn't seem to matter because, as far as I've experienced, the deer aren't there any way-they're where the living is easy, dining on flower gardens and shrubbery!
Now, the areas in these articles are more urban, but the circumstances are similar-without natural predators & declared off limits to hunters, deer are proliferating at an, imo, unhealthy rate. Any disease, such as CWD, would sweep through this area quickly and decimate deer numbers for years to come.
It is no wonder I hear drivers increasingly refer to deer as forest rats!
source:http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/reg...96J/story.html
Boston,MA:
Can you imagine if deer hunting were allowed in the Blue Hills?
It’s not that far-fetched an idea.
Hunting is strictly prohibited in the state’s Blue Hills Reservation, as it has been for decades, but it is an option that is being seriously explored, as officials try to figure out how to reduce the ever-growing population of deer living — thriving — in the expansive wooded property.
“It’s without question: There are way too many deer,” said Judy Lehrer Jacobs, executive director of the Friends of the Blue Hills, a Milton-based nonprofit devoted to preserving and protecting the state-owned parkland that covers more than 7,000 acres in Braintree, Canton, Dedham, Milton, Quincy, and Randolph.
The reservation is a widely used recreational area surrounded by well-populated suburbs and popular for bird-watching, hiking, skiing, and horseback riding. But the number of white-tailed deer has grown so much that officials say something needs to be done.
State Senator Brian A. Joyce, whose district includes the Blue Hills, said 6 to 8 deer per square mile is considered to be a healthy population for this region, but a recent survey conducted for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation found that there are as many as 85 deer per square mile in the reservation.
“There is an extraordinary and unsafe number of deer living in the Blue Hills Reservation,” said Joyce, a Milton Democrat. He said they pose “serious public health concerns” because as their population has increased, so has the prevalence of ticks, which can carry Lyme disease, babesiosis, and other illnesses.
Because deer feed on vegetation close to the forest floor, they have also made a significant impact on the understory of the forest, and their grazing is causing environmental and ecological damage to the reservation, he said.
Joyce added a provision to last year’s Environmental Bond Bill calling for the state to develop and implement a plan to control deer populations in areas where their density exceeds 50 per square mile. He pointed to the deer-hunting program developed for the Quabbin Reservoir as an example of what can be done. Controlled hunts have been held on Quabbin watershed lands since 1991, and they have helped vegetation and improved water quality, he said.
Joyce said the Department of Conservation and Recreation will work with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and solicit public input on what measures should be taken. “I expect there will be a program in place over the next year. My sense is that they’re looking at different options,” he said, and “the safest, most humane approach” will be chosen.
According to the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, there are 85,000 to 95,000 deer statewide, but densities vary widely. Deer populations on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket have reached approximately 50 per square mile — and that is high, according to Marion Larson, chief of information and education for the division.
Female deer can give birth to two or three fawns every year, according to Larson. Hunting remains the most practical way to manage the population, and the notion of a “controlled hunt” could take several different forms, she said. It may be limited to bow and arrow hunting only, or the hunt could take place on a particular day.
For the most recent deer-hunting at the Quabbin, hunters were chosen by lottery and the hunt was held in specific areas of the property on specific dates.
Bill Hickey, a spokesman for DCR, said the state will carefully consider opening any additional areas to hunting. “This is very preliminary, and we are considering this on a case-by-case basis,” he said in an e-mail.
“In Willowdale State Forest [in Ipswich] and Wompatuck State Park [in Hingham], elected officials have asked our agency to consider a controlled hunt, but no decisions have been made. Any decision to open additional areas would be done in consultation with our partners at [the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife] and the local communities.”
The Friends of the Blue Hills said that the group is waiting for the state’s recommendations, and that it has not taken a position on the issue.
But many agree on one thing: Something needs to be done.
Laura Beebe, a board member of the Friends who lives in Milton, said she is concerned that the booming population of deer will bring more car accidents and Lyme disease. She said she has also seen the impact that deer have had on the area.
“The understory has been really decimated,” she said. “You can see through the trees now.”
Beebe said she is waiting to see what the state recommends, and she would be in favor of a “very controlled” deer hunt if it was limited to bows and arrows.
“I think people might be more open to it,’’ she said, given that such weapons have a smaller range. “Guns make me nervous. I don’t like the thought of [guns] in our Blue Hills. This is a park. It’s very urban. There are people, horses, and dogs. It’d be a real challenge
Now, it's like playing dodg'em driving down the road. One reason for this is that everything is posted. Everything.
Former farm land has been carved up into tiny, 3-5 acre, parcels and it's all posted every 5'!
Public land is over run with hunters, but that doesn't seem to matter because, as far as I've experienced, the deer aren't there any way-they're where the living is easy, dining on flower gardens and shrubbery!
Now, the areas in these articles are more urban, but the circumstances are similar-without natural predators & declared off limits to hunters, deer are proliferating at an, imo, unhealthy rate. Any disease, such as CWD, would sweep through this area quickly and decimate deer numbers for years to come.
It is no wonder I hear drivers increasingly refer to deer as forest rats!
source:http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/reg...96J/story.html
Boston,MA:
Can you imagine if deer hunting were allowed in the Blue Hills?
It’s not that far-fetched an idea.
Hunting is strictly prohibited in the state’s Blue Hills Reservation, as it has been for decades, but it is an option that is being seriously explored, as officials try to figure out how to reduce the ever-growing population of deer living — thriving — in the expansive wooded property.
“It’s without question: There are way too many deer,” said Judy Lehrer Jacobs, executive director of the Friends of the Blue Hills, a Milton-based nonprofit devoted to preserving and protecting the state-owned parkland that covers more than 7,000 acres in Braintree, Canton, Dedham, Milton, Quincy, and Randolph.
The reservation is a widely used recreational area surrounded by well-populated suburbs and popular for bird-watching, hiking, skiing, and horseback riding. But the number of white-tailed deer has grown so much that officials say something needs to be done.
State Senator Brian A. Joyce, whose district includes the Blue Hills, said 6 to 8 deer per square mile is considered to be a healthy population for this region, but a recent survey conducted for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation found that there are as many as 85 deer per square mile in the reservation.
“There is an extraordinary and unsafe number of deer living in the Blue Hills Reservation,” said Joyce, a Milton Democrat. He said they pose “serious public health concerns” because as their population has increased, so has the prevalence of ticks, which can carry Lyme disease, babesiosis, and other illnesses.
Because deer feed on vegetation close to the forest floor, they have also made a significant impact on the understory of the forest, and their grazing is causing environmental and ecological damage to the reservation, he said.
Joyce added a provision to last year’s Environmental Bond Bill calling for the state to develop and implement a plan to control deer populations in areas where their density exceeds 50 per square mile. He pointed to the deer-hunting program developed for the Quabbin Reservoir as an example of what can be done. Controlled hunts have been held on Quabbin watershed lands since 1991, and they have helped vegetation and improved water quality, he said.
Joyce said the Department of Conservation and Recreation will work with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and solicit public input on what measures should be taken. “I expect there will be a program in place over the next year. My sense is that they’re looking at different options,” he said, and “the safest, most humane approach” will be chosen.
According to the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, there are 85,000 to 95,000 deer statewide, but densities vary widely. Deer populations on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket have reached approximately 50 per square mile — and that is high, according to Marion Larson, chief of information and education for the division.
Female deer can give birth to two or three fawns every year, according to Larson. Hunting remains the most practical way to manage the population, and the notion of a “controlled hunt” could take several different forms, she said. It may be limited to bow and arrow hunting only, or the hunt could take place on a particular day.
For the most recent deer-hunting at the Quabbin, hunters were chosen by lottery and the hunt was held in specific areas of the property on specific dates.
Bill Hickey, a spokesman for DCR, said the state will carefully consider opening any additional areas to hunting. “This is very preliminary, and we are considering this on a case-by-case basis,” he said in an e-mail.
“In Willowdale State Forest [in Ipswich] and Wompatuck State Park [in Hingham], elected officials have asked our agency to consider a controlled hunt, but no decisions have been made. Any decision to open additional areas would be done in consultation with our partners at [the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife] and the local communities.”
The Friends of the Blue Hills said that the group is waiting for the state’s recommendations, and that it has not taken a position on the issue.
But many agree on one thing: Something needs to be done.
Laura Beebe, a board member of the Friends who lives in Milton, said she is concerned that the booming population of deer will bring more car accidents and Lyme disease. She said she has also seen the impact that deer have had on the area.
“The understory has been really decimated,” she said. “You can see through the trees now.”
Beebe said she is waiting to see what the state recommends, and she would be in favor of a “very controlled” deer hunt if it was limited to bows and arrows.
“I think people might be more open to it,’’ she said, given that such weapons have a smaller range. “Guns make me nervous. I don’t like the thought of [guns] in our Blue Hills. This is a park. It’s very urban. There are people, horses, and dogs. It’d be a real challenge
01-18-2015, 05:59 AM
#10
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: gilbert az
Posts: 1,168
a lot of land is posted for a couple of reasons hunters are now more often planting food plots and trying to get their deer and turkey populations in balance and they don't want the city folks just running all over their property like they used to in the past.the only advantage of letting people hunt your property is they get the deer moving if the action is slow in my mind i would prefer to pick who i would let hunt and dictate where and when they can hunt. the state land that i have hunted is not overrun with hunters because in the past years people can't afford to hunt the way they used to "my opinion" i have never heard deer called forest rats before !