Steel-Toe Boots
Rappahannock High School
11/1/2007
6:45:00 AM
Deer population in many areas is in excess of the 16
deer per square mile that is considered
the maximum amount of deer population that allows
for normal forest regeneration. Deer are
browsers and as such eat young seedlings of
desirable tree species before they are allowed to
mature into the canopy and emergent layers. Deer
populations need to be managed to be at low
enough levels to allow for normal forest
regeneration and diversity of wildlife and plant
habitats. At the present time deer eat most of the
seedlings while leaving ferns which in turn
block sunlight from other seedlings trying to take
off on the forest floor. The current level of
deer are hindering the new growth of sugar maple,
white ash, yellow poplar, hemlock, pin
cherry, oak, and aspen. However, much new growth is
occurring with species including black
cherry, beech, striped maple, pricky ash, and
ailanthus. The coveted tree species like, hickory,
oak, and sugar maple are being eliminated by the
deer’s feeding habits and slowly our forests
are losing these valuable hardwood trees.The most
popular way to manage deer population has
been through hunting. New forms of controlling the
deer population which have emerged
include fencing, plastic tubing, and repellent
sprays; however, these forms of management are
very expensive and are not feasible to be applied to
low to middle value forest stands. Deer
populations have been effectively excluded from
mature and young forests with fencing but
the cost of fencing being about $2.00 per linear
foot does not allow this to be an economical
solution. It seems that we must continue to rely on
hunting to help us manage the deer
population.Hunting as it has been practiced has not
effectively managed the deer population
and as a result changes need to be made. Some of
the changes that could help limit the deer
population include issuing more doe tags, open more
land to hunting, expand education
surrounding deer impact on forests, and allow more
deer to be killed. Some places that the
extra meat could go are places like the organization
Hunters Sharing the Harvest, which gives
venison to needy families, if the hunters could not
consume it themselves. While many of these
changes sound radical they are necessary for the
deer population to be controlled and our
forests to be sustainablely managed.
http://www.cacaponinstitute.org/Deer%20Slide%20Show/Forest%20Understory%20slide%2
0show.html http://michigansaf.org/Business/PosStates/Deer.htm
http://www.maes.msu.edu/uptic/library/Regeneration%20in%20a%20heavily%20browsed%2
0northern%20hardwood%20stand%20%85.pdf
http://www.deerandforests.org/home/impact/how-can-deer-change-the-forest/
http://www.deerandforests.org/resources/1-Whitetails%20are%20changing.pdf
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