A couple highlights...
These benefits started to become visible across Pennsylvania after Dr. Gary Alt, a renowned black bear biologist, took over the state Game Commission’s deer program in 1999. By drastically extending antlerless seasons with increased doe tag allocations so that more does were harvested, he was able to significantly reduce deer numbers and create a more natural buck-doe ratio. Killing just bucks doesn’t help much in reducing overabundant deer because you can deplete the buck population by 95 percent, and the 5 percent that survive will impregnate most of the does.
Under Alt’s leadership, Pennsylvania made the first real progress in balancing deer to habitat on a state level. Through an intensive education campaign, Alt helped hunters recognize the benefits of scientific deer management. The Izaak Walton League presented Alt with an Honor Roll Award for his exemplary conservation efforts. The Quality Deer Management Association named him “Professional Deer Manager of the Year.” Safari Club International gave him its Conservation Award. Outdoor Life magazine gave him its Public Service Conservation Award. The Pennsylvania Wildlife Federation gave him its Outstanding Conservation Professional Award and (along with Audubon Pennsylvania) named him Conservation Educator of the Year.
Still, after six years, Alt resigned from the Pennsylvania Game Commission — a decision he attributes to political interference that intimidated his superiors to the point that his team couldn’t do its job. “The history of deer management,” he told me, “is full of a very small proportion of tenacious, highly motivated hunters driving the system. They oppose antlerless harvest and extended seasons. And they know exactly who to contact.” The politicians then hold the agencies hostage, threatening to nix important legislation or license fee increases unless managers cater to the more-is-better crowd...
...But a handful of local hunters calling themselves the Redding Sportsmen’s Alliance whipped the community and politicians into a froth of panic and paranoia over a supposed reduction in hunting opportunities. In widely circulated letters, the Alliance falsely charged that White Buffalo and the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, both of which had sought and acquired all necessary permits, “have broken a number of state and federal laws in the Town of Redding, and now the public and the state of Connecticut need to hold them accountable.” Equally fictitious accusations appeared almost daily on Web sites or in newspaper ads...
...After Williams and his team counted 45 deer per square mile from a helicopter flying 20 miles per hour at 200 feet, the Redding Sportsmen’s Alliance proclaimed the figure was “mathematically impossible” because some of its members had observed only 2 deer per square mile — from a Cessna flying 120 miles per hour at 500 feet. “One Alliance member,” Williams says, “revealed that he put on night-vision goggles and body armor and sat next to the shooting site to ‘keep an eye on White Buffalo.’ Another was following us around, videotaping. Someone was going to get hurt, so I pulled the plug.” Although White Buffalo had removed 87 deer over 3 years, that didn’t reduce the population to anywhere near the target of 8 to 10 animals per square mile. All the effort and grant money was wasted...
The Solution
“The greatest mistake ever made in wildlife management” is how Alt defines allowing deer to overpopulate to the point they destroy the ecosystem they’re part of. For a while, it looked like he would permanently correct that mistake in Pennsylvania. When Alt inherited the deer program, the state had the most unhealthy buck-doe ratio in the United States. Ninety percent of harvested bucks had left their mothers only six months earlier. “We were exterminating them as soon as they grew antlers,” Alt says. During his tenure, antlerless harvest was the highest by far in the state’s history.
And it began to work. “Even when you start shooting half a million deer a year like we did, it takes a while for that to be measurable on a forest ecosystem,” explains Alt. “The numbers are so high you’ve got to grind them down, and then they have to be down a while before the plants respond. It wasn’t until about three years ago that we started to see major improvements. We’ve got a generation of trees past the deer for the first time in decades.”...
...But the “sad news,” Alt says, “is that the Game Commission has been taking more and more bricks out of the wall. The real killer is that they’ve pretty much gutted the concurrent buck and doe season [with its heavy emphasis on antlerless harvest]. Even though the bucks-only faction is a tiny percent of the sportsmen, they’re effective. They pressure the agency through their legislators.”
If you live in an area with too many deer and really want to help wildlife (deer included), get involved at the state level in support of science-based wildlife management. Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper. Attend hearings. Educate your fellow hunters. Urge your fish and wildlife agency to base all management decisions on science provided by the wildlife professionals you and your fellow sportsmen help hire through license fees and the taxes you pay on guns, archery equipment, and ammunition. Stand tall against voices of the past that insist on the failed, dangerous practice of bucks-only harvest.
The Dangers of Too Many Deer
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire