Kenton, I know this is a Maine site but I found this interesting to go along with your nuisance deer thread................
Audubon Society labels deer a threat and pushes for hunt
Monday, March 14, 2005
BY BRIAN T. MURRAY AND LAWRENCE RAGONESE
Star-Ledger Staff
For the first time in its 108-year history, the New Jersey Audubon Society is taking a stand on hunting and will ask the state to reduce the population of white-tailed deer.
In a special report to be released today, the bird-watching group says white-tailed deer have become an ecological "stressor" for birds and other wildlife by eating away the natural landscape. Hunting, the report says, is a viable option to bring the deer population down to a manageable number that doesn't eat through thousands of acres of forest underbrush.
The group is also considering opening some of its own preserves to hunters.
"I can't look at myself in the mirror anymore," said Eric Stiles, vice president for conservation and stewardship of New Jersey Audubon. "As stewards of the forest, we have to do something to stop this disaster."
In advocating deer hunting, New Jersey Audubon is breaking its silence on the issue.
The Audubon Society is calling on state wildlife authorities to revamp deer management strategies, and claims hunting policies are geared too much toward keeping enough deer around for sports hunters rather than seriously reducing the state's herd of nearly 200,000 white-tail.
The report also concluded deer management methods such as fencing and birth control have very limited impact, and that the state's entire ecology is at stake.
"We are not demonizing deer. Humans created the perfect habitat for deer, with no checks in New Jersey except for your car bumper," Stiles said.
One place that has been ravaged by deer is the Audubon's 3,000-acre Scherman-Hoffman Sanctuary in Somerset and Morris counties.
"Over the years, it got harder and harder to find anything out there," said Radis, who lives in Rockaway. "The deer ate everything -- the wood anemone, the dwarf ginseng. The ground used to be carpeted with trout lilies and other flowers. They're just gone now. It's sad."
Other environmental groups have also begun to take aim at deer.
"It is our obligation to do something about it, to deal with the deer. White-tailed deer are a threat to our conservation areas," said Mike Van Clef, director of science and stewardship for the Nature Conservancy in New Jersey.
His organization will open its 14 North Jersey preserves, totaling some 5,000 acres, to deer hunting this fall.