White-tailed Deer
When
I was a youngster, I spent as much time in the woods as possible, but I
never saw a wild deer. Instead, I was enthralled by the deer bred
at Bays Mountain Park in Kingsport, dreaming of stumbling across their
graceful forms as I hiked my favorite trails. After leaving for
college, I distinctly remember my mother emailing me about the wild
deer she startled on the Clinch Mountain --- both of us were awestruck
by her close encounter with such an amazing animal.
That was ten
years ago. Now, I count myself lucky if I go a whole day without
seeing a deer. The beasts eat my garden down to the roots, chop
the limbs off my young apple trees, and generally make a nuisance of
themselves.
Even so, our
deer problem is not quite as bad as folks have it a few hundred miles
north. In 2001, I spent a year working on a preserve in the
eastern panhandle of West Virginia where the deer population hovered
around 45 deer per square mile. I was shocked by the deer browse
line in the park’s forest --- every plant within deer reach had been
decimated. Oak forests were turning into Red Maple forests since
deer nibbled every oak seedling as soon as it poked out of the ground
while leaving Red Maples alone.
Deer
overpopulation is a new trend. Before Europeans arrived with
their guns, approximately eight deer could be found per square mile
across the United States. By 1900, though, we had nearly hunted
the deer to extinction, with only about one deer being found in every
ten square miles. In southwest Virginia, deer were effectively
absent.
Strict hunting
laws and restocking slowly built the deer population back up over the
course of the twentieth century, until suddenly the pendulum swung the
other way into overpopulation. Deer are especially prevalent in
suburbs where they have plenty of well-watered lawns to munch on, and
where they kill approximately 130 Americans per year by jumping in
front of cars. Current deer densities in Russell County average
two to three times the deer population before European settlement, and
densities in nearby Scott County may be nearing the population density
in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia.
The problem is
exacerbated by a lack of natural predators, a culture shift away from
hunting, and by state game laws that cater to hunters and promote
overpopulation. Most state game management agencies still mandate
strict limits on the number of does to be killed, a strategy that
worked well when the deer were close to extinction but now means that
hunters make little dent in the deer population. After all, it
only takes one buck to fertilize a dozen does. The Virginia
Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, for example, is currently
working to increase populations of deer on public lands in southwest
Virginia while stabilizing the population on private lands.
Although I am
tempted to start breeding wolves and mountain lions every time I go out
to dig a sweet potato and discover that the deer beat me to it, the
Quality Deer Management Association
has a better strategy that is
likely to please hunters, farmers, and city-dwellers alike. The
Association advocates new game laws that would require hunters to kill
several does each year before they are allowed to kill a buck.
The policy has been put into place in a few states already, and
scientists have noticed that as doe populations decline, buck sizes
increase --- a bonus for the deer hunters who crave massive,
twelve-point bucks. And as deer densities retreat to more
manageable levels, the forest begins to recover. Perhaps in my
lifetime, seeing a deer will once again be a mystical experience.
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