Posted on 01/11/2010 10:49:08 AM PST by Behind Liberal Lines
SYRACUSE, NY--The Chair of the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology at SUNY Syracuse says deer overpopulation is a greater threat to biodiversity in New York state than global warming.
Donald Leopold explained that "climate change isn't eliminating species, only moving their ranges."
Deer overpopulation, on the other hand, does eliminate other species, he noted.
"No other real or perceived threat is so pervasive throughout the entire state, nor eliminates the majority, if not all, of the understory of natural communities, greatly reducing the diversity of our natural communities and the function of these communities," Leopold explained.
"Ignoring what deer are doing... is worse than throwing litter on the highways, driving gas guzzlers, not recycling, and many other actions."
Leopold, who also serves as a Distinguished Teaching Professor in the program, researches "drivers of diversity and causes of varity in terrestrial and wetland ecosystems." According to his website he has published over fifty-five peer-reviewed papers, six books, six book chapters, six invited book reviews, three proceedings, and many miscellaneous publications, all generally about topics in forest and wetland ecology, and native plants.
Here's an idea--organize hunters, offer them a special night license, call in a truck from the FDA and some meat processors. Ask the hunters for an extra ten bucks special license, and harvest all that organic, local, non-hormone, non-antibiotic. Process the meat, grind most of it up, freeze it and sell it or give it away to soup kitchens and church pantries. This is a resource, and we need to kill and eat it. Organize all along the parkway...why is something like this so impossible to do these days?
Geez, not where I am in NC. They're not much bigger than a decent-sized dog where I live, there are so many of them. I almost backed over one not too long ago. It was at 3am (I was headed to work, half-asleep) and it was eating my wife's petunias by our mailbox.
Waaaaay overpopulated. Of course, I'm in a more urban and liberal area...God forbid that someone might shoot (with... HORRORS - a gun!) Bambi where I live.
The gang-bangers can use the abandoned lot about a mile up the road for all of the target practice they want, though. That's OK, they're just misunderstood teenagers. So long as they don't shoot any deer, they're just fine.
Now THAT'S funny. I'm sure that the deer are very impressed by the fences as they hurdle over them. LOL!
Isn’t this guy worried that he will be punished by the Global Warming “gods”. Those people don’t like dissent.
My father-in-law would be more than happy to eradicate the threat.
We're in the deer capital of the world. You can hardly walk outside without having to beat them off with a stick. There's more and more having to come down from the hills because of the new housing developments. Everything I said above related to a deer event with us. Deer used to wait for hubby's truck just to bash it. Poor thing was all beat up for years but it wasn't until one hit the front and then decided to ram it's head into the back wheel well that finally totaled it. Another time, I had just bought a new car the week before. I was coming down our road slowly and saw a young buck in middle of the road. We had a stand off over who owned the road and he won by ramming the the side of my shiny new car. My next car, hubby and I were going out on an actual very long overdue date (kids at grandma's!) and we hadn't driven a mile past the gate when a deer leaped across the road in front of another car and sprang off my hood with his hind legs. I didn't even want to stop to look at the damage, but hubby made us go back and that taught us to never have another date again, sigh...
One day I went out to the garden and had this feeling something was missing. Looked around and didn’t see anything. Then went over to check on my sweet peas and there was nothing left. Not one leaf. Not one bent stem. Nothing. The deer hadn’t left any trace there had ever been any peas. Dang it, those were the best peas and the last of those seeds. Tasted like candy and we’d eat them fresh out of the bowl.
Pretty much the same happened to me. Giant buck ended up on the roof, I hit the brakes, and he slid off the front and stumbled off into the woods. The only damages were the driver’s side mirror lying in the road (I drilled holes and bolted it back on), lots of antler marks, and the roof was kind of caved in (my friend got inside and pushed it back out).
My favorite is to take fresh deer meet, have a butcher mix it with some ground pork and have the whole thing ground up into some mildly spicy sausage
Extend the season and increase the legal take. I’d take advantage of it.
Nature’s schadenfreude. LOL.
I feel for ya!
Big difference.
I still put my money on the deer. lol! Of course, you don't need to have a secure perimeter around your garden..... it just needs to be more secure than your neighbors'. :-)
And as for the culling permits, I believe it. They're like rabbits where I live. If we shot 85 deer, 850 would come to the funeral.
I've no idea why local municipalities don't harvest the deer....say, by hiring a bow hunter (I'd not want to hunt with a rifle in my neighborhood for safety reasons) or via other means. The meat would stock food banks for a long time.
No good. Most of the deer at issue are settling in residential neighborhoods where hunting is constrained by the proximity to dwellings, etc.
Connecticutt forests have not had new growth for twenty years. Undergrowth is non existant below 7 feet. The aging woods near my former home town of Redding are grounded in a muddy slimmy mess.
DO NOT! I repeat—DO NOT even THINK about sending any more of those damned rats to NC! LOL We have so many....
My sister lives in Raliegh, @ 2 miles from Crabtree Mall, and she has deer in her yard. Here on the coast, we are overrun, and of course all the handwringers are against any type of pop control.
My guys do their part, but... Sigh It’s not enough. I’d like to see a longer season personally—like year round!
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