Posted on 08/03/2014 11:20:47 AM PDT by ckilmer
Civil War battlefields may soon light up with gunfire once again if a new plan to "reduce" deer populations gets approved. The US National Parks Service has proposed a $1.8 million plan to hire sharpshooters to hunt and kill white-tailed deer at three Civil War battlefields over the next five years.
Deer populations at the Antietam and Monocacy battlefields, located in Maryland, as well as the Manassas battlefield in Virginia, are far above desired levels. The public is prohibited from hunting on the parkland, and populations have reached as high as 230 deer per square mile at Monocacy. The Parks Service hopes to bring those numbers down to 15 or 20 per square mile, reports the Associated Press.
The proposed plan would call for a maximum of 2,800 deer to be killed over the next five years. Once populations are brought to an acceptable level, the Parks Service hopes to use chemical contraceptives to maintain the herds' numbers. Why all the bloodshed? The Parks Service says that the large deer populations are damaging flora and the agency's efforts to preserve the historical sites. A public review period extends until September 3rd, at which time the agency will decide whether it will go through with the plan.
Venison sausage is excellent on pizza too. Made some last night.
Should just open these areas to public for hunting .
We have similar problems locally in that hunters are not permitted to control the deer and other wild animal populations in state parks ,cities, and HOA lands. Naturally the deer, raccoon, and other have become more than a nuisance.Yet misguided foolish people protest every sane effort to reduce the numbers by hunting.
Of course these same people are for killing human babies in the womb.
Just pretend they’re DC Yankees...
Who qualifies as a sharpshooter?
230 deer per square mile? That’s like shooting fish in a barrel.
True. And who gets the meat. Guess that will go to waste.
Deer are nuisance animals. Their population needs to be controlled.
I wonder how many $ millions are spent every year on car repairs due to deer collisions?
One thing’s for sure-body shops love ‘em.
Oh, you must try some venison-raised on a ranch, I’m a natural food eater, and meat hunter-venison is very lean, very flavorful and can be used any way beef can-it is totally natural-no feed lot, growth hormones, antibiotics, etc. I like to grill venison steaks, or on special occasions, put a haunch on the smoker with a mesquite fire, then serve it with a vinaigrette sauce made with herbs from my garden and fresh-picked juniper berries-served with a nice green salad and steamed or sautéed fresh veggies and a nice shiraz or merlot to drink, it is a natural, healthy meal fit for royalty...
Do you have a place to hunt? I hope I will have money by Fall to pay one of the nearby ranchers with more than 20-30 acres for a hunt-I live in a rural area with livestock-sheep, goats and such on small acreage, so hunting is not allowed in this neighborhood. If I only bag one average sized deer, it can provide as much as 50 pounds of meat, in cuts just like beef.
I’ve never seen that many deer in such a small area-there can’t be enough for them to eat-we get extra deer tags in years when there are too many per sq. mile, especially in dry years-they will get diseased and die off, affecting the health of the whole herd if culling is not done-they need to be managed like free range livestock...
Imagine if you could serve this in schools...very lean and lotsa protein. Beats soy burgers.
We didn't have steak when we were kids. When deer season came along, we were frying it for breakfast before going to school. Sure beat cereal.
I doubt it-Bambi will end up in someone’s freezer, no waste of good meat. Here if the game wardens decide the herd needs to be culled, the meat will be donated to private charities that run pantries, unless it is kept by those doing the culling. There is a huge fine for leaving meat in the field during a hunt here.
I’ve never had the opportunity to hunt bear-we don’t have them here, and I don’t have money to go to some other state to hunt-how does it taste-more like beef, or is it porky?
Round up the deer and put gray blankets on them - then they can get hunters to pay to participate in a re-creation of Pickett’s Charge. :)
Where do I sing up ??
I don’t have hunting experience. That can always change though, once I become trained over time. I plan to give myself a birthday gift this year or next year; a paid enrollment at a local gun range that trains adults on basic firearms. It’s a little over $200. for a few sessions of training. I look forward to it.
I was in the navy, and learned to mimic the sequence of certain procedures enough to pass the classes, but there was no follow up and thus no real learning. I want to become comfortable with the weight, feel, firing sounds and of course the inevitable recoil, which, with some guns, can knock you off your feet, so I hear. I’m excited about my plan, but I know better than to tell too many people about it. They may not understand the concept of recreational shooting, poor things.
I'll just bet they decide not to do something like that.
Agriculture.
We've fallen a long way since then.
paid to hunt deer?
what?
Since when did people have to be PAID to hunt deer?
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