The problem is habitat, not deer

In case you weren't aware, last June the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court rejected the preliminary objections of the PA Game Commission (PGC) and granted the Unified Sportsmen of PA (USP) their day in court. TheUSP, representing tens of thousands of Pennsylvania sportsmen, sued to stop the doe seasons on state game lands and state forest lands. In their suite, they asked the court to provide injunctive relief and halt the killing of does on public land, but not private land.

It is USP's contention that the resource is literally being destroyed on public lands since the PGC does not separate public from private land doe tags, and many believe that doe tags are being utilized disproportionately on public land. This leads to the age-old problem of over-harvest on public land and under-harvest on private land. The PGC has admitted that they do not know how many deer live in the Commonwealth but for 2008 have issued about 860,000 doe permits with a two-week concurrent buck and doe season. Does this controversy over deer management sound familiar? It should, for the same controversy exists here in New York.

The separation of deer densities between private and public lands has continued to grow for the past two decades here ... and depending on the area and region, the density gap is far wider in some areas than in others. Landowners and motorists complain there are too many deer, while deer hunters complain there are too few, at least on huntable public lands. The most common complaint is the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issuing too many Deer Management Permits (DMPs) to take antlerless deer, and that is causing deer in public land areas to be overharvested by the steadily increasing density of hunters that don't have access to hunting private land.

Here in New York, of the 220,000 total estimated deer taken last year, 114,690 were antlerless deer taken under authority of DMPs. But it's nearly impossible to determine how many were taken from private or public land. Since many public land hunters simply want venison, they take the first deer that presents them with a shot. Conversely, there are many landowners and private-land hunters who prefer taking an antlered buck, and leave the does and yearlings for next year's seed.

As is happening in Pennsylvania, there's concern in New York that overly abundant deer are destroying the native fauna and thereby changing the natural ecosystem so many other species of wildlife depend on. But many experts agree that the problem is less about deer and far more about the major changes that have occurred in the state's habitat. Deer are herbivores that exist mainly from low-growth flora browse. Any edible matter higher than seven feet is normally worthless as food unless deep crusted winter snow elevates the deer higher off the ground. Now stop and consider what has happened and is happening to much of our state's habitat.