OK, place your bets!
Which side will the enviro weenies fall on?
Deer eating away at forests nationwide
New York�s Department of Environmental Conservation estimates there are now 1 million deer living in the state. Nationally, the white-tailed deer population has increased from about 500,000 in the early 1900s to 25 million to 30 million today, according to various researchers.
In pre-European settlement times, deer population density was 10 to 15 deer per square mile. In the 19th century, numbers dwindled as land was cleared for agriculture and commercial hunting became widespread.
In the early 20th century, states limited hunting, preserved open space and imported the animals. Much of the land cleared for agriculture has since been converted back to wild land as farmers abandoned the business.
Now, in places like southern New York and northern Pennsylvania, there are 30 to 35 deer per square mile, Curtis said.
�In some ways we�ve been too successful at bringing the deer back,� Curtis said.
Geez, ya think Curt!?!
Today�s high deer population may shape how the country�s forests look decades from now. The animals are reducing the number of trees and seedlings and affecting which species will survive, forestry experts say.
In the 14,000-acre Letchworth State Park in western New York, a 1,200-acre �safety area� for recreation where hunting is forbidden has seen vast damage from overbrowsing by deer.
�There are no saplings, no underbrush for ground nesting birds,� said Richard Parker, regional director of the Genesee State Park Region. �There will be no regeneration of the forest. In 40 to 50 years, as the current forest dies, there will be nothing to replace it.�
The deer are �eating anything and everything that�s there,� he said.
I volunteer, right here and now, to go to places over populated with deer and help the environment out. All I require is a prohibition on the ‘out of state’ license fees by the respective states.
Found @ Ravenwood’s Universe
This could be the moonbat steel cage match of the year – PETA v. EarthFirst!