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IWMC
World Conservation Trust |
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A Conservation Plus:
Audubon Magazine's Deer
Control Piece says it all
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Sometimes the Audubon Society gets it right. March 2002 was one of those
times, when the organization's magazine featured a piece on deer management by
author Ted Williams. This very long piece thoroughly covers the damage that
uncontrolled whitetail deer herds do to themselves, their environment, to
people, and to other species. Williams has left nothing out of the history of
deer mismanagement in America, and he feels that hunters share the blame for an
unnatural disaster that is continuing everywhere in the country. Deer herds
that are not heavily hunted for does as well as for bucks, quickly grow and
devastate farm crops, young trees, and all other browse until the entire
habitat is damaged. He cites damage from the East Coast to the Rockies, where
white tails even breed mule deer does, and cause damage to that species by
hybridization that leaves some animals sterile. Williams cites urban residents'
reluctance to approve "lethal" control, as they believe the claims of
the HSUS and the Friends of Animals that it is possible to control deer through
immunosterilization programs. This approach has been proven unworkable in field
conditions, yet the general public is misinformed by animal rights
organizations, and clings to the myth of contraception out of a manufactured
guilt that deer should not have to die "for them".
Our culture is a wonderful phenomenon. It causes entire human populations to
ignore empirical evidence for natural events and conditions, and to insist on
ineffective and even harmful environmental policies. Today's so-called
environmentalist organizations are seldom faced with effective rebuttals of
their "public education" campaigns. Ted Williams' article should be
distributed as a model for wildlife managers in every state in the nation
because it can convince people to have faith in those who speak for responsible
science-based wildlife management policies.
Thousands of car-deer collisions, massive outbreaks of Lyme disease, loss of
habitat for a myriad of song birds, millions of dollars in crop losses, real
property damage, and erosion from over browsing that kills trees and other
vegetation, are all the result of too many deer for the carrying capacity of
the land. Williams blames ignorance on the part of the public, cultural
reluctance on the part of hunters to kill does, and political timidity on the
part of state wildlife department officials, for the problem. This is an
article that will be considered a turning point in comment on conservation
issues, as much as was "Silent Spring" or the works of Aldo Leopold.
Read it in print or on the Audubon Society website, and be glad that so many
people may be influenced by it in a positive way.
Excerpt
"Each year, Pennsylvania's 1.6 million deer destroy $70 million worth
of crops and $75 million worth of trees. About 40,000 of them collide with
motor vehicles annually, doing $80 million worth of damage. This isn't just a
wildlife-management issue. 'If we can bring our deer herd under control, it
will have enormous impact all across America,' Alt told me. 'But if deer
hunters don't seize the initiative here and elsewhere, society will do it for
them.'
'How?' I asked.
'In a democracy, the majority rules. Less than 10 percent of the public are
hunters. We're getting less popular every year, and our average age is 49. On
the large landscape I think society will do exactly what it's doing in
urban-suburban areas--hire sharpshooters. They'll get refrigerator trucks and
sell venison on the international market, pay for the whole damned
thing'." 
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