Late last winter, the Wildlife Management Unit 7M Deer Management Citizen Task Force, an appointed stakeholder group living within the unit and from all walks of life, recommended that the Department of Environmental Conservation reduce the unit's ongoing annual deer population by approximately ten percent. This would be done via the future number of deer management permits (DMPs) that are issued by the DEC to harvest antlerless deer. The primary reasoning of the task force's request was largely based on damages caused by deer – depredation of crops and domestic flora, collisions with motor vehicles, etc. However, the annual harvest data collected by the DEC indicated the number of antlerless deer taken in the unit should be reduced. The DEC's primary management guide is the bucks taken per square mile, and when that figure began dropping steadily in the unit over the past few years, it signaled that the deer population in WMU 7M had been decreasing. So last year no management permits were issued, a move to allow the herd to stabilize and probably increase slightly in 2006. But to honor the decision of the task force, the DEC issued more 7M permits for 2006 that it had probably intended
With the regular firearms hunting season opening this Saturday, it's estimated that about half the hunters will be carrying a DMP for 7M and, as such, be able to harvest an antlerless deer, in addition to an antlered buck. The burning question is, will this have a positive impact on reducing the deer-related problems voiced by various members of the task force? In talking with many long-term hunters, writers who specialize in deer hunting and management subjects, and deer management biologists, the answer was probably not.
Unlike some species of large game animals, whitetail deer living in even moderately populated regions with good habitat, such as ours, have a relatively small home range, usually less than a mile. Given about a 50-50 ratio of unhunted to hunted deer habitat acreage, which is probably close to what our private land areas are today, heavy annual harvests on the land that's hunted will fail to sufficiently reduce the deer population in the areas that aren't hunted. However, since the largest harvest and highest hunter density occur on the lands open to hunting, the deer population will be reduced there. Meanwhile, the population will either remain the same or keep increasing in the unhunted areas.
This is becoming increasingly evident as area hunters report seeing progressively fewer deer in the private and public land areas still open to hunting, while residents and vehicle operators in unhunted areas continue to see at least as many or more than in previous years. The question remains as to just how effective deer management – including issuing more permits – can be, given this situation? The complaints coming from both sides, hunters as well as residents and vehicle operators, continue, and issuing more or less permits in any given year is proving increasingly ineffective in resolving both sides' complaints.
From strictly a personal standpoint, I can attest to the fact that I'm seeing fewer deer in recent years than in previous years. But I also must clarify this by saying that each year I lose places that I hunted previously. Whether it's new ownership, posting against anyone hunting there, or residential development, the simple truth is, I'm seeing the private areas still open to hunting with permission steadily disappearing. Like many hunters, this is forcing me to turn to those that are, and that usually means state forest lands.
Many folks probably mistakenly believe that state forests (i.e. large sections of woodlands) is the preferred habitat for whitetails. That is a major misconception. Deer are primarily "edge-oriented" when it comes to their preferred habitat. Big woods just fail to offer sufficient low browse and other ground level food stuffs because the high canopy of the big trees blocks the necessary sunlight reaching the ground to promote low flora growth. However, cultivated land such as found around meadows, fields and lawns provide ideal deer browse, and brushy or small wooded areas nearby provide bedding locations and security. The result is the density of deer will be much greater than in the extended wooded areas such as the state forests offer.
This is often evident in areas where state forests border on farmlands and clustered residential areas. These areas see deer drifting back and forth between private and public land, but seldom venturing too far from the private land areas that offer the best food. Deer tend to drift away from unusual human intrusion, so when they sense an increasing number of humans (i.e. hunters) in the public land, they move to the nearby private land areas until the intrusive density subsides. This, along with poorer habitat, is why deer harvests in state forest land areas is gradually declining, while deer densities nearby are increasing or remaining relatively unchanged from year to year.
The third factor is that, generally speaking, there are fewer and older hunters in the woods each year. When hunters see increasingly fewer deer each year they hunt, they naturally don't hunt as long or as actively, regardless of their age, and fewer younger people are opting to hunt today. Aging hunters, by nature, are less driven to be successful in taking a deer each year because most have "been there, done that" in decades past. But they still enjoy being in the deer woods, if only for a day or two, even if no deer are seen or taken. Even the allure of a nearly month-long hunting season is proving inadequate to substantially increase the time hunters spend hunting, which is evident in so few being out after the initial day or two of the season.
Hunting, and deer hunting in particular, as a wildlife management tool is increasingly becoming less of a conservation challenge and more of a social challenge, as wildlife biologists try to solve the dilemma of properly managing deer and other wildlife species. With each passing year, the tools (hunters and trappers) and access to do so decline, while increasingly more people fail to grasp the basic concept of conservation and the necessary management it requires. The worst part is that no one seems to have a valid answer to reverse this trend.
Good luck this year to the hunters who remain loyal, for they are a disappearing species. And be careful out there, whether driving to or from the hunt, entering or exiting a tree stand, if you use one, and identifying your target and background area before squeezing that round off.