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.
The growing trend in the state residents' view of the natural environment is cosmetic ...forested land, and they don't want the trees cut. With the high canopy, no light reaches the forest floor, and no green plants can grow to supply food for deer. What little does manage to sprout is quickly eaten by the deer. As a result, many species of native flora never get an opportunity to grow, and sadly, given enough time, many become endangered.
The true boom in the overall state deer herd occurred in the 1960s and '70s, shortly after a large percentage of small family-run farms ceased operating. The fallow fields and pastures experienced a gradual reclamation of natural growth. Emerging flora that provided excellent food for deer. However, this transition only lasted about 10-15 years, after which the growth of pole-size trees that blocked sunlight resulted in the ground-level growth to disappear. If you're old enough to have hunted during that era, take a trip back to a farm that you hunted in that era, but has been dormant since, and I think you'll realize how that habitat has changed immeasurably.
Conversely, look at the habitat that harbors the highest densities of deer today – the fringes of more populated areas where cluster developments, commercialization, landscaping changes and flora management and cultivation have occurred. There's an abundance of low-growth browse and flora there, but little or no hunting is available. So managing the overabundant deer via DMPs in these areas is fruitless.
As I've said in the past, I don't envy the DEC's deer management people today or in the future. The current method involves yearly harvest trends. If the harvest of deer in a Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) is increasing, the DEC issues more DMPs. If it is decreasing, fewer DMPs are issued. But that doesn't work any more. The true blockade in trying to manage state's deer isn't the deer, but the changes in the state's habitat ecosystems where the animals live. If the DEC starts cutting the adult trees on public land to open it up for better deer (and other wildlife) habitat, the public outcry quickly follows. "They've ruined the forest!"
Since such a high percentage of the public's perception of "natural habitat" has undergone change, leaning far more toward the cosmetic and away from the practical, far more residents who visit public lands want to see forestland, complete with towering trees and easy-to-walk-through open ground beneath them. Such dominate age ecosystems may be pleasing to the eyes, but are lousy natural wildlife habitat systems.
What's the answer? In this writer's opinion, we need to educate the public, starting with school-age youths, as to what the necessary dynamics of a natural ecosystem is, and not what we perceive it to be. Maybe then, the value of a properly functioning natural ecosystem will change the way they view the great diversity that is truly the real outdoor world and not a scene from a calendar.

Bobcats But No Lions
If last week's column about big cats accomplished anything, it resulted in a modest influx of photos of bobcats that were locally caught on camera, both hand-held and motion-activated (or trail cameras). However, no mountain lions.