Letters to the Editor

To the Editor:

At the turn of the millennium the PGC, DCNR and groups like QDMA (now NDA) told PA hunters that deer were responsible for nearly every forest woe and the way to fix those woes was to drastically reduce, to unhuntable numbers in some areas, the deer population. With deer eliminated, the understory would magically burst forth again; plants other than ferns would return to the forest floor; and all the forest would again be happy.

Many of us balked at the notion that deer were the sole cause of forest woes and we cringed at the number of deer they wanted eliminated. But we were dismissed as greedy hunters who lacked expertise and just wanted a deer behind every tree. Spoiled children, as one PGC biologist described us.

Now, more than two decades into their plan, many of those same experts are being forced to admit that annihilating deer was not the magical forest elixir we were told it would be.

The Aug 3 Herald ran a Bay Journal News Service article (study Dishes Up Surprises In Deer Behavior, Forest Impacts -by AD Crable), that discusses a study began in 2013 and continues today. The study “is showing that what happens in a forest and the best way to ensure its future growth is much more complex and involves a dance of wildlife plants and soil.”

So, the experts are finally admitting that deer are not the sole problem. Soil issues are now thought to be the reason behind some plants not growing. No matter how few deer, some plants still won’t grow. DNCR still uses the absence of Indian cucumber root to decide whether there are too many deer but now it’s been discovered that the plant won’t even grow inside some fenced areas that are void of deer.

The study also found that field technicians “had trouble consistently scoring how deer browsing affects understory” and yet they still use those scores to determine how many doe tags to issue.

So, 25 years later, after countless perspective new hunters have lost interest in the sport from sitting days without seeing a tail or hearing a snort; after camps and economies in northern PA have been boarded up due to lack of hunters because of lack of deer, now we’re once again learning the repetitive lesson that the scientists of today often prove that the scientists of yesterday were wrong and, in this case, it’s many of the same scientists but somehow we’re still allowing them to be the definitive arbiters of policy, and how many doe tags to issue, moving forward.

Wayne A. Bush

Roaring Spring