Environmental Impact

I’ll sum it up in two concepts: “Playing God”, and “Unintended Consequences”

Researchers found that sites with the highest abundance of the native animals had the lowest shrub layer vegetation cover and a lower number of birds.

It is described as the first study of its kind in the UK to examine the possible impact of just one species of deer on the natural environment….Since 1995, the Deer Initiative – a partnership between statutory, voluntary and private organisations – has been looking at ways to establish and promote the “sustainable management of wild deer” in England and Wales.

In order to deliver an effective management policy, the partnership highlighted a number of challenges that needed to be addressed, including:

Deer often have specific impacts on vulnerable habitat as well as agriculture and forestry
The animals tend to range over large areas (beyond site boundaries) and need to be managed on a landscape scale, with collaboration between landowners

Ecologists warn that the threat from deer to woodlands consist of a number of factors, including a reduction in the growth and density of saplings, bark damage and a change in the composition of under-storey vegetation.

In England they used to shoot and eat them. Now look what they have!

This reminds me of all the forest conservation that lead to massive destructive wild fires, as small fires were not allowed to burn up the brush.

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One Response to Environmental Impact

  1. Chris in TX says:

    We see the adverse effects of deer over population in TX as well. When we knocked out screw worm a few decades ago the fawn mortality dropped way down, and since we’d long ago killed off most of the apex predators, the populations increased. We hunt the shit out of ’em down here (it’s big business) but a few things have changed in the last 15-20 years.
    Ranchland is being developed into subdivisions. People move into the deer habitat. Inevitably, a few idiots that watched “Bambi” too many times start feeding the cute hoofed rats. Result? An artificially sustained, isolated suburban deer population, with no predators (HOA’s won’t let hunters in to cull), so no way to thin the herd (apart from Momma’s SUV). It’d make an interesting study for some wildlife biologist somewhere.

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