Laura Diefenbach - OnEarth Magazine

My Experience Communicating about Deer Overpopulation

The Barnard College class that I am in currently, Environmental Ethics Literature and Action, required a semester-long project that focused on an environmental issue. I originally wanted to focus on the bow-hunting in Cornwall. I planned on interviewing residents in the area, those who oppose it and those who support it, as well as the policy-makers behind the management plan. I thought I would conclude my project by creating a town hall meeting presenting the results of the bow hunt and expressing the ranging opinions of bow hunting in hopes to provide people with the background necessary in order to form an opinion of their own on the subject of bow hunting as a management technique. However, as soon as I started interviewing people in Cornwall and started blogging, the ...read full post

Comments (1) | December 13, 2009
Personal Reasons for Hunting Deer

On November 21, I went to Black Rock Forest for the first day of deer season. Among the many hunters there on the first day, one came to hunt very early in the morning, even though it was his significant other's birthday. This led me to the question; what drives someone to want to hunt? Why would someone want to get up before sunrise and sit still outside in the cold weather waiting for a deer to come into sight?

(Note that the picture is neither real nor taken during hunting at Black Rock Forest.)
What I've learned from interviewing hunters in the states of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, is that attitudes towards hunting seem to rely on where you are and by whom you were raised. Almost all hunters started hunting because someone in their family did it and taught them how to shoot deer or other animals. Most hunters ...read full post

Comments (0) | December 13, 2009
Deer Management Options and Current Practices

The major lethal options for deer management are hunting, bow hunting, snipers, and a common nonlethal option is the use of contraceptives. Hiring snipers and using contraceptives are costly and not effective if the deer population is of a large size and not contained. Having snipers come and kill deer would bring the population level down to a desirable size but besides the expensiveness of it, one large-scale reduction in the population is not desirable. The population would thrive after the event, allowing for more resources for each surviving deer, which will lead to better reproduction in the following spring. Hiring snipers could control deer populations, not-to-mention render you bankrupt, if it is used continuously from year to year as a management technique. In terms of ...read full post

Comments (0) | December 7, 2009
Keeping Deer out of the Garden

I have had firsthand experience trying various techniques to deer-proof a garden. Our garden, on two feet of stone wall and completely surrounded by a 6-foot fence, manages to keep the deer out but the unprotected plants and flowers in the rest of the yard do not have similar luck. Unfortunately, some of the most gorgeous flowers to me happened to be some of the tastiest options for deer. For gardeners and others trying to keep deer away from plants, here are some techniques and resources to help.

One method to prevent deer from eating your plants is to plant ones that deer do not prefer to eat. Ann Flagler, a horticulturist in Sparta, N.J. mentions that mountain laurels, daffodils, andromeda, and plants of the mint family fall under this category. On the contrary, Ms. Flagler says ...read full post

Comments (0) | December 4, 2009
Sightseeing in NYC? Check Out the Deer!

I first started to hear about deer population problems two summers ago when I went to a town hall meeting in Cornwall, N.Y. At this meeting, any concerned person could learn about and discuss the deer population with other residents and a panel of people from the area who had experience with or jobs related to deer. The range of responses at this meeting amazed me. Some argued that there was no deer problem. Others claimed that deer populations were only in the nearby forest and not actually in the town. One woman's repeated announcement that "nature will take care of the deer" was met with the majority of the attendees quickly casting aside any amiability and reacting with sheer disagreement. Fortunately, less than two years later, residents have been more educated on the subject of deer and a deer management program has been implemented in the area due to the actions of a certain woman, Emily Thomas.

The people claiming ...read full post

Comments (0) | November 14, 2009
Bow Hunting in Cornwall

Following the example of Westchester County, Cornwall, New York is currently experiencing its first bow hunt in the town and village. This decision came about after years of discussion and activism on the part of Emily Thomas. I have had the privilege of meeting and keeping in touch with Ms. Thomas following my first summer in Cornwall. I spoke with her about the events leading up to this first bow-hunting season.

Ms. Thomas was raised to care about food and the land. She has been a member of the Grail for about twenty years. A couple years ago, she began to notice that the flowers and plants that she had planted and loved ...read full post

Comments (0) | November 10, 2009
Annually Assessing Deer Populations: Case Study at Black Rock Forest

As I mentioned in previous posts, I have been interning at Black Rock Forest for several years. For the past year, I have worked with the forest manager, John Brady, in assessing the deer population at the forest. Using a variety of techniques annually allows us to determine several aspects of the deer population in order to try and generate a complete understanding of the deer at the forest. Some of these techniques are the deer tracking census, spotlight census, and information from the hunting take.
A method started at Black Rock in 1988, the deer tracking census (DTC), is a way to create an index of over-wintering deer. The DTC is performed at 12 and 24 hour intervals after each snowfall.

John and some others ride along roadways in the forest to observe any deer trails in the snow. The roadways are a great place to ...read full post

Comments (0) | November 1, 2009
Deer Threaten Polar Bears and Humans

This past week, I was driving down a commonly used side road and had to bring the car to a crawl because of a young white-tail deer in the road. With the sun shining on the road and the colored leaves floating to the ground around it, my immediate reaction was saying aloud, "Aw, it is gorgeous". I sat in the car, almost at a complete stop, for a good two minutes watching this young deer walk along the yellow lines in the middle of the road with no intention of hurrying or getting off of the road. Unaware of what triggered the change in my thoughts, I finally realized that this is not how it is supposed to be. I should not be the one changing my plans of driving down this road to my destination because this deer feels like walking on man-made roadways. The deer did not appear graceful and mesmerizing anymore but rather seemed like a nuisance and an obstacle. Sometimes when we see nature out its normal habitat, like deer in roads, it may appear picture-worthy ...read full post

Comments (0) | October 27, 2009
Managing the Deer for the Forest

Once at devastatingly low population levels, white-tail deer repopulated with the help of hunting regulations and overprotection. This was a success in terms of conservation, but it was not long after its revival that the deer population kept rising to reach unmanageable numbers. Without natural predators like wild dogs and coyotes, white-tail deer are now destroying forest habitat and endangering the lives of other animals. A question my professor likes to ask is, “should we manage the deer for the forest or the forest for the deer?” The answer to this interesting question is the former; the deer need to be managed for the forest. If this is not done, our forests are going to undergo drastic changes, which will affect the plants and wildlife. Although I have experience in studying deer in New York State, I am going to discuss some impacts the deer diet has on the forest in general without concentrating on New York in particular. Some numbers and dates that are ...read full post

Comments (3) | October 18, 2009
The Need for Deer Management: Case Study at Black Rock Forest

Having grown up in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, it is hard to remember the first time I ever saw a deer. In childhood, I did not despise them for their diet (the shrubs on my family's property) or think of ways to get rid of them, but instead enjoyed watching "Bambi", or spotting them in the yard and watching the white of their tails bob as they gracefully ran. However, it wasn't until I became an environmental biology major in college that I began to think of their impact on the forest and our daily life. Deer have become so overabundant in certain areas that they are causing some real problems, and the population needs to be managed in the best way possible.

It is important that in states such as Pennsylvania and New York, where the deer are overpopulated, deer management plans are implemented. It amazed me when I learned how much research, data ...read full post

Comments (0) | October 8, 2009