Is Deer Hunting Too Good?

By Charles J. Alsheimer

“The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden as its gardener, to tend and to care for it.” Genesis 2:15 (Holy Bible—Living Bible translation).

 Modern man likes to give himself credit for the conservation movement. Truth be known, God beat us to it. After spending the first chapter of the Bible telling us how He created this incredible planet God told us 15 verses into the second chapter of Genesis that we are to not only tend for His earth but also take care of it to our utmost ability.

Unfortunately, in many parts of America , man has failed miserably to carry out this command. From the brink of extinction in 1900, America ’s whitetail populations have gone from 500,000 to more than 30 million in one century. The end result is that in many parts of the United States natural habitat has taken an incredible hit at the mouths of too many deer, because man has failed (intentionally or otherwise) to control deer populations.

From Rags to Riches – How Did It happen?

When the Europeans arrived on America ’s shores they found a pristine environment teeming with an abundance of wildlife. Since the dawn of time, creatures like deer had been managed by key predators and Native Americans.

The fur trade, quest for expansion and market hunting took wildlife populations (especially the white-tailed deer) to all-time lows by the late 1800s. Around 1900 a cry went out and people united in an attempt to keep many wildlife species from becoming extinct. Laws were passed to protect wildlife and deer hunting seasons in many portions of America were closed for the first time. In my area of New York State whitetails had all but vanished by the time 1900 rolled around. It took nearly 30 years for people in this part of the country to begin seeing deer again.

In the ’30s and ’40s, many areas of the Northeast reopened their deer season. During this period farming boomed. This set the stage for the whitetail’s rebirth. By way of example, there were less than 10 deer per square mile in our area in the early ’40s, today there are more than 50 in all areas and more than 70 in some. During the 1940s and ’50s both the whitetail and natural habitat thrived. It didn’t take long for this to change.

In 1939, our deer season opened for the first time in the 20th century, and for the next 15 years, only bucks could be harvested. Then, slowly New York State began initiating “doe days,” which progressed into deer management permits where hunters holding them could kill an additional buck or doe. A little more than 10 years ago our region of the state dropped the buck option from the deer management permits, allowing only does to be harvested on them. Up until this point, biologists had hoped hunters would help to kill more does. They didn’t. The better hunters used the permit to kill an additional buck, with most hunters simply passing on does.

Sadly there were too many within our area’s hunting ranks who felt the doe was sacred and vehemently opposed any doe harvest. Their thinking was that they wanted to see a lot of deer and does were the means to make it happen. To compound the problem, few hunters had any clue what the high deer numbers were doing to the forest ecosystem.

Our area of New York State was not unique to the exploding deer population phenomena. Pennsylvania to our south, and most areas in the Eastern United States were experiencing exploding whitetail populations as the year 2000 approached. The hunter’s quest to have more deer in the woods was a reality. In the process natural habitat was being plundered at an alarming rate.

Recognizing the Problem

I once heard a key deer biologist say, “Managing deer is easy; managing people is the tough part.” No truer words were ever spoken. Consequently, fixing America ’s burgeoning deer population has become very complex. This is due to a host of factors, with perhaps the biggest being political.

Heretofore any biologist who attempted to reign in the hunter’s quest for more deer in the woods was met with public outcry. Unfortunately, politics has been running the deer programs of many states for far too long. No one knows this better than Pennsylvania ’s Dr. Gary Alt. Alt has been the driving force behind Pennsylvania ’s antler restriction program and bringing the state’s deer population in line with its range’s carrying capacity.

“Deer management is an issue that influences everyone – whether you hunt or not,” said Alt. “Deer have an enormous influence on our forests, our agriculture and many other aspects of our lives. Attempting to raise more deer than the land can sustain is the greatest mistake in the history of wildlife management. It is a mistake that threatens the future of our forest ecosystem and it definitely threatens the future of hunting. Where the problem lies, I believe, not only in Pennsylvania but other states as well, is that hunters measure success or failure of a program not on what they kill but on what they see. And hunters want to see a lot of deer. Sadly, this is destroying us.

“Too many deer are the single greatest threat to the future of hunting because in many areas of Pennsylvania we biologists tried to bring herds under control. For over 70 years we were not allowed to. Hunters didn’t ask for deer – they demanded it. They went to their legislators, the policy-makers; they went to people in our Game Commission. They screamed loud and were very effective at getting what they wanted – not what the deer and habitat needed.

“Deer are incredible consumers of their environment. The habitat they destroy is meant to support more than them. Therefore it is our responsibility to make sure that there is habitat for ground nesting birds, grouse and turkeys.

“If hunting is to survive we are going to have to make the transition from hunters engaged in the sport of self-gratification to hunters engaged in providing a free environmental ecological service for all of society. It’s up to all of us to make it happen.”

Fixing the Problem

As we’ve seen, too much of a good thing is coming back to haunt us. We’ve had it too good for too long. Now it’s time to pay the piper. But how do we do it? The key is education and understanding what that verse in Genesis is all about. Regardless of our religious persuasion, all hunters should look at themselves as stewards of the woods and fields they love to roam. There are many ways to steward an environment, and in the hunters case it encompasses both improving the deer population (in the majority of cases lowering it) and habitat creation.

The deer population: Before habitat can be restored and improved, the deer numbers must be brought in line with the land’s carrying capacity. This is the number one priority – nothing else matters if this is not done. The trick is determining how many deer an area can hold. It’s not easy, but I believe you can come close. The carrying capacity of any region will vary. It should be noted that each deer requires between 1 1/2 and 2 tons of food per year to survive. Because of this, their impact can quickly be seen through a habitat and visual analysis.

It’s important to become a habitat expert or, at the very least, familiar enough to know what is going on in the woods. If you have noticeable browse lines, can easily see more than 60 yards in the woods and your food plots don’t seem to be able to grow, you have a deer problem. In country with a 50/50 mix of agricultural land and forest, you’ll find that there are about 40-50 deer per square mile when there is no regeneration of oak, ash, basswood and hard maple. When deer browse less preferred species like American beech and striped maple, it is evident the area is overrun with whitetails.

A visual survey of how many deer you have can be very helpful, although it has shortcomings. Early August is the perfect time for visual surveys because mast crops are still a few weeks from falling. After mast hits the ground, deer will use food plots less often, until the mast has been consumed.

It is best to conduct summer visual surveys during the last hour of daylight when deer frequent feeding areas. If your property has several food plots, station someone on each plot to see what is using it. In addition, be sure to conduct the survey for at least three days in a row. By picking a specific time, with a spotter on each food plot, it is possible to get a handle on the number of deer roaming your property. However, be forewarned, in almost every case I’ve seen there were considerably more deer than the survey counted. Also, mature bucks don’t normally hit a food source before dark, so it will be difficult to get a handle on their presence.

Controlling Doe Numbers

This is the Achilles heel of deer management. Simply put, hunters don’t seem to understand how critical it is to harvest enough does. Determining the number of does that need to be harvested is tricky – and at times very controversial. In some parts of the country, 50 percent of adult does can be killed without seeing a reduction in the deer population, while in others as little as a 15 percent harvest will impact the herd negatively. However, the latter is seldom the norm for America, at least not in farm country.

Our area of New York State is prime farm country with about a 50/50 mix of agriculture and forest. A rule of thumb that biologists have used for this region is that about 45 does per square mile of deer habitat need to be harvested to maintain status quo. Tragically, hunters haven’t done a good job of cooperating, so we have more than 50 deer per square mile, about 15 more than we should have. In fact, if it wasn’t for the farmers and food plot practitioners we’d have a much bigger problem than we already have. If you think we are unique, think again. What is playing out here is common for nearly every state east of the Mississippi River.

The bottom line is that if we are going to truly be stewards of what has been entrusted to us we must harvest more does. If you’re going to err with a doe harvest, it’s better to kill too many than not enough.

Provide the food: Throughout the ’70s and ’80s many viewed hunters as merely takers. Now this is changing. Since the early ’90s more and more hunters and landowners have been putting back more than they are taking and with each passing year there is more interest in providing deer what they require to thrive. At no time in the history of whitetail management have hunters been more interested or versed on a deer’s nutritional needs than now.

Because each deer requires between 1 1/2 and 2 tons of food per year to survive, it is critical to give them what they need. In most cases this means that between 5 percent and 10 percent of a property be in highly nutritious food plots. When planted and maintained properly, nothing will fill the bill better than Imperial Whitetail Clover. It is as complete a food as there is for deer, providing up to 35 percent protein during the critical lactating and antler-growth periods.

Balance

I often mention in my seminars that if I were “King for a Day” I’d force the deer hunters of America to become deer managers rather than deer hunters. I believe that if this happened we would not see the out of balance situation we have throughout much of the whitetail’s world.

I realize there is no perfect world when it comes to deer management because it is impossible to control the kind of winter that may occur or access to land. However, nature has a wonderful way of telling us when things are out of balance in the whitetail’s realm. Declining antler growth, declining body weights, high browse lines and major crop damage are but a few of the ways this occurs.

For too long we’ve based success on deer sightings, when we should have been basing it on nature sightings. The future is made up of many unknowns, but we do know this. Unless hunters begin doing a better job of tending and caring for God’s forests and meadows, someone else will take our place. What I mean by this can be best described by Dr. Gary Alt:

“Hunters are only 10 percent of the population and if we don’t do something to fix our out-of-control deer problem it won’t be hunters who will be managing deer in Pennsylvania or other parts of the country. I’ll predict that it will be sharp shooters with refrigerated trucks feeding the needy or selling venison on the international market.”

Perhaps we’ve had it too good for too long, but one thing is certain; we have time to get it right. I once heard a great quote that said, “Less is more.” It seems that this can apply to whitetails because who can argue that bringing the deer populations of an area in line with what the habitat can support is not a good thing. This is what we should be hunting for.

In the final analysis it all boils down to balance…it’s all about becoming better stewards of the land.

Good Hunting. How do You Define it?

Defining what is or isn’t good deer hunting is tough to get your arms around. It all depends on who you talk to. If you were to ask someone who grew up in the ’40s and ’50s, they would probably say that a good day in the deer woods was when you could see 50-plus deer.

Today’s deer hunter might say a good day’s hunt is seeing 5 to 10 deer with the chance to harvest a buck. It really depends on what era one is from.

There is no question that the American deer hunter has been spoiled in the last 50 years. Deer numbers have never been higher in many parts of this country. But a storm cloud looms on the horizon because of what burgeoning deer numbers and inaction by hunters are doing to the environment. As you will see in this piece, more isn’t always better.