[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/EW-05-14-12-Deer-II.mp3|titles=EW 05-14-12 Deer II]
Chances are good that either you or someone you know has had both positive and negative experiences with deer. Vehicle collisions, damage to landscape plantings, and intrusions into fruit and vegetable gardens are common negative occurrences.
Often over looked are the impacts that deer have on our forests. Left unchecked, large deer herds consume so many tree seedlings that they prevent the forest from regenerating when mature trees are harvested or die-off.
When plants are attractive to deer, they eat them to the point of elimination. In the process, they change the species composition of heavily grazed forests. Valuable timber and acorn producing trees, such as oaks, are removed—resulting in economic harm and the loss of wildlife that rely on acorns for their winter larders.
Deer browsing not only jeopardizes the future forest, it eliminates the wildflowers, shrubs, and young trees that are characteristic of a healthy forest understory. When deer numbers are managed, understory plants blanket the forest floor, keeping soil cool and moist and providing critical cover and feeding habitat for other forest animals.
Amphibians and reptiles require the climate provided by healthy understory, while ground nesting birds use the growth for nesting, foraging, and refuge from predators. When deer dominate, the once-lush understory takes on the look of a mowed lawn, with a few unpalatable invasive species, like garlic mustard, dominating.
Deer are long-lived animals. People are developing more land and hunting less deer. To date, hunting is the only effective landscape-scale management for controlling deer. And for it to be successful, removing female deer must be a priority.
Photo, taken on February 1, 2011 using an Olympus E-620, courtesy of Jay White via Flickr.