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Deer Management Comments

February, 26, 2014 9:02 AM
A friend who hunts pointed out your website and said you were looking for comments. I read your website with interest, and while I am not a hunter myself, I SUPPPRT THE HUNTS in these parks as well as elsewhere. What you are doing makes sense to me, and should be considered in other parks as well. I'm pleased that meat that is usable will be donated to feed the hungry, as it is delicious, and lower fat than beef. I hope managed hunts might even be expanded to allow seasonal hunting in our parks by trained civilian hunters as well. Our family also owns land in Accokeek that has scenic easement for the National Colonial Farm Piscataway Park as well, and we support the managed hunts there as well.

I live adjacent to Whitemarsh Park in Bowie, and have a son who contracted Lyme through an infected tick bite. I love the deer and enjoy watching them, but they also do jump the fences (sometimes tearing them down as they did mine), they do invade our gardens, and they can be a nuisance. They probably see us as a nuisance as well.

I see several factors causing our conflicts with the deer population:

The primary issue is that we still have people in our society who look at natural areas and refer to them as "undeveloped" as if that is a bad thing and the land needs to be exploited rather than enjoyed as it is. I love camping and other outdoor activities, and want to preserve as much natural beauty and wild areas as possible. We do not own this land, we preserve it for our descendants. We have encroached upon wild areas again and again, forcing the animal population to wander among us. We are the problem, not the deer.
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Hunt_Trap/deer/deer_management/deerhuntastool.asp
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Hunt_Trap/pdfs/2009_Deer_Mgmt_Options.pdf

Second, we have altered the balance of nature by removing the predators from these remaining wild areas. The deer as an herbivore is a natural prey animal hunted by carnivores. Humans fear such predators too, thus we hunted many large carnivore species to near extinction. I don't advocate letting wolves and cougars run in our parks snatching our pets for lunch, so it is a fine idea to use other methods to cull the herd. The lack of natural predators has lead to the overpopulation, starvation, disease, and genetic issues like piebald deer. It strikes me as inhumane to NOT reduce the deer population and keep it stable to the food supply and habitat. I'm hoping that the culling of the herds will focus on primarily the sick and unhealthy that would be naturally taken by predators, as well as enough healthy ones to keep the population balanced and hungry people fed. Those who oppose hunting, must not have read the reports on effective wildlife management, and seem to prefer the deer have a slow and painful death from starvation and disease to a quick one which I consider truly inhumane.
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Hunt_Trap/deer/disease/ddpbald.asp
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Hunt_Trap/deer/disease/cwdinformation.asp

I note on your website that you've looked into other methods of population control to ensure that the methods used are actually effective. I was pleased to see the document on deer management option research on your website. Some probably have recommended sterilization of does as an alternative method of controlling the deer populations, however a 2006 study found that sterilization of does is not effective in wild populations because of immigration and doe response to capture. http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.2193/0022-541X%282006%2970%5B268%3AMAODPB%5D2.0.CO%3B2?journalCode=wild
Chemical birth control, although legalized in the state of Maryland, also does not work effectively on wild populations, with an 88% effectiveness the first year and 47% the second year. http://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/nwrc/research/reproductive_control/gonacon.shtml
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Hunt_Trap/pdfs/2009_Deer_Mgmt_Options.pdf

I have always been a supporter of MD DNR, for preserving our wild spaces, supporting effective and appropriate wildlife management, and working to avoid political entanglements and manipulation. Please keep up the good work!
 
February, 26, 2014 9:02 AM
Sir/Ma’am

I am definitely in favor of reducing the deer population in Prince George’s County through managed hunts. They are the most effective means of deer population control.
 
February, 26, 2014 9:01 AM
I fully support programs to manage the deer population in Prince George's County and encourage you to consider implementing a program in the Fort Washington area. I live on Colleen Court and we are being overrun by deer. I can at times count over a dozen deer running through my back yard. They are everywhere. I've come home at night after work and had to wait for them to move away from in from of my garage and out of the driveway so that I can park the car. They are eating all of the landscape and several times my husband has stopped cutting the grass because they will come in to the yard and not move. The deer population is too large for this area. I have been hoping that the County would begin program to reduce the population. You have my full support.
 
February, 25, 2014 12:47 PM
Dear Park Management Officials,

I welcome this sorely needed initiative and hope that our neighborhood (Patuxent River Park/Jug Bay area)is included in this program.

I liver on a farm on Duvall Road, in Croom, across from County fields and the Patuxent River Park. In the past few years,there has been a dramatic increase in the number of deer who roam and graze not only in my pastures but also in my front and back lawn, all the way to the porch! They are a huge nuisance and the cause of costly damages. Gone is the bottom part of previously beautiful evergreens lining my driveway, gone are tulips and other flowers, there is no question of a vegetable garden, my hedges are decimated, the lawn is defecated and marked with their hoofs, and on and on and on. It is good for them to have safe haven in the County fields and the Patuxent River Park across the road from us, but those areas obviously can no longer support them. It is time to act.

I do hope you will put your program in practice soon and include our neighborhood in it.


Thank you!
 
February, 25, 2014 12:04 PM
Please consider eliminating some of the deer population in the Fort Washington area. Fort Washington National Park and neighboring communities, (Tantallon, Battersea) are overrun by deer.
There have been multiple deer/vehicle collisions on area roads. Deer are also instrumental in introducing ticks that carry Lyme disease, and the disgusting waste that they drop on our yards is intolerable.
 
February, 25, 2014 12:04 PM
Actually my subject line really says it all. Deer over population has become a state-wide problem and seems to be particularly bad here in the Washington metro area.
 
February, 25, 2014 12:03 PM
Hello,


I'd like to register my support for the sharp shooting programs you recently announced. I'd also like to request that you expand to Piscataway Park in future.
 
February, 25, 2014 12:03 PM
Please control the deer population in accokeek, Maryland!

Thanks
 
February, 25, 2014 12:02 PM
I heartily support all attempts of Prince George's County to reduce deer
populations.

One hundred and thirty residents in the Moyaone Reserve, adjacent to the
Piscataway Park, have safely and successfully operated a managed deer
hunt from 2007 to the present, covering approximately 650 acres. We have
used the Howard County guidelines modified for multiple properties.

Despite a sometimes vociferous 5% anti-managed hunt contingent that
engages in semi-illegal tactics to interrupt the hunt, we have managed
to reduce the deer population from 174 per square mile to approximately
60 per square mile pre-hunt (census numbers from the adjacent Piscataway
Park, provided by the National Park Service). So in fact, we've been
able to reduce the overwintering population to about 30 per square mile.

Not all residents in the community participate in the managed hunt, for
a variety of reasons. Many of those who don't participate appreciate the
results.

I look forward to the day that the county has enough resources to
replace our community's labor-intensive efforts.

 
February, 25, 2014 12:02 PM
Prince George’s County Park Management:




I am opposed to the deer management plan recently published that calls for lethal measures under the auspices of “deer population control.”




In this case, the county has adopted a knee-jerk, short-sighted plan that is a direct result of current land management policies and absolutley counters their mission as stewards of our environmental resources.




Instead of defaulting to this short-term solution for wildlife management, I would recommend a long-term plan that would include, among other things, the following policies:



•Protect and expand current wildlife corridors throughout the county. More areas of protected movement reduces human-deer contacts.
•Protect wetlands within the county against development, encroachment and pollutants. Among other crucial benefits to the environment, wetlands provide refuge and sustenance for wildlife and may keep them from traveling outside their territories for basic needs.
•No longer allow developers to clear-cut, prematurely in most cases, and completely in some cases, forested lands. Again, forested land provides basic needs for wildlife without having them over-extend their territories.
•Discontinue the removal/rezoning of lands from rural and agricultural tiers to developing tiers which increases human density in areas currently providing shelter, water and territory for wildlife.
•Recognize that policies that protect wildlife and their habitats protect our human population as well by preserving our water resources, providing a counter to climate change, and offering critical quality-of-life benefits that only natural areas can provide.

County council members and park management should reflect on who they are supposed to be representing and protecting, the developers and others who see only profit in our land and other finite resources, or the constituents who have elected them and placed some measure of trust in their determination to do what’s right now, and for the benefit of the future generations of Prince George’s county citizens.