Looking over the American landscape, it’s hard to think of a more insidious threat to forests, farms and wildlife, not to mention human health and safety, than deer.
Yet when it comes to reducing this costly infestation, too many elected officials sit on their hands or deflect effective control measures. There were about 1.09 million deer-vehicle collisions from June 2010 to June 2011, State Farm Insurance reports, with average property damage of more than $3,000 an accident. Add to that a billion or so dollars for agricultural damage. Deer carry ticks that spread Lyme disease. And their voracious chomping has resulted in “ghost forests” -- particularly in the Northeast.
If a forest is healthy, it will support about 15 deer per square mile, and many scientists say that a degraded patch can’t be restored unless the population is about five per square mile. Compare that target with the actual deer densities: Some areas of the U.S. have 40 to 50 of them in a square mile, with much higher estimates in some Eastern suburbs. In New Jersey, one- third of the remaining species of native plants are endangered, largely because of deer. Many warblers, thrushes and dozens of other ground-nesting birds lose the protection of native plants, and some species of native pollinators -- butterflies, moths, beetles -- vanish.
More
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
2 comments:
Anybody ever stop to think that human birth explosions and ever increasing loss of habitat by building has been the cause of this. On top of the fact humans have killed off or are trying to all of their natural predators. So let's blame the deer. People tend to always blame something else for what they themselves have caused.
8:52-Have no fear.The great human culling has begun,a global depopulation launched.We are now living a reality game called "survivor"
Post a Comment