Some thoughts and notes about Ohio's white-tailed deer population

(My comments from old Toledo Talk threads.)

September 2009 comment

I assume it means thinning the herd. The growing deer population means deer move into human-populated areas where the deer are unwelcome. Or it's the other way around. The growing human sprawl development means humans move into areas where they are unwelcome by Nature, but Nature cannot defend itself as well. Probably some combination of the two scenarios.

Maybe the numerous deer are devouring someone's crops or damaging property. If the deer are deemed a nuisance by some government agency, I believe the property owner or the town can get special permission to hunt the deer out of season and when the deer are in non-hunting areas. It's good eating for someone. Give the deer steaks, sausage, etc. to a food bank.

Don't worry. We've got plenty of deer. In central Michigan and eastern Ohio, if you have not had a deer-vehicle collision, you are in the minority. It's nearly unsafe to drive at dusk on some country roads, especially in the fall.

If you easily want to see tame deer in the wild, head out to Magee Marsh or some other local wildlife area. Sometimes you can get within a few yards of the deer. One time, a deer walked up to me, getting within a few feet from me. The one in the photo was from another close encounter at Magee Marsh. Oak Openings Metropark is the best place for me to see a large herd of deer running through the woods, but I think Sidecut Metropark is also a good place to see a lot of deer.

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November 2009 comment

Right now, I doubt a deer would jump over a person, but it would probably steamroll the person. Deer during the rutting season will run through yards and down streets within the city limits of small towns. When a buck is chasing a doe, things like obstacles and location don't matter much. It's really surprising where deer turn up now.

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November 2009 comment

"Starvation culls."

Seems like a waste of good meat though. Plus, starving the deer doesn't sound humane.

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December 2009 comment

"Why not trap the deer and then send them either to Up State Michigan or another part of Ohio?"

Because other parts of Ohio have even more deer. Maybe someone in eastern Ohio is saying send the deer to northwest Ohio.

2003 ODNR release :

Deer densities vary widely across Ohio. East-central and southeastern Ohio densities are between 25 to 35 deer per square mile. Densities are much lower in agricultural areas of central and western Ohio, about 5 to 10 deer per square mile.

I'm assuming Ottawa Hills residents won't mind paying more taxes for someone to live trap deer and transport them hundreds of miles away, assuming they can find some place to take the deer.

2007 Our Ohio magazine article titled it’s time for more ‘deerly’ departed :

Part of the problem is we have too much of a good thing. Ohio’s current deer herd is estimated at 600,000. Just 20 years ago, we had 150,000. Making things worse, the herd has grown while open space has shrunk. As we turn their habitat into housing tracts, we’re forcing the deer onto freeways and farms.

If 600,000 are too many, what’s a better number? 250,000 would be good, according to Ohio Farm Bureau delegates. The problem has been growing for years with no resolution in sight, creating a frustrating and unacceptable situation for farmers.

In 2005, 27,000 Ohio drivers saw, up close, what a deer in the headlights really looks like. Those car-deer collisions carried a cost of $71 million. Deer damage to crops, timber and nursery plants cost farm families additional millions. One Farm Bureau member has documented $70,000 in personal losses, likely an extreme, but indicative of the problem. A Cornell University study said that nationally, deer do more than $2 billion in damage every year.

There are people who don’t condone hunting at all. But this is not a debate over whether we manage the deer herd; it’s a debate over how we do it. This conversation belongs to farmers, hunters, wildlife officials and others who understand that hunting is an acceptable, even preferred wildlife management tool. It’s not the time to allow an important public policy debate to be sidetracked, even stolen by proponents of extreme beliefs and values. We can hold the argument over whether “animals are people too” some other time.

2008 Columbus Dispatch article :

By 1904, after decades of unlimited hunting, the white-tailed deer was wiped out in Ohio. What a difference a century makes. State wildlife officials say Ohio has at least 700,000 deer. That estimate doesn't include thousands living in metro parks, suburban areas and city fringes.

Officials say that many deer in Ohio damage crops, slow new forest growth and cause auto accidents. So the state now drafts plans to winnow Ohio's deer population through hunting. This year, a record 250,000 deer are expected to be killed. Despite this annual thinning, the total remains steady year to year.

Tonkovich and Petit said deer coexist well with nature when there are 15 to 20 per square mile of habitat. Petit said that when deer exceed that population density, they begin to overgraze, killing out wildflowers and tree seedlings.

That leaves fewer habitats for other animals, including ground- and shrub-nesting birds such as hooded warblers, wood thrush and Acadian flycatchers. It also affects a forest's ability to replace older, dying trees with new growth, Tonkovich said.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates that deer exceed 25 per square mile in 23 Ohio counties, primarily in the east and southeast. Cuyahoga Valley National Park has 45 to 50 deer per square mile.

Ohio's deer population:

Ohio's Deer Population
Year	Deer Pop
1900
1925	1,000
1950	15,000
1975	85,000
2000	450,000

Nov 29, 2009 Columbus dispatch article :

... the 2008-09 harvest was large enough to affect this year's deer population, which fell from an estimated 700,000 in September 2008 to about 650,000 in September 2009.

Dec 1, 2009 Ohio DNR press release

Ohio hunters had near ideal weather for the opening day of deer-gun season. Hunters took 33,607 white-tailed deer on Monday.

Counties reporting the highest numbers of deer checked on Monday included Tuscarawas-1,763, Harrison-1,374, Coshocton-1,353, Guernsey-1,284, Licking-1,182, Holmes-1,165, Washington-1,010, Athens-925, Ashtabula-836, and Muskingum-799.

Combining the results of Monday's harvest with those from the early muzzleloader season, the first six weeks of archery season and the recent youth deer-gun season, a preliminary total of 97,371 deer have been killed so far this deer hunting season. That number compares to 95,074 harvested last year at this time. In all, hunters took a total of 252,017 deer during all of last year's hunting seasons.

Approximately 420,000 hunters are expected to participate in the statewide deer-gun season. Ohio's deer population was estimated to be 650,000 prior to the start of the fall hunting seasons.

The white-tailed deer is the most popular game animal in Ohio, frequently pursued by generations of hunters. Ohio ranks 8th nationally in annual hunting-related sales and 10th in the number of jobs associated with the hunting-related industry. Each year, hunting has a $859 million economic impact in Ohio through the sale of equipment, fuel, food, lodging and more.

#nature - #hunting - #mammals - #deer - #blog_jr