Testifying before the Senate Game and Fisheries Committee this week, Carl Roe, Executive Director of the Game Commission, said the Commission will be launching a public education program later in the year to explain its approach to managing Pennsylvania’s deer herd.

Roe made the comment while presenting the Game Commission’s 2006 annual report to the Committee.

The Game Commission bases its deer management system on a series of three indicators evaluated in each of its wildlife management units – herd health, habitat condition and the number of human-deer conflicts.

The Commission has been under significant pressure by some hunters to increase the number of deer available in certain areas of the state saying there are too few deer available to hunters.

However, a comprehensive study released in March by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources reported less than 25 percent of some 41,650 forest plots surveyed showed any desirable regeneration.

A 2005 study commissioned by Audubon PA, Managing White-tailed Deer in Forest Habitat From an Ecosystem Perspective, made this dramatic statement about the impact of deer on the Commonwealth’s forests, “(the) regeneration of most tree species does not occur unless the affected areas are fenced to exclude deer.”

Over time, high deer populations have greatly altered forest understories. The abundance of native wildflowers and other forest-floor plants has been greatly diminished, shrub species have been dramatically decreased or eliminated, and the variety of tree species has declined.

Consider these other facts from a House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee hearing on deer and wildlife damage in 2006—

· There is an estimated $90 million in crop loss and $73 million in damage to our forests every year by deer, according to the Department of Agriculture;

· Over $78 million in property damage occur in the over 39,000 deer/car collisions each year in Pennsylvania, not counting the deaths and injuries to the people involved. This is the highest of any state in the nation;

· The incidence of Lyme disease, a debilitating and sometimes fatal illness spread by deer ticks, has increased by over 9,000 percent between 1987 and 2004, according to the Department of Health; and

· State taxpayers lose $18 million a year in deferred and lost timber stumpage sales.

For more information, visit the Game Commission’s Deer Management webpage.

NewsClips: Game Commission President Faces Ouster

Wildlife Management Units Come Under Review

Deer Oversight a Team Effort

Suddenly Boop Becomes the Hunted

Video Blog: Too Many Deer Damaging Forest Ecosystems, Agriculture

Links: Game Commission Keeps Healthy Forest, Healthy Herd Formula

DCNR Study of Forest Vegetation Shows Deer Exacting Heavy Toll

5/4/2007