Artist Hampshire H.S.

A view from an artist                                                                                           10/30/2008

                                                                                                                            9:27:00 AM

     You may not think that the deer population may have anything to do with artists, but in

reality it does. We artists make a living off of what we create. Be it sculptures, paintings,

photographs, or sketches. We live for idea's and nature to show us what to create. When it

 comes to the deer population, we wish to sit in a densely populated forest and wait to

encounter a glorious buck. Or maybe a doe with her fawns. Without this occuring, we lose

ideas and money.

     We, the artists, do not criticize hunters. They do their job and earn themselves food.

They also help farmers out in this occupation. Homeowners can easily have their own

opinion on this situation. They may enjoy the walkby of a deer or may hate them for eating

their plants.

     I have an idea for the deer population that may suit many people. I enjoy seeing deer,

but not on the side of the road. I do feel the population of deer is too large. In 2006,

there were 200 human casualties caused by deer. Altough I enjoy deer in the woods, I feel

 it is better to reduce the deer population in order to prevent casualties of deer and

humans.

     The deer population in the eastern panhandle could easily be reduced if deer were

moved to another state that has low deer population. This allows deer and people to be

safe and live harmoniously. Deer can still roam in my woods and visit homeowners. Hunters

can also still have prey to hunt. It's much better when we are all happy.

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land owners Hampshire H.S.

landscape                                                                                                             10/31/2008

                                                                                                                            9:30:00 AM

Deer in landscape its a beautiful sight. But only one problem deer like to eat leaces stems

and buds of many plants. In spring and summer nonwoody plants are there favorite. Late

summer and fall they like fruit and nuts especilally acorns they are all important. Deer

dameage by deer is not difficult to idertify often leace a jagged or torn sorface on stems.

Deer dont like there trees ash, beach, birch, juniper, ginkgo, hemlock ect. Shrubs barberry,

 bot wood, redwis dog wood. You can use bars of soap up but you migh need a lot of soap.

Thats what you need to do to keep out the deer. 

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VDGIF Mountain Vista Governors School

Government                                                                                                            11/3/2008

                                                                                                                             2:06:00 PM

Solutions for Overpopulation of Deer

The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fishery has the mission to manage Virginia’s wildlife and inland fisheries in order to maintain optimum populations of all species to serve the Commonwealth. As a state-sponsored department, its members could potentially play a major role in helping to naturally control deer populations. There are several solutions that could easily be funded by the VDGIF in addition to the measures which are currently being executed. These include implementing quota hunts and supporting non-profit hunting organizations, such as Hunting for the Hungry.

The hunting season generally extends between the months of November and January.  Currently the regulations stand at six deer per season, of which only three can be without antlers. However, a bonus deer permit allows for exceptions to the amount of deer that can be hunted by a particular individual. Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management is heading in the right direction in reestablishing equilibrium within deer populations; it has redirected its focus to hunt more female deer and allow more private landowners to hunt on their own property. Likewise, the VDGIF should work to implement regulations that work toward extending the hunting season as well as the number of deer allowed to be killed.

Hunting is one of the greatest natural ways to control deer populations. Not only does it advocate for the natural preservation of an established ecosystem, but it also avoids disrupting prey verses predator relationships. Many forest deer currently have no natural predators due to human activity such as urbanization and deforestation. Therefore, it has become man’s duty to advocate this unbalanced relationship by assuming the role of a natural predator. Rather than deer dying a slow and painful death due to starvation or killing someone in a car crash, they are instantly taken within seconds. For those that find hunting inhumane, the VDGIF was created to restore a natural balance and implement sportsmanship to this common American pastime.

Hunting also serves to benefit the economy. In fact, much of the money collected from hunting licenses is used in the conservation of land. Since 1934, $647 million has gone towards the conservation of over 5 million acres of habitat.  In addition, hunters have contributed to over $1.7 billion in federal income taxes, which is over half of the federal commerce budget. Hunting serves to provide 700,000 jobs. It is not only a valuable economic resource, but a realistic way to preserve nature; for who better to fight for nature than the people spending all of their free time amidst its wonders.

One solution for reducing deer populations, aside from redeveloping the current hunting standards, is having quota hunts. Fairfax County has held several managed hunts, which are sponsored by the county and specifically selected for their deer populations. These quota hunts would be implemented by VDGIF for selected areas noted with too many deer. Hunters submit applications and only a limited amount of hunters are chosen to participate. VDGIF should focus on implementing more of these quota hunts to aid in solving the problem of deer overpopulation.

The VDGIF has also been known to support such organizations as Hunters for the Hungry. This is a non-profit organization that helps to reduce the deer population and serve the community. The deer are accepted by professional meat cutters and are then distributed across the Commonwealth. The organization has already helped to feed 3.5 million people; however, the biggest obstacle this organization faces is funding because it is not supported by any state funds or by the United Way Agency. The VDGIF should commit to annually fund this organization. This decision would further support the ethical perspective of hunting, as well as aid in the solution to reduce deer populations.

There have been suggestions of reintroducing predators to counter-act the sudden surge of deer populations. However, deer respond to drastic population die-offs by reproducing an immense amount of offspring. In addition, predators are more likely to prey upon the weakest of their prey selection, such as pets and trapped livestock. There is no guarantee that they will solve the problem, and then they will be consuming an already limited and overcrowded space. For these reasons, the restoration of new, natural predators may not be successful.

The VDGIF fully supports the action of hunting to reduce deer overpopulation. The VDGIF should work to implement quota hunts, as well as support organizations who demonstrate an ethical and sportsmanlike approach to hunting, such as Hunters for the Hungary. In the past decades, deer populations have been maintained with limiting factors such as food, space, cover, and water. However, now more than ever people need to intervene to solve this solution; hunters can make the difference.

References

“About VDGIF.” (2008). Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Retrieved October 21, 2008, from http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/about/.

“Deer: General Information.” (2008). Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Retrieved October 21, 2008, from http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hunting/regulations/deer.asp

“Deer herd Health.” (2008). White Tail Solutions. Retrieved October 21, 2008, from

http://whitetailsolutionsllc.com/Deer_Herd_Health.html

“Deer Management in Fairfax County.” (2008). Fairfax County, Viginia. Retrieved October 21, 2008, from http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/comm/deer/deermgt.htm#control

Eaton, R. L. (n.d.). Why Hunting is Good Medicine for Youth, Society, and the Environment. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from IWMC World Conservation Trust Web site: http://www.iwmc.org/IWMC-Forum/
RandallEaton/030504-1.htm

“Hunters for the Hungry.” Hunters for the Hungry. Retrieved October 21, 2008, from http://www.h4hungry.org/operate.htm

Lane, J (2006, December 28). Hunting controls deer populations. Chatham Journal, Retrieved October 28, 2008, from http://www.chathamjournal.com/weekly/opinion/chatlist/hunting-is-necessary-61228.shtml

Macmillan, A. (2005, October 11). Whats Wrong With Deer Hunting? Retrieved October 22, 2008, from http://newsgroups.derkeiler. com/Archive/Uk/uk.politics.animals/2005-10/msg00000.html

The Economic Importance of Hunting. (n.d.). Retrieved October 23, 2008, from California Department of Fish and Game Web site: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/hunting/econ.hunting.html

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G.A.S. - Governor's and Science Mountain Vista Governors School

Government                                                                                                            11/3/2008

                                                                                                                             2:25:00 PM

The Government and the Deer Dilemma

As state-funded biologists and wildlife managers in state parks, we work with the effects of the deer population daily. Our expertise in the areas of ecology and biology will be of significant value to the interstate effort to curb the exponential growth of the deer population in the eastern United States. We see ourselves as active members in reaching an effective, sound-science solution that will address this difficult problem.  And as representatives of the state government, we feel obligated to present cost effective, comprehensive recommendations that use a variety of effective approaches to control the various aspects of the deer issue.

            Any environmentally conscious solution requires the support and assistance of state biologists and game wardens to succeed.  As the top professionals in our fields, state-employed biologists possess a wealth of statistical knowledge from intensive academic studies and field research relating to ecology and the balance of ecosystems. Game wardens and wildlife managers of state parks and wildlife management areas contribute extensive practical experience and unique perceptions of specific communities. In addition, our jobs are deeply involved with the same ecosystems and communities which the deer inhabit; as consultants and caretakers for wildlife management areas and state parks affected by the problem, we will also be deeply involved in the solution to the deer overpopulation crisis.

The problem affects us in a variety of ways.  The state parks we study and manage are stripped of seedlings as the herds swarm through, and biodiversity dwindles in proportion to the exponential growth of the herds.  Plant species vanish rapidly as deer continue to overgraze ; when the deer finally abandon the area, we find that many of the more fragile species have vanished, having been trampled or swallowed by the voracious herds of white-tailed deer. This leaves only the hardiest and most common plants behind, and reduces both the general biodiversity of the community and the gene pool available to the surviving plants.  In turn, other animals are faced with starvation and heavy competition for the remaining food supplies, which often drives them to forage in suburban or urban areas. There they become vulnerable to a plethora of dangers associated with contact with human communities, including motor vehicle accidents, attacks by domestic pets, and mass predation by other animals driven into the suburbs in search of prey. The beneficial interactions, (such as population control, mutualistic or commensal relationships, fertilization of soil, erosion prevention, flood prevention, and air purification) that the exiled plants and animals carried out with each other, along with the deer and abiotic factors in the environment, will stop, causing the system to tilt even further out of equilibrium.

The solutions already proposed by various members of the community would affect us in a variety of ways. For example, there is considerable political pressure to utilize nonlethal methods from organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).  The primary nonlethals are cervid contraception treatments, administered through medicated feed, and tranquilization and transport of deer to less populated locations.  But these types of solutions, although proposed by well-meaning organizations, have serious practical limitations.   Cervid contraception treatments require more biological studies to ascertain their efficiency before being mass-applied; implementation on a grand scale could be delayed for an extended period of time, allowing the overpopulation problem to progress, possibly to the point of a population collapse. By this time, the effects of the overpopulation crisis could well be irreversible; disease and starvation would become rampant throughout most local populations, and suffering deer would clog the parks and roadways. In addition, contraception research and treatments are disproportionately expensive in relation to the effect they have on the deer population.  Likewise, tranquilization and transportation of disruptive populations of deer from suburban and urban areas is difficult and non-cost-effective; many deer die during or directly after transport, rendering the expensive tranquilizer injection applied to them a complete waste.  We do not consider contraception or tranquilization valid solutions for the present crisis, as their problematic aspects outweigh their benefits.  Lethal methods, then, are what remain. The practice of hiring professional sharpshooters to cull deer herds, usually in densely populated urban or suburban areas, has often proven intensely controversial.  As a result, the political pressure to avoid it placed upon wildlife managers may discourage its use, as a wildlife manager who opposes superiors on such a sensitive issue may be ignored or punished.  Further, the influence of external agencies that oppose the practice can hamstring future funding or research grants.  Sharpshooting has proven impractical on a large scale, usually resulting in small, minimally useful culls, and as such has often proven counterproductive to wildlife managers in light of its potentially negative political ramifications.   

Handing out extra tags to licensed hunters or assigning kill permits as compensation for landowners is a merely a slight complication of registration and record maintenance, and one which we are willing to undertake in order to help restore balance to the environment, but  alone this method cannot completely solve the overpopulation problem.

Therefore, we propose a comprehensive solution to the deer overpopulation crisis, comprised of several synergistic elements.  Solutions will vary, depending on the human population density of the area in question. In rural areas and state parks, the primary control element would be specifically targeted hunting. Humans are the white-tailed deer’s only widespread predator in the eastern states capable of effectively reducing populations. State-regulated hunting is an effective and logical solution.  With 20.6 million hunters in the United States, licensed at the state level, there is a demonstrated this ability to effect statistically substantial reductions in the deer population.  State game departments have the ability to flexibly regulate authorized deer harvest quantities for male and female deer, thus enabling wildlife managers to target harvests with respect to varying populations. This typically takes the form of seasonal regulations prescribing specific numbers of male and female deer that may be harvested by individual hunters.  These numbers can be flexible, as determined by region. For example, in the state of Virginia, for the 2008 hunting season in the area west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, hunters are permitted three antlerless and two antlered deer; in the area east of the Blue Ridge, the proscribed limit is three antlered and three antlerless deer. This illustrates the ability of the state governments to regulate doe-buck harvesting ratios in specific areas, in order to reduce reproductive rates. Meticulous records will be kept at checkpoint stations throughout the area as a deterrent to hunters violating these ratios. In addition, on specific days state parks will be allowed to open their doors to a certain number of hunters for a certain number of hours, allowing them to hunt deer within a restricted area with short-range weapons as per all state regulations.

Suburban and urban areas will require a different approach, due to the greater human population density and the safety issues of firearm discharge within a certain proximity to residential areas and roads, as addressed by state and local ordinances. The dispersal of deer populations from these human-populated areas will depend on the effect of the deer control within state parks and rural areas. Deer will naturally migrate to their preferred habitats once they can be comfortably supported there; they prefer to be away from human habitation, but have been forced to adapt to close-proximity habitats in order to survive. In special cases, sharpshooters may be used to eliminate especially disruptive deer populations, especially in urban areas.

Governmental land managers and biologists are already deeply involved in the deer population crisis. We possess unique insight into the deer population problem, and are willing to contribute our considerable store of expertise on behalf of the effort to resolve this issue. Overpopulation of the white-tailed deer affects numerous stakeholders, including us; many of the problems we encounter in our daily work center around it, and different aspects of the problem can determine the state policies and regulations we cooperate to compile.  Proposed solutions to the deer dilemma affect us just as profoundly as the dilemma itself.  Parks and rural areas will benefit from stringent hunting regulations, such as those already in effect in some states, which mandate the number of antlerless deer and antlered deer which may be harvested by a single licensed hunter in a season, and as the rural cervid population declines and the rural ecosystem comes closer to balance the urban and suburban populations will move back into the woods and fields where they truly belong.  Perhaps this can be accomplished with the synergy of the support and active effort of all the stakeholders invested in the deer dilemma, including the state government and the science behind its decisions.

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The Outlaws Petersburg H.S

Extreme Hunters                                                                                                    11/5/2008

                                                                                                                            8:04:00 AM

Hunters coming to West Virginia have to hunt harder and longer due to the fact that the deer population has been lowered juristically. The reasons for lower deer population are because of the chronic wasting disorder and due to predators such as the black bear.
CWD is a neurological (brain and nervous system) disease of deer. It is a slow accumulation of abnormal prions in the brain and lymphatic tissues of deer that ultimately results in the death of the animal. (1)
The Mountain State's deer herd isn't what it was just a few short years ago. Partly by design and partly by mistake, wildlife officials have allowed whitetail populations to dwindle to levels not seen since the early 1990s. The bottom line is: Deer harvests have plummeted. Last year, hunters killed just 179,066 animals during the buck, antler less, muzzleloader and archery seasons combined. Not since 1994 has the total been that low. (2)
In conclusion, the deer population has been taken out by the chronic waste disorder not the hunters. There are also predators that feast on them which makes their population less than those in other states. Due to the deer population decreasing so does the amount of tax revenue that the state receives. The deer population needs to increase, so that more hunters will want to live here and so that the tax revenue is increased.

References: 1 www.wvgameandfish.com
            2 www.biggamehunt.
 

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$THE MONEY MAKERS$ Petersburg H.S

business owners                                                                                                     11/5/2008

                                                                                                                            8:06:00 AM

Ohhhhh Deer!

Deer affect the economy by overpopulating a small area of land that could be used to build new businesses. As the economy grows many people want to build bigger and better buildings to hold their businesses. Eventually, there will be no land to build on because that land is labeled as a natural habitat for the deer. As business owners we think more land should be available for us to purchase. The deer should be moved away from valuable land that could potentially be purchased for economic purposes.
(1.) There are several negative impacts that come with the overpopulation of deer. Many people experience agricultural damage, such as farmers who constantly have to deal with having the deer on their land. Deer vehicle collisions are on the rise. During the past eight years, the reported number of collisions in the Potomac area has doubled. (2.) Disease is also spreading throughout the deer population, which can pose a threat to humanity.
We as business owners have seen first hand how the deer have affected our fellow business partners and us. The various car and body shops profit greatly from the overpopulation due to the severe damage to vehicles caused by deer. Farmers also suffer financially from loss and damage to crops. Overpopulation of deer affects many businesses in various ways. The only way to solve this is to lower the deer population and reduce the rate at which the deer are breeding.


References
(1.) http://www.nalgep.org/about/news.
(2.) www.idausa.org/facts/deercontrol.html
 

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