Oh Deer! Forum 2008 Consensus Positions

Consensus

Hampshire High School

Environmental Science - HHS2
Environmental Science - HHS3
Environmental Science - HHS4

Class: Biology

Teacher: Dr. Sharon Harman

By majority vote, we agree that there is an overpopulation of deer, particularly female deer, in West Virginia. Evidence of this overpopulation is seen in the immense number of road kill, limited undergrowth in the forest, and excessive grazing in farmer’s fields. As a community, our suggestions for a solution to the overpopulation problem include the following: each resident should be permitted to kill an additional doe each deer season, the length of deer season should be increased, farmers and gardeners should continue to be permitted to shoot nuisance deer, the deer population should be continually monitored, and a scientific study should be performed each year after deer season to assess the distribution of the deer population.

Plan of consensus 2008

North Harford High School

Class: Environmental Science

Teacher: Laura O'Leary

In recent years the deer population has exploded. This has affected many aspects of typical human life including farming, driving, insurance rates, homeownership, and forest management. The deer population needs to be controlled in order to bring balance to the environment.

Our class had six stakeholder groups to reach a consensus that we all had to agree on. The six stakeholder groups were the forest, ecosystem, foresters, hunters, farmers, insurers and PETA. We as a class discussed many ideas to control the over populated deer, of course when you have a class discussion there is agreeing and disagreeing, but in the end we came to a decision that pleased all stakeholder groups.

One of the ideas we had to control the over populated deer is to reintroduce predators, such as wolves. All the groups but the farmers agreed to reintroduce wolves. As we discussed the positives and negatives of reintroducing predators we came to a compromise with the farmers. What was suggested was that the farmers be compensated for the lost/killed livestock and provided funds to fence off land. It was also noted that an intensive education campaign be implemented to teach the public about predators.

Never before in our generation have people lived alongside natural predators. Even the great environmental writer Henry David Thoreau believed that “In wildness is the salvation of the world.” Education will be required to inform the public of coexisting with natural predators. Types of education would include commercial, posters, and radio. Through education the public will learn the benefits of living along side natural predators and help to pacify their fears of “the big bad wolf.”

Another idea was to extend the hunting season by two months and increase bag limits to see if we can get control of the deer population. PETA was the only stakeholder group to disagree with the extension of the hunting season they also did not like the increase of bag limits. They wanted sterilization as an option. It was agreed that research will be conducted on sterilization and a study be done to determine the effectiveness of extending the hunting season. PETA wanted to do research before the extension of the hunting season and after the extension to see if the idea of an extension of the hunting season was effective. This was agreed on as a compromise.

Our last idea was to research the expense of the sterilization which means that the female deer will not be able to reproduce. This will limit the amount of the deer population also we will be only sterilizing the adults not the fawns. So that not all female deer would be able to reproduce. The cost of the sterilizing and how many deer would be sterilized would have to be taken into account.

The above three actions will prove to be effective in managing the over population of deer. Working with members of each stakeholder group, we have compromised to form the above management plan.

Consensus Plan

Hampshire High School

Class: Environmental Science - HHS2

Teacher: Bill Moore

"There has been plenty of evidence that the deer population in this region of North America is too high. Such evidence includes animal vs. vehicle crashes. Others include loss of vegetation and crops. To ensure the deer
population is controlled, taxes and prices of hunting licenses should be lowered so more and more hunters can afford to hunt. Predators, such as coyotes, could be released into the wild to help control the population.
However, too many predators could impact other animal populations such as livestock and other small mammals and reptiles. The hunting seasons could be changed or lengthened to help insure more deer are bagged every year to assist in reducing the deer population. Hunters should do the majority of the deer population control. This should help control deer population."

Consensus Plan

Hampshire High School

Class: Environmental Science - HHS3

Teacher: Bill Moore

Our class concluded that the population of the deer is too high, and should be lower. The class thinks that the deer population should be lowered by killing the deer, which we think will be very effective. Also the class
thinks that taxes should not be raised, but stakeholder groups should pay for deer management rather than the people paying for deer management. We think the predators and hunters should be used to control the deer
population. The hunting season should also be longer that way the deer would be reduced to a healthy population.
In our opinion we think that informing the public would help the people in our nation realize how big of a problem we have with the deer population. I think if the whole nation understood the deer problem that some people would help out. Another thing that is a problem is that the deer diseases are density dependent. This is caused by the deer being over populated in one single area. The class also agreed that the disease problem should be monitored and controlled; this would prevent many deaths in the deer and cause the deer to be in better health.

Consensus Plan

Hampshire High School

Class: Environmental Science - HHS4

Teacher: Bill Moore

Because of the climbing deer population our forests have been in decline. Deer like to eat the saplings and the underbrush of our forests horrendously diminishing the secondary succession of the forest. The future generation of our forest depends on how we regulate the ever climbing deer population. We believe that in order to regulate the deer we would have to bring in certain predators of the deer that would effectively reduce the deer number and also un-harm the underbrush.
Along with the predators we should also relocate the deer to certain areas within our country that have overgrown underbrush. Also we should let hunters be able to hunt more often because studies show that hunters are responsible for most of the regulating. If the deer population was regulated we would be able to see the
future of our forests and the healthy generation of people because of less accidents and deaths caused by crashes .