The Potomac Highlands Watershed School 

Oh Deer!" 2010 Environmental Forum

 

Points of View with Thoughtful Discussion

Homeowners

 

Homeowner POV & TD Navigation

Hostile Home Owners   We are WonderBread    Lions and tigers and deer oh my!   

Happy Hoppy Homeowners     

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POV

Hostile Home Owners- North Harford H.S

                                                                                                                            10/27/2010

Each year the home owners have to go through money issues. They have to pay for the

crops, gardens, trees etc...All the deer eat it all. They poop in your yard too. They could

give your younger children lime disease as well.  You need to be prepared for these issues.

Possibly put a fence around your garden to protect your plants, flowers, crops, vegetables

from the deer. If your children are going to go outside, go out with them because they can

get a disease from a deer.

 

State Farm Insurance Auto Claims and Homeowner�s Division estimated that in 2006,

deer-car collisions caused 200 human casualties and more than $1.1 billion in damage

nationwide. Some communities rely on them to provide the statistics estimating the number

of animals per square mile. As far as hitting a deer, it happens. It is an unfortunate

accident. Over population will kill more animals than the legal hunting laws will ever allow.

 

The role deer play in carrying the tick that causes Lyme disease is an issue, both for

scientists and local officials. During spring, gardeners, nurseries, hardware stores and

wildlife managers prepare for battle. Your younger children go get lime disease if their

around wild deer. Debate continues as to whether the deer�s role in spreading the disease

has been overstated. This will become a human health problem.

 

All the home owners would love to solve this deer issue. They are coming together as a

community to fix the issues. They might come up with a way to help neighbors pay for their

damage if they don�t have much money. They might need to open up another deer hunting

season to kill some more deer so the issues can go away. Some home owners have reported

progress with contraception efforts. A typical method involves sedating the deer with a

dart, then injecting a contraceptive.  The hunters need to hunt more deer in order to get

them out of the way, if not these issues will not get fixed.

 

 

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  From:   deer devils - forester - NHHS

              Ask                                                                         11/3/2010             6:41:00 AM

     the point of view that the pov group hostile homeowners has many good points that focus

      on the deer population. it is costing people to much money to keep replacing crops,

     plants, and trees, all because of deer eating them up. fencing is the best solution! as to

     having an over amount of deer cause many problems and accidentsthat repordetly cost

     $1.1 billion dollars in repairs. failing to reach the result to stop deer would be millions of

      dollars lost, and in some cases, death. helping the situation by cutting dwon the

     population to a lower number can save so much hassle and problems. this group impacts

     other groups by saving crops, money and time. everyone can make a difference!

  From:   Lions and tigers and deer oh my! - homeowner - NHHS

              Ask                                                                         11/3/2010            6:24:00 AM

     We agree with your POV. You listed some very smart ways to control the deer population.

 

 

 

 

POV

We are WonderBread- Paw Paw H.S.

                                                                                                                            10/27/2010

     Just last year a dead deer was found on our baseball field. This has happened twice so

far to this town. The deer sometimes eat peaches out of my friends peach orchard. Route

9 is one of the most deer filled roads I think in West Virginia.  Mostly we see deer on the

road and in fields we rarely see them in our town though. 

 

The following information is copied from WVDNR:

 

"An Integrated Approach to Deer Damage Control

 

The white-tailed deer is West Virginia's most popular game animal with 343 thousand

hunters harvesting over 175 thousand deer annually. As deer numbers have increased,

damage problems to farms and gardens have also increased. Deer have high nutritional

requirements and can be very destructive; however, deer damage is a natural hazard of

the farming profession and should be considered analogous to insect and disease problems.

Therefore, an integrated management strategy is often necessary for solving the problem.

(McAninoch)

 

Control Options

 

The landowners' goals and values influence their choice of deer damage control options. If

the landowner values his deer hunting recreation over commercial crop goals, then he is

likely to choose a control option emphasizing protection from damage rather than

decreasing the deer herd. Likewise, other landowners may choose to decrease the deer

herd on their land during the regular hunting season by emphasizing the removal of does.

Once the level of tolerance to deer damage and the desired size of the deer herd is

determined then a comprehensive management program can be implemented. (McAninoch)

Making A Choice

 

Ideally, a deer damage control program should be planned well in advance of planting a

crop. Do not wait until you have e xperienced high losses to begin doing something about the

 problem. Consider the characteristics of the land to be protected as well as future

planting plans. In addition to the type of crop, important factors to consider are the

presence of neighboring deer cover, the size of the acreage to be protected, and the

topography of the land. A simple and economical one strand electric fence 3 foot high has

proven effective in controlling deer damage in gardens. Fencing should always be in place

before damage begins and if an electric fence is used then it should be charged well in

advance. Electric poly-wire and poly-tape fences used in conjunction with peanut butter

baits wrapped in tin foil are effective in controlling deer damage. Research at West Virginia

 University and Pennsylvania University have shown that the cost of 6-wire high tensile

electric fence for 5 acres is $140 per acre but decreased to $35 per acre for 100 acres.

Rills and gullys may decrease the ability to effectively use fencing to control deer damage.

Fencing also may not be economical where crops are planted in small and dispersed fields.

 

References

 

McAninoch, J.B., M.R. Ellingwood, and R.S. Winchcombe, 1983. Deer damage control in New

 York agriculture. N.Y. State Department of Agriculture and Markets. 13 pp.

 

The Pennsylvania Game Commission, The Pennsylvania State University, The United States

Fishand Wildlife Service. 1982. Deer. Penn. Wildl. Nuisance and Damage Control, No. 12.4

pp.

 

Authors

 

James E. Evans, Robert W. Cheves, Jr., Tara A. Baugher, Steven M. Carcaterra, W.

Randolph Davidson,

William N. Grafton, Thomas R. McConnell, Arthur W. Selders, Charles E. Williams, David J. "

 

 

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POV

Lions and tigers and deer oh my!- North Harford H.S

                                                                                                                            10/28/2010

Our stake holder group is called “lions and tigers and deer oh my!” The homeowners are

important because they get a lot of damage on their property. Also, they know the exact damage

 that is being done because home owner’s gardens are smaller and easier to keep track of.

“State Farm Insurance estimated that in 2006, deer-car collisions caused 200 human

casualties and more than $1.1 billion in damage nationwide.  ”Deer are very beautiful creatures

that can help the environment.  But sometimes they hurt more then they help. From the point of

homeowners, they eat gardens, flowers, destroy saplings, and grown trees by rubbing their

antlers on them. They get in the way of cars and cause accidents. Deer are a nice home to deer

ticks. Deer ticks could get on children playing in the yard and then they could get limes’

disease. Developers don’t want to spend money on fences, or light systems to keep deer out of

housing developments. Our group wants the deer population taken care of as humanely as

possible. We realize that some of them have to be killed. We think that the minum number of

deer should be killed, and some of them should be put into deer reservations to preserve our

gardens, and cars. Our solutions might affect the deer by killing them. Also, they will not be as

free as they want to be in the reservations. Also, they may start to inbreed.

 

 

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  From:   Doctor Deer - Other Stakeholder - NHHS

              Ask                                                                         11/3/2010            6:36:00 AM

     I agree with this group. The deer affect homes and families all the time. I also believe

     that more hunting of deer would help and that putting deer in reservations is a good idea.

  From:   Tree Huggers - forest - NHHS

              Ask                                                                         11/3/2010            6:28:00 AM

     We agree with Lions and tigers and deer oh my! because by killing some of the deer and

     putting some other deer on deer reservations it will lower the deer population around

     homes and forrests.

  From:   The Fed Up Forest - forest - NHHS

              Ask                                                                         11/4/2010           10:08:00 AM

     We agree with this solution. The deer overpopulation should be taken care of as

     humanely as possible. We also think that sometimes deer do more harm than good. This

     seems like a good solution.

 

  From:   JJ Forest - forester - NHHS

              Ask                                                                         11/5/2010            7:33:00 AM

     we agree with the homeowners opinions and facts. deer are destroying their gardens and

      plants they.ve worked hard on to plant and grow. deer ticks are very nasty and can

     spread disease to us and our families.

  From:   The Rubber Duckies - forester - JMHS

              Ask                                                                         11/5/2010            6:56:00 AM

     If we get rid of the deer the coyote would cause more damage if it hits your car because

      they are twice as strong. So if you hit a coyote on the highway it will cause twice as

     many casualties possibly.

 

  From:   Deer Dudes and Dudetes - Other Stakeholder - KLMS

              Ask                                                                         11/8/2010             1:43:00 PM

     If we put the deer into national animal reserves, our population of deer will increase.

     We are basically trying to decrease. Can you explain why reserves will be better for this

      current situation?

  From:   BA Foresters - forester - TAHS

              Ask                                                                         11/8/2010             1:06:00 PM

     i agree with what you are saying with how deer coming close to someones property and

     how the homeowners can know the exact damage.  i really like this point of view.

  From:   BA Foresters - forester - TAHS

              Ask                                                                         11/9/2010            8:33:00 AM

     We did not post the previous comment under our name. We do agree that homeowners

     deal with a lot of damage, and we also agree that deer sometimes do more harm than

     good. Our question for you is: How do you plan on getting deer into reservations and

     keeping them there. Also, who will be paying the expenses that are involved in

     constructing reservations? What does inbreeding have to do with you Point of View?

     Please provide more information and explain your ideas in a more detailed manner.

     Thank you.

 

 

 

POV

Happy Hoppy Homeowners - North Harford H.S

                                                                                                                              11/4/2010

Homeowners are important because they take care of their land, their home, and their

environment. Due to the over population of deer, our property has become damaged. Our

gardens, plants, flowers, and produce have been eaten and destroyed. The population of deer

has increased a lot in the past years. We try to avoid these problems so that the value of our

land does not decrease. When our children and friends play outside, they are more prone to

having diseases because of deer, like deer ticks, which causes lymes disease. In order to solve

the over population of deer, we homeowners strive to see fences put up to set a boundary

between forests and neighborhoods. Also, we want more hunters to do their jobs more often, so

that the over population of deer will decrease. Dividing the forest from the neighborhoods,

there will be less deer in our gardens because they will be behind the fences and in the forest.

That is where the hunters can hunt lots of deer in a small area. Other stakeholder group's

solutions might affect us and our livelihood.For example, the foresters might have a solution

to the overpopulation of deer that might conflict with our solution. They might persuade people

to believe that the deer need to eat and they should feel free to go wherever to please because

they are animals and that is what they have to do. But if so, then they will be coming into our

yards and eating our gardens. Thus the homeowners and the foresters have conflicting

solutions. We are not wiping out the deer population, we are controlling it.

 

 

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