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Too Many Deer in the Nation's Capital? Rock Creek Park Holds a Public Meeting on Wednesday

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Photo by windbender via Creative Commons and Flickr.

What's a manager to do when a park has more deer than the area can support? That's a common dilemma in a growing number of areas, but... in Washington, D.C.? Rock Creek Park is holding a public meeting this week to discuss a deer management plan for that site.

Rock Creek Park includes over 1,750 acres in the District of Columbia; park headquarters is located only about three miles north of the Lincoln Memorial. A park publication notes the area

offers visitors an opportunity to reflect and soothe their spirits through the beauty of nature. Fresh air, majestic trees, wild animals, and the ebb and flow of Rock Creek emanate the delicate aura of the forest.

Those "wild animals" include a herd of white-tailed deer that has grown steadily in recent years. A park report described the current situation:

The increasing numbers of white-tailed deer within the park are resulting in a substantial effect on the park ecosystem due to the deer’s heavy browsing of vegetation. Studies being conducted by the park indicate that deer are having adverse effects on shrub cover, tree seedling regeneration, and herbaceous cover, which affect habitat quality for other wildlife within the park that are dependent on this vegetation for food, shelter, and cover.

In short, too many hungry deer are not only eating themselves out of house and home, they're also eliminating the natural habitat for lots of other critters as well.

Although NPS sites tend to focus on ecosystem impacts as the impetus for a deer management program, there are plenty of related issues. Two common ones: traffic safety (deer-vehicle collisions) and complaints from property owners about damage to landscaping from browsing deer.

Life in the city isn't always an easy one for deer. In 2002 four people were injured when two deer smashed through the window of a McDonalds in Washington, D.C. In March of this year, a young buck being chased by a dog crashed through the window of a restaurant in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Those particular deer may not have wandered over from Rock Creek Park, but the incidents illustrate the challenges that arise when wildlife populations continue to grow in urban areas, and there are a lot of deer in the D. C. metro area. In 2005 there were an estimated 7,000 collisions between deer and vehicles in just two of the city's suburban counties: Frederick in Virginia and Montgomery in Maryland, and authorities believe some such crashes go unreported.

There certainly aren't anywhere near that number of deer in Rock Creek Park itself, so what's the situation on NPS property?

In 2007, the park's population had reached an estimated 82 deer per square mile. That number doesn't mean much without some perspective, so here are a couple of reference points: Some experts estimate the density of deer in North America prior to the arrival of Europeans was about eight to eleven deer per square mile, and a good estimate of deer density at Rock Creek to allow a healthy forest ecosystem is about 15 to 20 deer per square mile.

Based on those numbers, park managers at Rock Creek share two common questions with their counterparts in federal, state and local parks across much of the country: are there really too many deer in the park, and if so ... what should be done?

That discussion is now officially underway at Rock Creek Park, and the park is preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and deer management plan. As part of that process, the park will hold a public meeting from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, September 2, 2009. The meeting will be conducted at the Rock Creek Park Nature Center, 5200 Glover Road, NW, in Washington, D.C. You'll find driving directions on the park website.

You don't have to attend the meeting to comment on the Draft EIS, but you need to know what's in the document before weighing in with an opinion. You can download a copy or pick up a printed version at the Rock Creek Park Nature Center, 5200 Glover Road, NW and at Rock Creek Park Headquarters, 3545 Williamsburg Lane, NW, in Washington, D.C. Additional printed copies are available for review at public libraries near the park in Northwest and Northeast Washington, D.C.

When you're ready, you can send you comments by U. S. Mail or on-line. You'll find the mailing address for written comments here; to submit them on-line, go to this site and click on the "comment on document" link at the upper right corner of that page.)

The comment periods ends on October 2, 2009.

Deer management for the park is a very important decision, but when it comes down to the options available and the opinions that are likely to be expressed, it's a case of rounding up the usual suspects.

The animal rights folks will likely prefer "no action" or non-lethal steps such as sterilization and doe birth control; the pragmatists will likely support the use of proven methods such as trained sharpshooters. It's a problem with no easy answers for the park staff.

If you have an opinion—here's your chance.

Comments

I can understand the concern for the over population of deers. However, has anyone thought of why the deer are becoming more populated in this area? With all the new construction in the outer regions that surround DC, deer have no where else to go. A place like Rock Creek park is a safe area that will not have its trees torn town any time soon. Other places that continue to chop down small bits of forrest are forcing animals, including deer, to look for homes elsewhere. My mother's garden and other gardens around her are having the flower beds torn up because deer are now coming in to look for food. And she lives just outside Tysons!

Look for the source of the problem...not just the problem itself.


Birth control would be a much better solution, if this is really about reducing the deer population. Personally, I suspect there is something more sinister agenda behind this suggestion.
But in response to the concern raised, hunting does not guarantee a reduction in the population of an animal species. According to the article below, Maine tried this approach with Moose. The result is am increase in the Moose population from 20,000 to 60,000.
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-15036511.html


I read that article, anon, and it doesn't say there are 60,000 moose in Maine. It says they don't know how many moose there are in Maine. There could be as few as 25,000 or as many as 60,000, depending on how you count. That said, there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that the moose population of Maine has increased substantially. It does seem a bit simplistic to attribute that to hunting.


... but not simplistic to conclude that the hunt did not effectively reduce the moose population, which continues to grow.


No, please don't bring in local bow hunters -- or any kind of hunters whatsoever. Remember this is a thin little sliver of a park (not a forest by any definition) in which people live and use roads to commute. Children go to the planetarium and get pony rides at the horse center. Are you proposing to close down local roads such as Beach Drive for such a hunt? During rush hour or on the weekends?

Birth control is the most sane choice. It won't pose any danger to the neighbors or our kids -- those of us who actually use Rock Creek Park.


Deer have become so tame in DC and MD. I was walking on my front yard and a fawn and mother stood 10 feet away. I finally shouted and stepped forward and they moved off. I was at a trap range and two deer stepped right onto the range and grazed. They do not care about the shots nearby. Obviously these deer are not hunted and too used to humans to have much fear.

Rock Creek Park is denesly used park with bikers, hiker and cars. It is too small to allow hunting safely.
The deer population has risen with dogs being leashed so they have less to worry about being chased by dogs. Lack of human hunting and landscaping and cleared land with strips of woods allow deer good grazing and access to the land.

Really the only limit on deer are car crashes and starvation. Cars probably account for the largest deer killed than any other cause.


Both Mr. McDonald and you are correct in describing Rock Creek Park and it's layout and what will happen with selected sharpshooting. Trust me, there is plenty of illegal hunting going on throughout the Washington metro area (we certainly have it in our park which is off limits to hunting and someone recently circulated a flyer asking to bowhunt from properties in the neighborhood!). Sadly, this entire problem is not a deer problem, but a human problem. Deer were obliterated from the State of Maryland with far less population than we have today. They had to be reintroduced. Bear were hunted so severely (predator of fawns) that a moratorium was held on hunting them (although Virginia just opened season on Black Bear). This all speaks of mismanagement to me. Gee, coyotes tried to get a foothold in Montgomery County and were wiped out. They would take a fawn as well, but are not effective against adult deer, but they would benefit from roadkill. Actually, Maryland and Virginia have all out war against coyotes.

The deer are being managed like they were cattle in a stockyard. These are animals that have routines that follow the seasons. They have effectively adapted to our encroachment of what used to be their territory. And they will continue to do so. Contraception works with feral dogs and cats (and coyote...effectively in AZ). In herbivores, it is more difficult. I understand the hesitancy there by officials to spend the money on an animal that will most likely expire from the tranquilizer. In addition the last injectible/implantable contraceptive was only effective for a year and it would be a waste of manpower and money to trap and tranq these animals annually. Castration might be solution. Both goats and cattle grow horns when castrated, I can't see how much impact that would have on deer. A 'true' hunter shouldn't be hunting for the antler anyway, but the meat.

My worry is in this random removal of deer, the impact it has on the overall herd health. You are killing adult animals that know how to safely maneuver roadways with fawns (because if they don't, they are all dead) and it is true, once established deer are killed, new deer who have been run off their property (ICC) will relocate happily and won't know their way around. So you are in fact creating a vacuum effect.

I once suggested to MCNPPC about tagging fawns to follow, vs. the random radio collar (too expensive to track many deer). They don't have to be tranquilized, males could be castrated on the spot, the plastic ear tags are easily seen by anyone, it would tell you where deer go and how far and with whom. Blood samples drawn from fawns would correlate maternity/paternity and keep an eye on Chronic Wasting Disease (not established in MD yet). Besides the price of the ear tags, applicator, lab supplies and blood spin/test, this could all be done by Biology and Veterinary students from UM, Tech, etc.

On the bright side, with a virtual CWD-free population, other states may have to kill off their deer. This is not an optimum solution as it narrows the gene pool down to zero. Of course when you only think of deer as meat on the hoof, who cares, right?

For the Lyme proponents who want deer killed because of the ticks. This doesn't get rid of the ticks (still in the woods, folks) or the real villains (mice and rabbits whome you shouldn't eradicate because that will really offset the whole scheme of things) who carry the bacterium. NY/NJ/CT States tested a new paracitide (acaricide) along the lines of CO/NM/AZ with their Bubonic Plague issues. This didn't involve killing either...except fleas, and in our case ticks. Food stations were established and posts with 'drip baffles' (used with livestock) were treated and the deer applied the insecticide themselves...taking it back to their beds and causing a 68% drop in Lyme in the area. This was a 6 year study conducted by Yale University.

I think we need to learn more about deer and their real habits vs. what we are spoon fed by the media to make an educated decision on their future.


Attempting to artificially control the population of deer in Rock Creek is an exercise in futility. Even if possible the cost would far outstrip the benefit. Deer and other wildlife do not recognize human boundaries and will fill whatever favorable ecological niche is available. The removal of wolves and woodland panther reduced natural population controls on deer and other game, leaving only humans, disease and periodic starvation to cull the deer herds. Unfortunately, these controls are less effective and fail to select for the maintenance of healthy populations. The coyotes are simply moving in to take advantage of the vacuum created by the removal of other predators.

I used to think of Nature as fragile. In the short term it often is. However, over the long haul nature will virtually always win. Attempting to create and maintain a "civilized" wilderness with an artificial mix of wildlife compatible with human ideals is ultimately a loosing proposition. It would be far more effective and efficient to simply let nature takes its course along the Rock Creek strip and learn to live with the natural dynamics. It will eventually happen anyhow.


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