National Park Service Killing Fewer Deer In Some Parks

That headline may come as a complete surprise to many of you but it shouldn’t. Most of us have been led to believe that hunting is not allowed in National Parks and that is not entirely true. For example, a recent announcement was made that said officials were not going to kill as many deer in this year’s hunt in Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site. That’s what park officials are calling it when it fact it is nothing more than park employees culling deer numbers, which is unfortunate because real hunters could accomplish the same task at no expense to the parks.

In an article by Matt Casey at EveningSun.com, I should point out some things that we should bring our attention to. First of all, park spokesman Katie Lawhon says that it was the goal of the Park Service to reach a deer density of 25 per square mile. In 1995 the deer density was estimated to be 333 per square mile. No, that is not a misprint.

The Park Service began a program of culling female deer and now nearly 12 years later the deer density estimate is around 26 deer per square mile. This year the park intends to kill off around 115 deer between October and March. Those deer will once again be doe deer.

While I still maintain that it is unfortunate that hunters are not allowed to participate in this event, there are some things we can take from this 12-year long effort. One is that 333 deer per square mile is a devastation looking for a place to happen. That many deer were destroying the entire ecosystem of the park. Even Lawhon pointed this out.

“The intense browsing by deer was threatening the future of the wood lots because there were very few younger trees that managed to live or thrive,” Lawhon said.

Lawhon said the deer also threatened the Park Service’s agricultural program, where local farmers maintain farm fields that are part of the park.

“We found that there was so much damage to the crops that it was becoming less and less worthwhile for the farmer to lease the field,” Lawhon said.

Lawhon said without local farmers cultivating the fields, the park would lose its 1863 agricultural appearance and make it harder for visitors to understand the landscape.

In this statement, it is clear that the park in order to maintain its viability, must keep it looking as near to the way it did during the battle years. The deer were destroying everything. This problem is not relegated to just Gettysburg. This is something that is appearing all across America. Places where deer can thrive and no means of controlling populations, is sure to wreck the same devastation on ecosystems, yet the animal lovers and anti-hunting individuals, groups and politicians insist that there are other ways to “humanely” deal with such problems.

Another positive we can take from this is proof that hunting does work as a good tool to control game populations. Often we hear from the same groups I mentioned above that hunting will actually increase populations. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Hunting used to be pretty much uncontrolled. Once it was determined that if we didn’t do something about limiting the lengths of seasons and numbers of game taken, future generations would have no wildlife to enjoy. Controls were put in place and programs were developed that would ensure that there would always be game and wildlife.

With better science available, fish and game biologists are learning how to manage game species that will provide stable and healthy numbers for all to enjoy, not just hunters. Make no mistake about it, if the controls were lifted on hunting today, theoretically it wouldn’t take long before we would be back looking at very few numbers of game animals. I say theoretically because I believe that a majority of hunters today understand the importance of game management and would do what was necessary to continue the effort.

So for those who just plain hate hunting and refuse to admit it while hiding behind lies that hunting doesn’t have any affect on deer populations etc., this is one very good example of how a well controlled effort can be extremely effective in bringing a deer population under control. Communities all across the U.S. should take a look, only I recommend you work with local hunting clubs to achieve your goals.

The Park Service have the deer killed, butchered and donated to the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank in Harrisburg. This year’s hunt is estimated to cost taxpayers $5,948, excluding man hours.

Tom Remington