Here's One For Ya

[Steve D]

Public Input on Deer Population Size

The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is responsible for managing New York's wild deer resource for the benefit of all citizens of the state, now and in the future. Understanding how citizens are benefiting from or being harmed by deer and what their values and priorities are with respect to deer management is an important part of fulfilling that responsibility. We are now using a survey-based process to gather the information on citizens' preferences that will help DEC biologists set deer population objectives.

The Survey-based Process

DEC collaborated with the Cornell University Human Dimensions Research Unit (HDRU) to design a survey that will be mailed to homeowners throughout the state in 2018 and 2019. The survey asks respondents questions about:
• their interests and concerns related to deer,
• how they would like to see the deer population in their area change over the next several years, and
• how important deer management issues are to them.

Survey results, in combination with data on deer impacts on forest regeneration, will be used to guide deer population management decisions. Because heavy browsing by deer can have profound and long-lasting negative impacts on forest ecosystems (PDF, 1.9 MB), keeping those impacts at a sustainable level is a top priority for DEC deer managers.

The Aggregates in color will be surveyed first.

The 92 Wildlife Management Units (WMUs) in New York have been grouped into 23 WMU Aggregates for the purposes of collecting and analyzing data relevant for deer population management. These Aggregates were defined based on similarities in ecological conditions and human and deer population characteristics.

The 7 Aggregates identified on the map will be surveyed in 2018; the rest of the state will be surveyed in 2019. The priorities of Aggregate residents, in combination with local forest conditions, will determine the desired direction of deer population change (up, down, or no change) for the Aggregate for the subsequent five years. Deer Management Permit (DMP) issuance quotas will be set to achieve the desired change.

Aggregates will be re-surveyed periodically and management directions will be adapted as necessary to fit the most recent data.

[Bowshotmuzzleloader]

That will help get a handle on things 

[G-Man]

Works aS long as people tell the truth

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[Doc]

Sounds like the new system that has taken the place of the Citizen Task Forces that used to be sometimes used to gauge public opinion on required deer populations. Apparently that didn't work out so great so they are tweaking it a tiny bit to get input from all the anti-deer forces and the hunters to justify permit numbers and other population-cutting activities. Well, maybe that isn't really all that fair until we see results from this new procedure. Hopefully it won't turn out to be just a lot of venting from residents that have just sustained a few thousand dollars worth of damage to their prize shrubs....lol.

[landtracdeerhunter]

Just what we need in N.Y., another worthless study.  What a waste of tax payers dollars.

[grampy]

This study just guarantees that no one, will be happy with the results. 

[nyslowhand]

Always a pessimist..but I see nothing useful coming from this survey of homeowners that would promote better whitetail mgmt practices. Hell, if I were a homeowner with a couple of acres in the suburbs that deer were raising havoc with my landscape. I'd want them all gone as probably do the large homeowner's with 100s of acres of orchards. Conversely, if I were a hunter & homeowner in a rural area with numerous acres, I'd want more deer around!! I'm a homeowner on the edge of town, with a meager building lot and never see deer around where I live. My input would be to let the population grow, biased input due to my hunting within a few miles of my home and nothing to due with my opinion as a homeowner. Would these differing survey inputs be equal or weighted? Scary that this survey might establish another non-science based, multi year Whitetail Mgmt Plan put out by the DEC.