“. . . wildlife managers slice intact forests into sunny woodlots that maximize the number of deer and the frequency of encounters between deer and hunters. Private landowners are encouraged by wildlife agencies to crisscross their forest acreage with tasty plantings of clover and wheat in support of what is now a burgeoning population of perhaps 50 million white-tailed deer — in some places as many as 75 deer per square mile.
. . . most of us have become all too aware that there is a downside to having so many hoofed neighbors in the form of disease-bearing ticks and front-end collisions.
Less appreciated, though, is how these millions of deer are quietly eating every palatable leaf within their reach across the eastern forests of North America. That’s very bad news for migratory birds.”
“Why Bambi Must Go,” Daniel Cristol, New York Times
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Tags: deer, environment, white-tailed deer, whitetail deer
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