wrote in message
oups.com...
As to the explosion of deer and geese populations, widely noted across
the U.S., I would put money on it being a result of the loss of other
species less adaptable to human-dominated environments. In other
words, we have more deer/geese because we have fewer of any number of
other critters that used to live in the same locale, eating the same
things, but less able to survive close to people. This does not bode
well for the future--it means the overall livability of our world is in
decline.

Hunting more of these animals is not the answer--in Missouri the kills
during deer season have risen steadily for years, but we still have
"too many" (read this as "too many, too close to too many people").
The answer has more to do with other factors--urban sprawl, road
construction, pressure on habitat of less adaptable species. Think of
deer (geese/squirrel/oppossum/raccoon) "over-population" as a
symptom--in a truely healthy environment they would be kept in check by
competition; in an environment evermore skewed toward urban/industrial
humans (you 'n' me) they are a kind of pre-cancerous growth--the
"canary-in-the-mine".

This probably has something to do with woodworking, and with my op
about yp, but I'm too tired to find it now g.

Dan


You would lose your money.

Bag the environmentalist cant (rant?) and think. Other than ungulates, what
is there that can eat grass for a living? It's the neighborhood that counts.
Where chow is abundant, the population expands to consume it. Same-o
'coons, geese and such. Until they reach the carrying capacity of the
neighborhood, that is. Then they have to move or starve. Same thing for
those predators the folks who preach more "humane" killing of livestock keep
talking about. They'll expand to the chow available, when available, then
move or crash.

To return, somewhat, to woodworking, one way of reducing the deer population
is to allow climax forest to predominate. It's poor deer forage, which is
why it can grow past their predations. Yes, he said "predations," because
to a clump of brome an encounter with a deer can be a deadly experience.
Other ways in current vogue are to allow the population to thin itself by
disease - CWD, brainworm in moose, and so forth. Disease is rarely a
problem in a small population - paths of infection make it difficult to
build an epidemic, especially when the infectious agent which preys (there,
he said it again) on the target causes death of the host before it can find
another victim.

Your canary is singing the wrong song. He should sing a song of plenty, not
of lack.

Oh yes, in spite of overpopulation, we still have only limited doe hunting
here. Kill a buck - reduces the population by one. Kill a doe, usually by
three. We could use some doe liberation.