Lately...............everytime local and national media reports on wildlife sightings, we the viewer hear the same fear-monger rhetoric about there being too many wolves, coyotes, wolves and bears in our Country.................During most of the 20th Century we were almost at EXTINCT levels for all carnivores save coyotes in the USA..................hunters fees spurred fish and wildlife agencies to enlargen and re-introduce deer and elk but not carnivores......................The result being that hunters alive today feel that deer and elk herds should be such that anyone, anytime can go get their trophy....................Bottom line is that our woodlands and prairies take a terrible ecological beating from the overload of hoofed browsers with dire results for many plant, bird and animal species being deprived of viable habitat because of the overbrowsing.................Interesting to note that at the point of European colonization(1500AD), deer density in what was to become the USA was only 10 persquare mile...................the limit that biologists acknowledge does not destroy habitat

 Other comprehensive sources include Warren 1997 and McShea et al. 1997
.

In general, native species diversity / abundance and overall forest health drop significantly with

increasing deer herd size. An often cited research project that provides quantitative guidance on deer

population levels associated with ecological damage was performed by David deCalesta, based at the USForest Service in Pennsylvania (deCalesta 1994, deCalesta 1997).

 Over the course of a 10-year studyusing forest enclosures with known densities of deer, deCalesta determined that native forest herbs and tree seedlings became less abundant with deer densities between 10 and 20 per square mile.

 At densities exceeding 20 per square mile, palatable native plant species disappear and forest shrub-nesting song birdsdrop in abundance with the loss of the shrub layer.

 Starvation of deer occurred when densities exceeded 65 per square mile.

 This study suggests that deer densities exceeding 10 per square mile have negative ecological impacts (Note: Independent historical studies determined that pre-European colonization deerdensities were approximately 10 per square mile and breakage – McCabe and McCabe 1984 and breakage of the Lyme disease transmission cycle may occur at 8 deer per square mile – Stafford 2007).

Numerous studies and reviews have been conducted on the impacts of white-tailed deer on forest

ecosystems. A comprehensive review was conducted in Pennsylvania (Latham et al. 2005,

http://pa.audubon.org/deer_report.html