Blame Bambi and Rudolph

Everyone should know by this time that white tailed deer are a mixed blessing. Animal lovers relish their grace as they leap across the landscape. Hunters like to shoot them to fill their winter larders. Still, deer often figure in vehicle smashups, and they carry Lyme disease and destroy gardens and shrubbery.

A recent Wall Street Journal article detailed the white tailed deer’s even darker side: “They are wreaking ecological havoc in forests across the nation.” The newspaper quoted Peter Pinchot, director of the 1,400-acre Milford Experimental Forest in Pennsylvania’s Poconos Plateau as saying that the deer “have stopped the regeneration of forests in many areas,” so that little trees aren’t growing up to replace big trees.

Forests in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and some other states suffer the worst damage. Mr. Pinchot’s grandfather, Gifford Pinchot, helped bring back the white tailed deer a century ago as the first director of the U.S. Forest Service, in what Pennsylvania’s chief deer biologist now calls “the biggest mistake in the history of wildlife management.”

Leading Maine foresters and wildlife managers seem to agree that most parts of Maine have so far escaped this destructive cycle. Deer populations rarely exceed 15 to 20 per square mile, where real trouble can begin. True enough, deer populations have exploded in a few offshore islands and some southern coastal areas, says Gerry Lesigne, Maine’s state deer biologist at the Maine Inland Fisheries & Wildlife Department. Populations reached 60 or 70 per square mile in Cape Elizabeth, where controlled archery hunts are setting a limit. When numbers reached 100 per square mile on Monhegan Island and more than 200 on Peake’s Island, hired sharpshooters ended the problem. Same for the Cranberry Isles, although it took three years of negotiations to overcome islanders’ fear of gunfire and love of animals. But the issue in these Maine communities has been not damage to forests but deer ticks, accidents, and destruction of gardens and shrubbery.

Forests in central, northern and eastern Maine are considered safe for the present, because cold winters, deep snows and plenty of coyotes have helped limit the herds. Some authorities value coyotes above hunters as controlling factors, since coyotes don’t need land owners’ permission.

Hunting would be more effective as a control mechanism if it weren’t for the widespread posting of property. Mr. Lesigne, the deer biologist, along with some of the foresters, blames the much-loved story of Bambi for trouble controlling the deer herds. He says Bambi teaches that deer are like people, that they are not wild animals, subject to the rules of nature, and that man is an intruder in the natural environment. So if you agree that too many white tailed deer are a problem, blame Bambi and, given the season, Rudolph.