November Sunrise
01-14-2006, 11:24 PM
From the Hillsdale Daily News:
DNR Can’t Rack Up Deer Answer
Tom Kondilas (thomas.kondilas@hillsdale.net), Staff Writer
517.437.6014
The Department of Natural Resources has held meetings throughout the southern part of the Lower Peninsula to hear public comments and questions regarding the region’s high deer population — so far, they have made little quantifiable progress, say DNR officials.
The meetings have raised contradicting concerns and scattered issues.
“For the most part we’ve tried to make it very clear that these meetings are in regard to deer population goals, with that said most of the comments in those meetings are not about deer management goals,” said David Dominic, wildlife supervisor for the South Central Management Unit.
“The thing about it is everybody’s different. One person out there will say it’s too many (deer) and another will say it’s not enough...There’s a lot of questions about how we count deer” he said.
Dominic said finding a solution that will fit everyone’s needs is difficult when people have contradicting concerns.
“We’ve recorded what they said and tried to sort it out. Some of it had to do with deer population goals, and some of it had to do with other issues...We’re just trying to analyze all this and just get a feel for what’s being said,” said Dominic.
He said one of the biggest problems with the meetings is the misconception that the DNR manages deer for hunters only. “We manage deer for all of Michigan,” he said.
Dominic said he is trying to weigh the concerns of hunters against, farmers, drivers and the environment.
“The thing that’s at the bottom of all this is the habitat concerns...and we’re starting to see some signs of that,” he said about southern Michigan’s inability to maintain a deer herd of nearly 870,000. The 1999 population goal was 566,000.
“It’s a very big issue and there’s no easy answers,” said Dominic.
A major hindrance to reducing the population is the lack of public land and inaccessibility to hunters, said Dominic. “Management of wildlife is not easy...97 percent of the land in southern Michigan is privately owned,” he said. “We really need the private land owner and the public behind us in how we’re going to handle this.”
Dominic said the biggest step to finding a solution is to get everybody on the same page. “The only way to lower the deer population is to begin with lowering the number of antlerless deer...as it is right now in a lot of areas we’ve been trying it, and the most we’ve been able to do is slow the growth. And we need to start cutting into that population.”
DNR Can’t Rack Up Deer Answer
Tom Kondilas (thomas.kondilas@hillsdale.net), Staff Writer
517.437.6014
The Department of Natural Resources has held meetings throughout the southern part of the Lower Peninsula to hear public comments and questions regarding the region’s high deer population — so far, they have made little quantifiable progress, say DNR officials.
The meetings have raised contradicting concerns and scattered issues.
“For the most part we’ve tried to make it very clear that these meetings are in regard to deer population goals, with that said most of the comments in those meetings are not about deer management goals,” said David Dominic, wildlife supervisor for the South Central Management Unit.
“The thing about it is everybody’s different. One person out there will say it’s too many (deer) and another will say it’s not enough...There’s a lot of questions about how we count deer” he said.
Dominic said finding a solution that will fit everyone’s needs is difficult when people have contradicting concerns.
“We’ve recorded what they said and tried to sort it out. Some of it had to do with deer population goals, and some of it had to do with other issues...We’re just trying to analyze all this and just get a feel for what’s being said,” said Dominic.
He said one of the biggest problems with the meetings is the misconception that the DNR manages deer for hunters only. “We manage deer for all of Michigan,” he said.
Dominic said he is trying to weigh the concerns of hunters against, farmers, drivers and the environment.
“The thing that’s at the bottom of all this is the habitat concerns...and we’re starting to see some signs of that,” he said about southern Michigan’s inability to maintain a deer herd of nearly 870,000. The 1999 population goal was 566,000.
“It’s a very big issue and there’s no easy answers,” said Dominic.
A major hindrance to reducing the population is the lack of public land and inaccessibility to hunters, said Dominic. “Management of wildlife is not easy...97 percent of the land in southern Michigan is privately owned,” he said. “We really need the private land owner and the public behind us in how we’re going to handle this.”
Dominic said the biggest step to finding a solution is to get everybody on the same page. “The only way to lower the deer population is to begin with lowering the number of antlerless deer...as it is right now in a lot of areas we’ve been trying it, and the most we’ve been able to do is slow the growth. And we need to start cutting into that population.”