Outreach From Alt: Deer and Deer Management

Dr. Gary Alt, supervisor of the Game Commission’s Deer Management Section, will bring his outreach message to this year’s Wild in The Woods event, Sept. 11, at the Bear Run Barn in Fayette County. As he has done in hundreds of personal appearances around the state, Alt will tell Wild in The Woods’ guests about deer and deer management, one of Pennsylvania’s most pressing conservation issues.

Many of Pennsylvania’s 900,000 deer hunters learned from their hunting mentors that shooting female deer, or does, would ruin deer hunting forever. Early efforts by Pennsylvania and other states to establish doe seasons to trim the herds were met with protest from sportsmen who believed that killing does was wrong. Throughout four decades of deer management controversy, biologists have encouraged hunters to abandon that belief. Sometimes enduring scorn and ridicule, wildlife managers have worked to convince hunters that deer are only one part of the forest, and that too many deer can strip forests of their health, diversity and even their capacity to support a deer herd.

No one has worked harder in this outreach effort than Alt, and surveys indicate that more hunters are adopting a more enlightened view. But many remain unconvinced. Skeptical sportsmen today point to the extensive forests of northcentral Pennsylvania and their relatively low deer population as evidence that too many does have been killed in the Game Commission’s recently expanded seasons for antlerless deer. Alt counters by saying that over-protecting does for too long was the biggest mistake the Game Commission and hunters ever made.

“It is a great irony that hunters often refuse to shoot does so they can have more deer. Yet, by not shooting enough does for decades, deer became overabundant and ate themselves out of house and home, destroying their habitat and its ability to sustain deer—resulting in major declines in population,” Alt said. “That’s what happened to the deer herd in northcentral Pennsylvania.”

Charles Bier, Director of Natural Heritage for Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, believes that overabundant deer also threaten the ecological balance of our forests. He cites studies that show deer have reduced herbaceous species such as the species of trillium and American ginseng. Other research documents that over-browsing of shrubs and small trees by deer has destroyed habitat for many mammals, songbirds and even ruffed grouse, a species highly prized by hunters. At the same time he pointed out that forests are also being impacted by other important threats, such as acid deposition from air pollution. There are multiple factors of which deer are of prime importance.

Alt agrees. “It is important to educate Pennsylvanians on the health and sustainability of our forests at every available opportunity,” he said. “Forests are vitally important to our economy and to the quality of life for current and future residents and visitors to our great state. Managing our deer herd is like being a good parent; you can’t worry about being popular, you have to do what is responsible and right and hope it turns out.”

Since 1999, Dr. Alt has led a progressive deer management initiative at the Game Commission, resulting in new and longer seasons for antlerless deer, larger allocations of antlerless deer licenses, and the DMAP (Deer Management Assistance Program) that issues additional doe permits to private landowners (Bear Run is enrolled in the DMAP program. Hunters can learn how to apply for Bear Run DMAP permits by checking the Game Commission website at www.pgc.state.pa.us).

To those who claim that acid rain is solely responsible for our forest health problems, Dr. Alt asks why a section of a forest that is fenced to exclude deer can thrive while the area outside the fence is heavily browsed.

“I believe the greatest ecological mistake in the history of wildlife management has been not balancing the deer herd with its habitat,’ Alt said.
Besides being an avid deer hunter for 36 years, Dr. Alt has collected deer data for the Game Commission’s deer management program for the past 23 years.

For more information on Dr. Alt’s presentation or the Wild in The Woods event, please call 412-288-2777.

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