Deerland by Al Cambronne

Author:Al Cambronne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 2013-04-01T16:00:00+00:00

II. Consequences

CHAPTER 6

Why the Mountain Fears Its Deer

Just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer. And perhaps with better cause, for while a buck pulled down by wolves can be replaced in two or three years, a range pulled down by too many deer may fail of replacement in as many decades.

—ALDO LEOPOLD, FROM HIS ESSAY "THINKING LIKE A MOUNTAIN"

Exclosure.

It’s an odd word. The first time I saw it in print, it just looked wrong. Still, I knew exactly what it must mean. If an enclosure keeps deer in, then an exclosure must keep them out.

Today I’d see several of them. Each would tell a story about what happens when deer densities approach levels that are becoming increasingly common in America’s parks and suburbs—levels five, ten, or even twenty times what most biologists would consider normal and sustainable. Inside each exclosure I’d see something approximating a normal, healthy forest. On the outside I’d see an extreme example of the ecological havoc deer can wreak when there are way too many of them for the land to support. I’d see browse lines, a forest understory that was completely missing, and even the sad spectacle of a lollipop tree. As sweet as it may sound, it’s not called that because lollipops grow on it.

My guide was Dr. Tom Rooney, a botanist from Ohio’s Wright State University. He’s one of the world’s leading experts on the effects of overabundant deer on the forest ecosystem. Today we were on our way to one of his experimental sites just outside Boulder Junction, a small town in northeastern Wisconsin. To be precise, we were on our way to Dairymen’s.

THE DEER OF DAIRYMEN'S

As we headed out of town that morning, Tom explained that Dairymen’s maintains a fairly low profile. It’s a private club with its own lodge, cabins, tennis courts, trails, six medium-size lakes, and access to four more lakes on the edge of the property. Back in the 1920s the club was started by a small group of wealthy dairy magnates who wanted their own private playground in the north woods. From the very beginning they decided that its entire six thousand acres would be a wildlife refuge where no hunting was allowed. Back then this unusual move was considered quite progressive and enlightened.

Deer had been almost totally eliminated from northern Wisconsin, and they pretty much had been eliminated from the southern part of the state. Other game was scarce too. So at the time, creating a wildlife refuge was a great idea. Soon members began to hear grouse drumming. One or two claimed they’d glimpsed a deer. One year someone put a feeder outside the lodge and filled it with corn. It wasn’t long before dairymen and their families could watch through the window at dinnertime as deer ate their own dinners.

By the late 1940s, however, Dairymen’s had a new problem. It now had too many deer. Looking

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