[Leica] Deer and the landscape

[lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

Walt,

The fact that the deer are changing the landscape is a real problem.  
Conservationists are very concerned about it. Because of a dearth of  
natural predators, deer numbers have exploded. Their natural food is  
the tender shoots of young plants and any succulent foliage they can  
reach. As the deer move through the woods, they eat all the young  
tree saplings and abort the growth sequence. Many local wood lands in  
the Northeast have only mature trees. And, of course, when they get  
into cultivated land, they eat anything that grows.

We have lived in a wooded area in upState NY, near the Hudson River  
since 1965. A few decades ago we could grow almost anything. My wife,  
an avid gardener, was proud of her begonias. Wild rhododendrons were  
everywhere. When a lone deer was seen wandering along the side of the  
road, people would stop their cars and gaze in wonder.

About 15 years ago it all changed. The deer population explosion in  
the Adirondack State Park forced the deer to expand their range south  
to the northern fringes of New York City. The Adirondack Park is  
huge, about three times the size of Yellowstone, so you can imagine  
how many deer there are. Much of New York State is wooded and  
agricultural so the deer had a ready pathway down to more populated  
areas. Deer prefer to live at the edge of the woods. They come out to  
graze, they dash back to the trees when they feel threatened.  
Unfortunately, that's where people like to live too. And the roads  
have become much more hazardous. Motorists don't have time to be  
annoyed by the road signs. Now they must drive with caution to avoid  
the herds of deer that regularly cross the highways. The only ones  
happy about the situation are the auto body shops. Everyone I know  
has hit a deer at least once.

As far as eating goes, my wife has given up gardening. She is  
thinking about getting the lawn paved in concrete. Her "garden" is a  
nice collection of rounded stones. The wild rhododendrons have been  
eaten up as far as the deer can reach and now resemble green  
umbrellas. The deer even ate the plastic flowers my wife put out for  
some color. The only flowers the deer won't eat are daffodils, but  
they only bloom for a short while in the early spring.

I'll post a few pictures of our "pets" as soon as I can figure out  
how to work the new LUG site. They certainly don't compare to Kyle's  
shots but I was much more emotional when I clicked the camera. I was  
torn between taking a picture and heaving a rock.

Larry Z