Reply To: Measuring Up

[Stephen Graf]

#41806

R2 wrote: I guess we’re not messing things up too bad;

In the early 1900’s there were an estimated 500,000 white-tailed in the United States.. Today there are over 20 million deer in the United States and numbers are rising.

In North Carolina, the population has been steadily declining for the last 15 years or so. I think this is true in other states as well.

Last year, we had a crazy state wide outbreak of hemorrhagic disease (that’s what the WRC claims anyway) that killed at least 40% of the herd state wide. Deer harvest was off 60%.

There was exactly one article about it in the local paper. The local retail organization reminded the paper that lower deer populations means fewer hunting licenses sold and fewer hunters in stores and thus fewer ads in the paper. No more stories about declining deer populations.