Thinning the herd
Deer hunt planned for Loch Raven Reservoir property
Bryan P. Sears
Posted 7/08/08
“This is part of (County Executive) Jim Smith’s sustainability plan,” said John Markley, manager of finance administration for the county Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management. Markley spoke on behalf of David Carroll, the county’s director of sustainability and former department director.
Carroll, who has been working with the city on a deer-management strategy for the better part of two years, was unavailable for comment due to a death in his family. The city owns the reservoir, which includes parcels in Cockeysville, Timonium and Towson, as well as Phoenix and Glen Arm.
Two weeks ago, Democratic Sen. Jim Brochin, who represents the Towson area, and Republican Councilman Bryan McIntire, who represents much of the area to the north and east of Loch Raven Reservoir, advocated a managed hunt in a meeting with city Deputy Mayor Christopher Thomaskutty.
The county plans to hold at least one community meeting in the first half of August to explain the program to area residents. Markley said there will be opportunities for community input but said it is unlikely the managed hunt will be canceled.
Enid Feinberg, a Phoenix resident and one of three founding members of deersolutionsmd.com, said she was disappointed at the prospect of a hunt on reservoir property.
“If this wasn’t so sad, it would be comical,” she said.
Environmentalists brought in recently by Feinberg could find no evidence of damage caused by deer in wooded areas around the reservoir, she said. She also questioned the need for a hunt based on claims of overpopulation.
“There’s no proof that we need this,” she said. “There’s no scientific data.”
The reservoir will likely be open to bow hunters sometime this fall. County officials indicated that the bow hunting probably will be combined with the use of an outside contractor to “sharpshoot” deer on reservoir property.
Baltimore City manages three reservoirs in the county — Liberty, Loch Raven and Prettyboy.
Kurt Kocher, a spokesman for the city Department of Public Works, said his agency has “been facing an extremely serious problem with the deer population at Loch Raven for years.”
Complaints from residents about property damage, vehicle accidents involving deer and animals crashing into stores have been well documented, Kocher said.
An even bigger concern is the damage an unchecked deer population can do to the area’s water supply, he said.
“Deer are devastating to new growth needed for a healthy forest,” Kocher said. “They are eating everything in sight, and that means you have old trees and not much to replace them. Without the trees, you have runoff that fills the reservoir with sediment, thus reducing our total water capacity.”
Kocher said the overpopulation is also a danger to other animals living in the area.
Last year, Goucher College used contractors for a controlled hunt on it’s 287-acre Towson campus.
Specific areas of the 11-square-mile reservoir property that will be hunted have not been identified.
In March, county officials used a police helicopter to do a deer census using radar in the reservoir and at Oregon Ridge Park.
Markley said a forest can reasonably sustain 10 deer per square mile. County surveys found there were 67 and 83 deer per square mile respectively in Oregon Ridge Park and the reservoir.
“There’s absolutely no possibility that the deer population, through magic or some trick of nature, decreased,” said Paul Peditto, state director of wildlife and heritage services in the Department of Natural Resources.
The newest reservoir number is more than double the finding of a 1999 state survey.
The hunt could begin as early as the Sept. 15 in what would be the first of five seasons, Peditto said.
In this region, the state allows bow hunters to take an unlimited number of antlerless, or female, deer during bow seasons.
“That forces the hunters to focus on the part of the population responsible for the over-population,” Peditto said.
Prettyboy and Liberty have allowed bow hunting of deer for 35 years, according to Kocher.
A hunt at Loch Raven Reservoir would likely be similar to what is done at those reservoirs.
Kocher said Prettyboy and Liberty are different from Loch Raven “because they are away from the more densely populated areas. Loch Raven is almost downtown Towson, so there is a much higher conflict area with deer and people.”
Peditto said he believes the hunt will have little impact on residents or visitors to the reservoir.
“For decades we’ve been doing the exact same thing in Liberty and Prettyboy successfully, without safety issues and completely compatible with recreational users,” Peditto said.
Bryan P. Sears is political editor of Patuxent Publishing Company’s Baltimore County newspapers.
user comments (7)
user enidfeinberg says...
I am not surprised how misleading this article is given how I was misquoted. Yes, I did say we brought in environmentalists, but what I told the reporter was they found minimal deer damage in comparison to the damage from the illegal mountain biking paths. And since they can't shoot the bikers, I guess they are going after the deer. As a resident who lives very close to Loch Raven and a member of Maryland's Department of Natural Resources Deer Stakeholders Group, I want to go on record that I vehemently oppose the slaughter of the deer in Loch Raven. I feel I have a great deal of knowledge and evidence about this subject. DNR gets the vast majority of it's funding from hunting related activities and the majority of people in a position of power in the Wildlife and Heritage Division are hunters. Since licensed hunters have declined by over 50% to only 2.2% of Marylanders, they are literally fighting to keep hunting alive. Their major objective is to give hunters more hunting opportunities, not helping the general public coexist with deer. In fact, one must question who is really the true instigator behind the proposed hunt? A statement in an article in Mid Atlantic Gaming magazine certainly sheds a new light on that question. And I quote " Local hunting organizations are trying to open up more areas of the watershed to hunting during the upcoming seasons by applying political pressure on local officials. No form of hunting is currently permitted at Loch Raven Reservoir..."
I have never seen any scientific proof or studies to validate the claims about the deer in Loch Raven even though I have requested them. In fact, the reporter told me that Bob Beyer of DNR told him last Thursday that they didn't have data to prove there were more deer. So I guess this new fly over data just magically appeared and just flew under the radar screen of one the top people for DNR's deer program. It is more of a case of I see more deer so therefore there must be more deer, which is not very scientific. The committee that was set up was comprised of all pro-hunting participants, so it is no surprise that they recommended killing the deer. I have gone on record about my great concern over the makeup of this work group. Especially since my own experience with David Carroll was anything but pleasant or productive in regards to non-lethal solutions. He is 100% pro-hunting and 110% against the use of ANY non-lethal alternatives.
We flirt with disaster every time a hunter lifts a shotgun or shoots an arrow. Hunters can easily miscalculate and kill someone in areas where there's an abundance of joggers, people riding horses, people walking family pets and children running free. Just in Maryland alone this past year there were at least 2 hunters killed by other hunters who shot at moving bushes without first determining what they were shooting at. There were hundreds of deaths and accidents throughout the United States. There is no proficiency exam given to bow hunters in Maryland that tests the hunters knowledge of shot placement or a shooting test to test the hunters ability to put a certain number of shots in the kill zone on a 3-D target. Several people I know whose properties adjoin Loch Raven have found arrows and injured, dying deer near their homes even though hunting is illegal. What will happen when you actually let bow hunters in, how many arrows will be found and how many lives will you be endangering. I have personally witnessed just last year not one but two bucks with arrows imbedded in their neck and head. Since it is legal to discharge a weapon just 150 yards from an occupied residence, a homeowner whose property adjoins Loch Raven just voiced his concern to me over whether his guests at his next backyard barbecue will need orange safety vests and what will happen to his property value. Most people surrounding Loch Raven do not want any hunting, but unfortunately they do not call politicians and say we enjoy seeing the deer, only the deer haters call and say they ate my plants, you need to kill them!
All in all, killing as a deer population control method simply does not work in the long run. As a method it is self-defeating yet self-perpetuating, benefiting only the killers, and over the long run very expensive, economically and socially speaking. The practice of killing will not resolve anything for the future.
It took years to get the Streiter Deer Reflectors installed on a portion of Dulaney Valley Road between the bridge and Peerces and they have resulted in an over 90% reduction of deer car collisions. No one believed that they worked and once they were installed everyone is amazed at their success. This only proves that there are non-lethal solutions out there, but they won't work if they are not used.
The public should demand that non-lethal humane solutions be offered to resolve their concerns, or nothing will ever progress and change and the killing will continue.
I am not surprised how misleading this article is given how I was misquoted. Yes, I did say we brought in environmentalists, but what I told the reporter was they found minimal deer damage in comparison to the damage from the illegal mountain biking paths. And since they can't shoot the bikers, I guess they are going after the deer. As a resident who lives very close to Loch Raven and a member of Maryland's Department of Natural Resources Deer Stakeholders Group, I want to go on record that I vehemently oppose the slaughter of the deer in Loch Raven. I feel I have a great deal of knowledge and evidence about this subject. DNR gets the vast majority of it's funding from hunting related activities and the majority of people in a position of power in the Wildlife and Heritage Division are hunters. Since licensed hunters have declined by over 50% to only 2.2% of Marylanders, they are literally fighting to keep hunting alive. Their major objective is to give hunters more hunting opportunities, not helping the general public coexist with deer. In fact, one must question who is really the true instigator behind the proposed hunt? A statement in an article in Mid Atlantic Gaming magazine certainly sheds a new light on that question. And I quote " Local hunting organizations are trying to open up more areas of the watershed to hunting during the upcoming seasons by applying political pressure on local officials. No form of hunting is currently permitted at Loch Raven Reservoir..."
I have never seen any scientific proof or studies to validate the claims about the deer in Loch Raven even though I have requested them. In fact, the reporter told me that Bob Beyer of DNR told him last Thursday that they didn't have data to prove there were more deer. So I guess this new fly over data just magically appeared and just flew under the radar screen of one the top people for DNR's deer program. It is more of a case of I see more deer so therefore there must be more deer, which is not very scientific. The committee that was set up was comprised of all pro-hunting participants, so it is no surprise that they recommended killing the deer. I have gone on record about my great concern over the makeup of this work group. Especially since my own experience with David Carroll was anything but pleasant or productive in regards to non-lethal solutions. He is 100% pro-hunting and 110% against the use of ANY non-lethal alternatives.
We flirt with disaster every time a hunter lifts a shotgun or shoots an arrow. Hunters can easily miscalculate and kill someone in areas where there's an abundance of joggers, people riding horses, people walking family pets and children running free. Just in Maryland alone this past year there were at least 2 hunters killed by other hunters who shot at moving bushes without first determining what they were shooting at. There were hundreds of deaths and accidents throughout the United States. There is no proficiency exam given to bow hunters in Maryland that tests the hunters knowledge of shot placement or a shooting test to test the hunters ability to put a certain number of shots in the kill zone on a 3-D target. Several people I know whose properties adjoin Loch Raven have found arrows and injured, dying deer near their homes even though hunting is illegal. What will happen when you actually let bow hunters in, how many arrows will be found and how many lives will you be endangering. I have personally witnessed just last year not one but two bucks with arrows imbedded in their neck and head. Since it is legal to discharge a weapon just 150 yards from an occupied residence, a homeowner whose property adjoins Loch Raven just voiced his concern to me over whether his guests at his next backyard barbecue will need orange safety vests and what will happen to his property value. Most people surrounding Loch Raven do not want any hunting, but unfortunately they do not call politicians and say we enjoy seeing the deer, only the deer haters call and say they ate my plants, you need to kill them!
All in all, killing as a deer population control method simply does not work in the long run. As a method it is self-defeating yet self-perpetuating, benefiting only the killers, and over the long run very expensive, economically and socially speaking. The practice of killing will not resolve anything for the future.
It took years to get the Streiter Deer Reflectors installed on a portion of Dulaney Valley Road between the bridge and Peerces and they have resulted in an over 90% reduction of deer car collisions. No one believed that they worked and once they were installed everyone is amazed at their success. This only proves that there are non-lethal solutions out there, but they won't work if they are not used.
The public should demand that non-lethal humane solutions be offered to resolve their concerns, or nothing will ever progress and change and the killing will continue.
I am not surprised how misleading this article is given how I was misquoted. Yes, I did say we brought in environmentalists, but what I told the reporter was they found minimal deer damage in comparison to the damage from the illegal mountain biking paths. And since they can't shoot the bikers, I guess they are going after the deer. As a resident who lives very close to Loch Raven and a member of Maryland's Department of Natural Resources Deer Stakeholders Group, I want to go on record that I vehemently oppose the slaughter of the deer in Loch Raven. I feel I have a great deal of knowledge and evidence about this subject. DNR gets the vast majority of it's funding from hunting related activities and the majority of people in a position of power in the Wildlife and Heritage Division are hunters. Since licensed hunters have declined by over 50% to only 2.2% of Marylanders, they are literally fighting to keep hunting alive. Their major objective is to give hunters more hunting opportunities, not helping the general public coexist with deer. In fact, one must question who is really the true instigator behind the proposed hunt? A statement in an article in Mid Atlantic Gaming magazine certainly sheds a new light on that question. And I quote " Local hunting organizations are trying to open up more areas of the watershed to hunting during the upcoming seasons by applying political pressure on local officials. No form of hunting is currently permitted at Loch Raven Reservoir..."
I have never seen any scientific proof or studies to validate the claims about the deer in Loch Raven even though I have requested them. In fact, the reporter told me that Bob Beyer of DNR told him last Thursday that they didn't have data to prove there were more deer. So I guess this new fly over data just magically appeared and just flew under the radar screen of one the top people for DNR's deer program. It is more of a case of I see more deer so therefore there must be more deer, which is not very scientific. The committee that was set up was comprised of all pro-hunting participants, so it is no surprise that they recommended killing the deer. I have gone on record about my great concern over the makeup of this work group. Especially since my own experience with David Carroll was anything but pleasant or productive in regards to non-lethal solutions. He is 100% pro-hunting and 110% against the use of ANY non-lethal alternatives.
We flirt with disaster every time a hunter lifts a shotgun or shoots an arrow. Hunters can easily miscalculate and kill someone in areas where there's an abundance of joggers, people riding horses, people walking family pets and children running free. Just in Maryland alone this past year there were at least 2 hunters killed by other hunters who shot at moving bushes without first determining what they were shooting at. There were hundreds of deaths and accidents throughout the United States. There is no proficiency exam given to bow hunters in Maryland that tests the hunters knowledge of shot placement or a shooting test to test the hunters ability to put a certain number of shots in the kill zone on a 3-D target. Several people I know whose properties adjoin Loch Raven have found arrows and injured, dying deer near their homes even though hunting is illegal. What will happen when you actually let bow hunters in, how many arrows will be found and how many lives will you be endangering. I have personally witnessed just last year not one but two bucks with arrows imbedded in their neck and head. Since it is legal to discharge a weapon just 150 yards from an occupied residence, a homeowner whose property adjoins Loch Raven just voiced his concern to me over whether his guests at his next backyard barbecue will need orange safety vests and what will happen to his property value. Most people surrounding Loch Raven do not want any hunting, but unfortunately they do not call politicians and say we enjoy seeing the deer, only the deer haters call and say they ate my plants, you need to kill them!
All in all, killing as a deer population control method simply does not work in the long run. As a method it is self-defeating yet self-perpetuating, benefiting only the killers, and over the long run very expensive, economically and socially speaking. The practice of killing will not resolve anything for the future.
It took years to get the Streiter Deer Reflectors installed on a portion of Dulaney Valley Road between the bridge and Peerces and they have resulted in an over 90% reduction of deer car collisions. No one believed that they worked and once they were installed everyone is amazed at their success. This only proves that there are non-lethal solutions out there, but they won't work if they are not used.
The public should demand that non-lethal humane solutions be offered to resolve their concerns, or nothing will ever progress and change and the killing will continue.
Posted 8:12 AM, 07.09.08
user frank12 says...
Lady - you scare me. On the one hand you want to everyone to enjoy this area and the next moment you regret that the bicyclists can't be shot - "And since they can't shoot the bikers, I guess they are going after the deer." You seem to consider this your private wildlife sanctuary where you and your friends enjoy a view of this area, never once realizing that your house sits on an area where deer used to graze. If you want to help the deer - move and restore the former natural environment where your house now stands. And I suppose that if we follow your logic we will need to remove all houses so the deer and the antelope can play. If you want to help the deer - stop drinking water so there will be no need for Loch Raven.
Bloodlust and maintaining a herd are two different things. Where are the natural predatiors for the deer? Should we import some mountain lions or wolves to balance nature. They were here before people - including your ancestors - killed them off. Even if your ancestors never held a gun they killed them off by the simple act of occupying space that was once wilderness. What will you do when the deer starve because their numbers are so enormous? Why do you think there are illegal hunts occurring - because people like you will not allow legal hunts and the deer are spilling over into the places where they used to roam free - such as where you and your chablis-sipping buds live.
A real environmentalist would respect the need to balance ALL the species - plant and animal - which are found around Loch Raven, and yes this includes the human animal.
Posted 10:31 AM, 07.09.08
user voiceofreason says...
Once again, it looks like not having a vote gets you shot and killed in Maryland "" if you are a deer that is. That is what's about to happen to some innocent whitetail deer in Loch Raven Reservoir. Looks like the politicians -- Jim Brochin and Brian McIntire --have linked up with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to provide a spiffy new place for the hunting community to practically roll out of their urban bedrooms for a little local deer killing with bows and arrows.
Ever see a wounded deer with an arrow through its neck and coming out of its mouth wandering in your backyard? Those people living around Loch Raven may get their chance this fall if your local politicians and DNR get their way. Or maybe you'll have some poor doe deer, with her fawn, come up to your kitchen window with an arrow sticking in its eye. What will you say to your kids, if they find it?
While Kurt Kocher, the spokesman for the City's Department of Public Works may be getting complaints about deer -- I get the other side nobody is telling you about in this article. As an appointed member of Maryland's Wildlife Advisory Commission for DNR, I have taken such calls and pleas to stop this cruelty from Marylanders time and time again. Bow hunting is cruel, and once again, about to rear its ugly head now in Loch Raven Reservoir, unless we put our foot down and place our votes and voices where they count.
Only thanks to those brave people like Ms. Enid Feinberg standing tall for the deer, do these poor animals have anybody looking out for their interests in Maryland. Those who want to take the animals' lives for sport are well heeled and organized in the Annapolis legislature. Thank you Ms. Feinberg! We need to stand behind Enid and stand up for the deer. Let's give our wildlife a voice and not a broad head arrow. Tell the politicians "NO" to deer killing in Loch Raven.
Posted 11:50 AM, 07.09.08
user la930930 says...
As a student of Goucher College, I find it, as Enid said, "comical if it wasn't so sad", that they cited the Goucher hunt in this article, almost as a point of success. First, I must give kudos to Sandy Ungar and the team of hunters he hired with our tuition dollars, for succeeding in making our Goucher nearly devoid of the wildlife that our campus was once known for. I saw barely any deer on campus during the spring semester (not including the rotting carcasses the hunters dumped behind the incinerator.) Although these bow-hunters, (who have no proficiency exam) are said to be top notch, they did not kill the number they had planned because most of the deer were scared away. If they didn't kill, or at least wound the deer (it's the thought that counts right?), the deer only had two options. Either the deer were scared directly off campus and into heavy traffic, or they must have gone somewhere else... what's the name of that place? Oh yeah... I think it's called LOCH RAVEN. So once again, kudos to Goucher, and the hired hunting team. This violent solution is obviously going so well, better not listen to the non-violent alternatives. Bringing scientific research onto a college campus! who do those animal rights people think they are!? Why read and figure out a real solution when we could stay in the hunters' pocket and get some bloodshed in while we're at it?
Posted 10:34 PM, 07.09.08
user stevetowson says...
"I want to go on record that I vehemently oppose the slaughter of the deer in Loch Raven."
Slaughter? Really?
For someone who lives an alternate lifestyle(which I support your personal choice to do) you sure don't have much tolerance for people who live different lifestyles than your own. Hunting is a tradition that has benn handed down through the centuries, and has been an accepted pastime since long before there was a U.S.A. How about a little celebration of diversity on your part, and some live, and let live. Lead by example. ;)
"I have never seen any scientific proof or studies to validate the claims about the deer in Loch Raven even though I have requested them."
Enid - You have knowledge, but you're in denial. you came here from New York city, and fell in love with the animals. Opposingly, I grew up in Owings Mills before there was any developement there, in what was then a very rural setting. When I was a kid we had to actually cut trails through the woods to get from one place to another. Today you can walk those same woods in any direction unrestricted by new growth. You remind ne of the people that have 70 cats in a city row home, and see nothing wrong with it. How can you POSSIBLY have lived there for as long as you did, and not have seen the problems that exist in the woods around the lake that are caused by the deer? Where do you find the new growth that would be the forest of 50 years from now, because for the life of me I sure don't see it. Everything that's green in the woods around the lake is at least five feet off the ground. All the new growth, and ground cover has been consumed by the deer there. There's your evidence. all you have to do is want to see it, and be open minded enough to recognize it.
"Just in Maryland alone this past year there were at least 2 hunters killed by other hunters who shot at moving bushes without first determining what they were shooting at."
Now you're being disingenuous at best, or deliberately decietful. Those incedents were both with firearms, and not archery equipment. Bowhunting is a close quarters affair, and shots are taken inside 40 yards, so the "orange vest at the backyard barbeque is just more hyperbole on your part".
"There is no proficiency exam given to bow hunters in Maryland that tests the hunters knowledge of shot placement or a shooting test to test the hunters ability to put a certain number of shots in the kill zone on a 3-D target."
As an avid bow hunter who practices at least two hours weekly throughout the entire year I'd welcome a proficienct test for a number of reasons. 1.) it would keep those go out in August an buy a bow to hunt with in September without properly preparing out of the woods. I don't want these people in the woods any more than you do. 2.) It would also motivate the hunter who hangs their bow up during the off season to work with it during the off season so they can be sure of passing the test. With that said, who would you have administer these tests so you'd be satisfied with the results?
The way you paint bowhunters with a broad brush is both wrong, and offensive. Also, the way you assume that every hunter around the lake is there illegally is just as wrong. I personally know four hunters who have written permission to hunt land adjoining the lake, and I'm personally waiting for a response from a landowner on Jarretsville Pike who I expect will give me the OK to hunt his land. I'm sure there are many more hunters who hunt the private property around the lake legally. Again, I don't believe your 95% figure because I know too many who complain about the deer, and want hunter out there ridding them of the deer.
"The public should demand that non-lethal humane solutions be offered to resolve their concerns, or nothing will ever progress and change and the killing will continue."
"The public" has already had their voices heard when they voted for the representatives that support this effort. your minority view doesn't address the concerns of the majority of the people in this area who understand the entire scope of the problem. They not only realize the very high costs of the methods you propose, but they also understand the ecological dangers that are always possible when humans start introducing chemicals, and hormones into a natural environment. Added to that, there's the loss of deer meat donated to the Farmers, and hunters for the hungry progarm. That effort now stands at 2.5 million meat portions served in Maryland soup kitchens alone... all donated free of charge by Maryland hunters. Clearly, given your druthers, you'd put a complete stop to all hunting of every sort in Maryland simply because you see Bambi in every set of big brown deer eyes. i understand your emotional attraction to the deer. They are indeed beautiful animals.... but then the person with all those beautiful cats in the row home can't be left to their own devices any more than you, and the deer population that certainly needs to be addressed within our financial, and logistical means.
Posted 8:17 PM, 07.10.08
user stevetowson says...
The utter ignorance that is abundantly apparent on this topic is astounding. I'm going to present some truth into the discussion. Loch Raven has a browse line that is 6 feet off the ground. Liberty, and Prettyboy have browse lines that are at 3 feet off the ground. Neither is good, but the impact of bowhunting on the ecosystems is clearly apparent to anyone who spends time around the lakes, and mores to learned ecologists, and environmentalists. Reputable environmentalists ascert that one square mile of forest can support eight to ten deer without a negative effect on the forest. Loch Raven contains at least 6 times that number on average.
Add to that, deer are edge feeders, and don't do well in the deep woods, so the suburban environment only causes higher rates of reproduction when deer feed on the lush plantings in landscaped lawns. Couple that with the fact that far too many people like our friend Enid spent years feeding these deer, increasing their reproductive rates that much more, and the real problems around Loch Raven become evident. I've hunted deer for about 15 years, and have been a bow hunter for three. I grew up in Owings Mills out in the woods before there was any real developement there, and back then you might have seen a deer once a year. We've chosen to take their environment, and forced them into tighter, and tighter spaces that cant support the numbers that the larger spaces did. We've created two situations that are not workng. We've decreased areas to which deer can retreat , and increased food sources thereby increasing their reproductive rates. This doesn't help the forests because they will strip that first before coming out in the open to feed, which we all see them doing every day. Today dead deer litter our roads, and highways, damage our cars, injure, and on rare occasions kill our drivers. What comes next is inevitable. We need to reduce the numbers. We have some options available. We can hire people to go out at night with silenced rifles, and kill them by the truckload at a cost of about $200 per animal. We can try the animal lover's solution, and dart the females with hormones twice a year at a cost of $500 per animal, which creates the problem of hormone laced meat ending up on the table of a hunter's family, and in soup kitchens all over the State that gladly accept otherwise hard to get fresh meat. Finally, we can allow hunters to pay the State for the opportunity to thin the herds. hunters will increase the State's coffers, and show up in numbers far greater than we could ever contract out in the way of snipers, and darters. Of the options available to us, hunting is the most effective, and certainly the least costly as it's done in the black, and not in the red.
I can't end this without commenting on " Bow-hunting is inhumane and ineffective".
Bowhunting is very humane. Deer that are hit properly with razor sharp broadheads never know that they have been hit. If you've ever cut your finger with a sharp razor you understand my point. A clean cut is painless. The idea behind bowhunting with a broadhead is to get the animal to bleed out as quickly as possible, much the way someone who commits suicide by slitting their wrists wants to die. It's painless, and peaceful. A deer will lay down, pass out, and die a peaceful death. I've shot deer, and seen them continue to graze before they layed down, but most of the time they are startled because they felt something, run a short distance, and when they don't see a threat they walk off as if nothing happened. I said originally that I was going to inject some truth here, and so I'll include all of it. The rare inexperienced, and careless bowhunter will at times make a less than perfect shot. Sometimes these deer survive, sometimes they do not. The rare deer that is not recovered is not wasted. Nature wastes nothing. As a new hunter three years ago I had one survive an arrow. That deer still runs the woods today with the scar of my hit. I saw him last season. That makes me happy. I'll get him another time.
I've got private land I pay to hunt, but I'm looking forward to hunting Loch Raven this season. Not because I think that it will be easy pickings(I preffer the challenge of the more wary animals that have less human contact) but as a responsible steward of the land I feel a duty to do my part in thinning a herd that is grossly overpopulated. The Loch Raven situation will be a great opportunity to have young hunters experience early success, and I hope many of them get a chance to experience it.
Thank you for reading my thoughts, and the facts I've presented here.
Posted 8:18 PM, 07.10.08
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement