QUALITY  DEER  MANAGEMENT  ASSOCIATION PIKE  COUNTY  BRANCH  NEWSLETTER  2004 Spring Issue

Pike County Quality Deer Management Association is a  501(c)(3) non-profit organization. 

Quality Deer Management (QDM)

 QDM is a philosophy or practice for landowners and hunters to work together toward producing healthy deer herds by not harvesting young bucks but harvesting enough does to better balance the herd and maintain quality habitat. Public awareness and continued hunter education is vital for sound decisions in deer management practices. The national Quality Deer Management Association office is located in Watkinsville, Georgia. Visit their website www.qdma.com for additional information.

 News

 

Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) Public Hearing

 About a dozen QDMA members carpooled to the PGC public hearing in Harrisburg on Jan. 25 to give testimony about proposed regulations and bag limits.

Biologist Dr. Gary Alt said, "Too many of our habitats are really in a sorry state of repair and I hope that we can get forest restoration areas off the ground and figure out, how do you fix these habitats, and explicitly demonstrate to the people of Pennsylvania that, we, the hunters, can and will lead the charge to fix these forests for everyone."

            The PGC has a major challenge ahead to fix the forests in Pennsylvania and restore habitat to sustain wildlife in addition to address areas with over populations of deer. Although the PGC did not propose significant changes in the upcoming season bag limits, they heard public comment from hunters and a few non-hunters who gave field observations and made recommendations for various wildlife management units throughout the state. 

            Alt, in charge of the deer management section, stated, "We have a million hunters; today we heard from 51." Alt said he takes all testimony seriously and plans to visit some of the counties with deer problems and added that the deer population is not distributed evenly throughout the state.

Next year, the PGC is launching a forest restoration study to look at how to fix the habitat. Alt referred to the decline in acorns and suggested that the PGC bring back the American chestnut which would provide up to ten times more mast, and recruit hunters throughout the state to help with the project.

            Samuel J. Dunkle, Board of Game Commissioners president, gave testimony and stated, "DCNR should step up to the plate" and address acid rain affects on the forest and aluminum in the soils and trout streams. Dunkle claimed timber harvesting is also part of the problem of forests sustaining wildlife with quality habitat. Pike County hunters and members of the Pike County Branch of QDMA attended to give testimony on deer and habitat conditions in the northeast.

Dr. Gary Alt

Branch President Peter Pinchot stated, "There is an overabundance of deer with the population at an all time high." Pennsylvania is the most restrictive state with regulations and has the most unsustainable herd in the nation. Even though the doe harvest on the Pinchot family land located in the eastern portion of Pike County has tripled with a controlled hunt, Pinchot said the herd is up 20 percent.

            Branch Director Robin Wildermuth, land manager of the Blooming Grove Hunt Club, represented the 19,000 acres and said 350 hunters access the property in deer season and some hunters complained of a lower harvest this season. With a lack of farming operations in the area, the members promote habitat but Wildermuth said, "$400 fences are not the solution." Wildermuth recommended the PGC offer DMAP to all landowners and extend the antlerless season.

            Non-hunter Amy Carr from Lackawanna County took a different approach with her testimony and told the Commissioners their deer were eating her landscape and she could no longer grow a vegetable garden. She encouraged them to reduce the safety zone from 150 to 50 yards so hunters would shoot away from homes and advised the Commissioners to follow the advice of their biologists or "I will send you a bill!" [for damaged property].

            Branch Director Tim Carr, also of Lackawanna County described the deer browse line and fact that native plants have been chewed to the ground. He recommended lengthening the DMAP season, and said it is imperative that the Commissioners vote responsibly.

            Branch member Tad McAlpin pointed out a decline in grouse numbers and suggested the state bird could be extinct in 14 years.

            Scott Brucher, a landowner in the Matamoras area, recommended deer check stations to collect data and supports a continuous archery season.

            Branch Director and Treasurer Joani Bucksbee supported the concurrent buck and doe season and encouraged the Commissioners to give private landowners eligibility for DMAP permits and improve the process in issuing the permits.

            Branch Director and Secretary Teresa Crerand recommended an improved harvest reporting system by phone would be more efficient than the harvest card system and would allow the PGC to extend a season if a harvest is low due to severe weather conditions as noted in a recent PGC news release of a 17 percent harvest decrease in 2002 allocations.

            Branch Director Jim Walters expressed concern about artificial feeding programs by residents. This practice encourages deer to congregate in backyards in large numbers, causes health concerns, and increased vehicular accidents.

            Kip Adcock of Lackawanna County told the Commissioners the snowshoe hare has virtually disappeared, woodcock steadily declined over the past ten years, and noted the importance of our rich heritage being passed on to the next generation.

            Sunday hunting was recommended by a number of hunters but Commissioner Robert J. Gilford pointed out that was a legislative issue.

            One hunter explained there were no tree seedlings in Potter County and said deer numbers must be reduced to allow the habitat to recover.

            A representative of the Farm Bureau with 33,400 members stated that posted property puts agricultural crops at risk and farmers should be allowed to trap and remove groundhogs.

            One individual referenced House Bill 1675 to amend Title 34 that would allow tracking dogs to recover a wounded animal after a hunter exhausts attempts to recover an animal.

 

  

            A group of students serving on the Governor's Youth Council for Hunting and Fishing, pictured at left,  represented various counties throughout the state to protect and promote our heritage.

Their spokesman talked about hands-on skill training and trapper certification classes, and submitted to the Commissioners a youth survey regarding outdoor sports.

            PGC Executive Director Vernon R. Ross stated, "We highly encourage you to stay involved, because tomorrow you could be making decisions."

Other public testimony given included recommendations to:

·         Eliminate the 250 sq. in. orange requirement for furbearers seen as a burden with long lasting effects and destroying tradition.

·         Allow use of a crossbow as a personal choice to hunters at a fee of $5 to $10.

·         Make DMAP permits available to all landowners with multiple permits.

·         Extend pheasant season in cooler temperatures suggested a York County hunter.

·         Allow grouse season concurrent with deer season.

·         Extend hunting seasons and continue programs to reduce deer numbers, said a representative of the Vegetable Growers Assoc.

·         Improve the health of the forest and timber.

·         An extended season of an additional week in spring turkey season with longer hours.

·         Re-evaluate the program and get the county treasurer office out of the program.

·         Remove antler restriction in areas out of control and issue more doe licenses, said a dairy farmer in Bucks Co. who stated wildlife management units 5D and 5C are out of control and their livelihood is threatened with difficulty in growing corn and soy beans.

·         Eliminate DMAP and lower doe allocations in Union Co. due to a decline of deer and need to rebuild the doe population.

·         Another Union County hunter recommended shortening the doe season and not issuing additional licenses.

·         Give disabled hunters a season two weeks earlier in warmer weather and allow them to harvest a buck or doe, said the director of parks from Allegheny County.

       Other public comments given included:

·         Concern over the deer mortality rate.

·         Diminishing crops by a cattle breeder who said he found 40 spots in a ten-acre area where deer bedded down regularly.

·         Concern of losing the black bear hunting season.

·         Hunters should not expect to see a deer behind every tree.

·         A hunter in the southeast who harvested a 2-1/2 year old eight point buck reported seeing larger bucks since the antler restriction.

·         Hunters are the most effective tool to manage deer but need to hunt in areas previously not accessible.

            A variety of concerns from hunters throughout the state reflect the challenge for the PGC in years to come to find the solution to manage wildlife in Pennsylvania and restore habitat. 

American Chestnut Restoration Project 

            The Milford Experimental Forest (MEF) held a workshop on April 1 at the Grey Towers National Historic Landmark in Milford with leading chestnut researchers and practitioners, landowners, and conservation educators. The purpose was to review research, the latest development in restoration science and practices, and explore actions MEF could take to encourage landowners to participate in restoration efforts.

            Peter Pinchot, MEF director, stated there is exurban sprawl, overabundant deer, severe damage to forests from overbrowse, and estimated there are ten oak seedlings per acre when 500 per acre are needed to regenerate a forest.

            Leila Pinchot, MEF chestnut program coordinator, gave an overview of the chestnut restoration project in the Delaware Highlands region and need to involve landowners for a successful program. Leila showed chestnut trees she planted from seed two months earlier that were already one foot high with large healthy leaves. "We are growing over 30 American chestnuts to plant near our food plots. Once the chestnuts start flowering, they will produce great numbers of nuts, which will attract deer. We are growing over 100 American/Chinese chestnut hybrids, which we will plant orchard style in our upper deer fence enclosure. We will use these in a breeding program to produce resistant chestnuts with local American genes. Once we have created this breed, we will plant them throughout our forest. This summer we will find and daylight local American chestnuts to encourage flowering. In the fall, we will collect the nuts and plant them so we can use our local trees in the breeding process. We would like to establish a landowner's association to address issues such as forest health and quality deer management. Additionally, the association would hold workshops to train people about specific chestnut restoration techniques and other forest management tools." 

          Dr. Gary Alt, PGC Deer Management Section supervisor, stated, "We have to work together as scientists and educators across the Commonwealth to teach people to understand issues of cutting down trees. We rarely hear about the sustainability of forestry and the role of forestry in a forest ecosystem, and that is why I take an aggressive role in education." Alt explained the forest must be prepared for planting the American Chestnut and noted it could be a decade before the deer herd is under control. Alt recalled his greatest shock was seeing the forest ecosystem where deer is a dominant problem and severe impacts are so dramatic. Deer should be part of the ecosystem instead of dominating the system, said Alt. "From a wildlife perspective, we are losing some of our best mast producers. I believe it would be a real tribute to the state of Pennsylvania if we could bring back the American Chestnut."

            Ann Leffel of Brogue, board member and tree breeding coordinator at The American Chestnut Foundation, gave a presentation on restoration as a long-range program. Leffel described a crossback breeding program to help make the American chestnut more blight resistant and explained 21,056 trees were planted from 1995 to 2003 with cooperation from numerous organizations. The program is suitable for backyard breeders and volunteer landowners interested in participating in a ten-year breeding program.

            Dr. Sandra Anagnostakis, agricultural scientist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, talked about biological control for chestnut restoration. Anagnostakis explained the first blight was discovered in New York in 1904 but problems were noticed as early as 1890. The problems in 1890 could have been introduced into the United States with mail order shipments of nursery stock from Japan, since European nuts were bigger than the American chestnut nuts and more appealing to grow. The blight was confirmed by 1908. Anagnostakis referenced 44,035 bearing grafted trees on a 400 acre site in Shamokin owned by Col. C.K. Sober that produced nuts in such abundance that Sober shipped them by the boxcar loads but all the trees were killed by the blight. Anagnostakis explained virus strains were discovered that weakened the blight fungus from destroying the bark and the tree's natural defenses then took over. Blight cankers damage trees to the extent they cannot even be used as lumber. Japanese chestnut is hardy and can survive winter weather and chestnuts grow best in clear-cut or timber harvested areas but must be protected from deer.

Alex Day, DCNR nursery operation's manager at Penn Nursery & Wood Shop, on left, and David Armstrong of Hanover, operations coordinator at The American Chestnut Foundation, exam-ine the roots of a three year old Ameri-can chestnut tree nearly 7 ft.  high.

            Alex Day, DCNR nursery operation's manager at Penn Nursery & Wood Shop in Spring Mills, brought a nearly seven feet high American Chestnut tree from the nursery representing three years of growth that he considered one of the smallest trees at the nursery. Chestnut trees are a fast growing tree, said Day, who exposed the roots for everyone to examine. Day noted the importance of soils and described site preparation to plant tree seedlings and benefits of mechanical weeding. Day anticipated that about 400 chestnut trees would be planted this year in an orchard grassy field.

            Chandis Klinger, landowner and chestnut restorationist from Middleburg, gave an overview of 250 Chinese chestnut seeds he purchased from the PGC and pointed out the nuts must be planted with the nut top exposed or it will rot in the ground. Klinger described several methods of planting seeds to encourage growth, and how to protect young trees from wildlife with wire cages to keep deer from browsing on the trees. One watering method used by Klinger was removing a stick placed one foot deep in the ground parallel to a young tree and pouring water into the hole to assure moisture reaches the tree roots and avoid runoff above ground.

            Dr. Susan Stout, project leader at the USDA Forest Service Warren Forestry Science Lab, said Allegheny research goes back to the 1920s and reviewed a case study and sustainable management of a deer impacted area where there were 40 to 60 deer per square mile. Stout stressed an inventory of over and understory must be done to determine the actual prescription needed for tree growth in each specific area.

            Lori McKean, USDA Forest Service public affairs officer at Grey Towers and founder and director of the Eagle Institute, reviewed speaking strategies to groups of various ages in public outreach educational programs. McKean also suggested hands-on programs to interest school students in a program to grow chestnut trees.

            Daniel Banks, USDA Forest Service conservation education specialist at Grey Towers, gave an overview relating to programs he designs for teachers tailored to each grade level that meet state standards.

The 37 individuals attending the workshop divided into three groups and held two breakout discussion sessions during the day to review ideas for a MEF restoration project, ideal areas for plantings and breeding programs.