Realtree.com

Deer Densities
Probably the classic example of this is what is occurring with deer. Deer densities have become progressively higher on private lands than on public lands, and damage by them--via depredation to crops and other vegetation, and property damage in car-deer collisions--is heaviest there because of it. And this is true even in areas with seemingly more than adequate public land sections, inevitably bordered by private lands.

In the past, large sections of private lands have often been made available through cooperative agreements, usually between the state and the landowners. But tightening state budgets, together with increasing land values, are now working against these agreements and many co-op lands are being lost because of it. Leasing has become preferable and more profitable than cooperative agreements for many private landowners, although landowners usually must obtain adequate liability coverage by adding a business rider or endorsement to an existing home or farm policy. Leaner state budgets are also hampering many fish and game programs and the ability of the personnel involved to properly implement them.

In New York, for example-which has installed a general hiring freeze for new state employees-the combination of the freeze, substantial attrition due to early retirement incentives, and the expanding private acreage that's closed to hunting has had a profound impact on the efficiency of its Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to properly manage the state's large deer herd. Over-harvesting and under-harvesting has become a major issue, much of it caused by the inability to effectively estimate deer densities and harvests. Many lightly or non-hunted private lands have too many deer, while adjoining heavily hunted public lands have too few, with few real incentives for landowners to allow hunting or more deer to be harvested from their land.

Obviously New York is not alone in this trend, other states, especially Eastern ones, are suffering the same problem as residential and commercial sprawl eats up more private land while shrinking the areas that remain open to hunting and effective deer management. State deer managers are increasingly challenged by their inability to "micro-manage" such small and diverse habitat areas as are contained in the checkerboard patterns of individually owned private lands that may border or contain public acreages. It's a story of too many hunters and too few deer, or vice versa.

The Private Matters
Private land has always played a major role in supporting wildlife, but as family farms have increasingly given way to smaller development plots or mega-farms and private estate-type sections, deer and other wildlife species management has suffered. Other than under state wildlife laws and regulations, biologists and wildlife managers have little or no authority to mandate what private landowners do with native wildlife on their properties. Whether hunting is allowed or not on these properties, there's no guarantee under- or over-harvesting can't occur. And usually it's the former in the majority of cases of the more heavily settled areas.

Another factor that is increasingly causing problems for state wildlife managers, especially with controlling deer, is the change in attitude of newer rural landowners, many of whom moved from in or near large urban areas and never have hunted. They often see deer in the same light as they did pigeons and squirrels in the park - entertaining and harmless creatures to be viewed and enjoyed. Even when overabundant deer begin to destroy their gardens and shrubbery and collide with their vehicles on roadways, they have trouble grasping the truth that the "cute deer" need to be kept at reasonable densities, and they stubbornly cling to the view that hunting on their and surrounding lands is unnecessary. In spite of many states having special programs where landowners that suffer sufficient crop and property depredation may apply for permits to harvest excess deer, many landowners fail to take advantage of it, or in some cases, abuse it by taking too many deer.

Recent national economics have also been a key factor in states offering landowners incentives to allow hunting on their lands. As land taxes in most areas have climbed, many landowners say they would need a tax-reduction credit before they would agree to opening up their properties to hunting and wildlife management, and most state and local budgets just can't afford or don't want to do that.