Two different factions of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources are pooling their efforts in hopes of solving a common problem.
The state's forestry and wildlife department are working to save Wisconsin forests from being picked clean by a hungrier, and more adaptable, herd of deer.
Darrell Zastrow, the director of the office of forest sciences for the DNR, said his department is monitoring forest regeneration throughout the state.
His concerns are that younger trees are having a harder time reaching maturity than ever before. And the state forests are beginning to suffer as saplings are nibbled to death by deer.
The problem is known as deer herbivory, and it affects most of the 32 species of trees in the state.
A survey conducted by the DNR this year identified Portage and Marathon counties specifically as areas where deer grazing was especially a problem.
It's no surprise to Keith Warnke, a big game specialist for the DNR, that a boom in the deer population has coincided with the gradual deforestation in the area.
"The bottom line is that there are more deer on the landscape than there has been in the last 50 years," he said. "When you have more deer, they are going to eat more food."
Warnke said the DNR establishes population goals for deer across the state. He said those goals have been exceeded across most of the state.
The most logical solution, Warnke said, is to increase the annual harvest. But it's never that simple.
"You run into a wall of resistance everywhere you turn when you start talking about extending the season," Warnke said. "There are the traditionalists who don't want the season extended, the bow hunters who don't want to lose out to the rifle hunters, and the snowmobilers who don't want to worry about hunters after November."
Warnke said the DNR currently supports the earn-a-buck program that requires hunters to first kill an antlerless (female) deer before they are allowed to shoot a buck.
"But everyone wants that buck to hang on their wall," Warnke said.
Foresters and wildlife experts both agree something needs to be done to balance the deer's dietary needs with the livelihood of the state's forests.
"Trees are very dynamic, and forests are especially resilient," Zastrow said. "But they need a window of opportunity to adjust and grow stronger. Forests depend on a new flush of trees going through the natural maturation process to stay healthy and vibrant.
"This is definitely a concern for the DNR," Zastrow said. "A survey of our forests have shown many areas where deer grazing is affecting our forest regeneration both natural and artificial. The deer eat the new trees as soon as they are planted. As a result, we don't have as many new trees growing to replace the older ones."
Zastrow said there are a few options to give the trees a fighting chance, but each one is as costly as it is controversial.
One way would be to change the menu on the deer. Zastrow said deer prefer oak and conifers for grazing but do not like spruce. One possible solution calls for cutting down a large percentage of the older trees in problem areas and replacing them with new trees deer do not usually eat.
There are also sprays that act as repellents and ways to fence off entire sections of forest from deer.
"All of these solutions would be extremely expensive," Zastrow said. "And if we are talking about cutting down trees then we are losing the complexity of the forest."
Zastrow also said that as tree species disappear so would wildlife, especially birds, who depend on certain species of trees for food and habitat.Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune
