Strike three, you’re out by John C. Street

“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but they are not entitled to their own facts.” ROBERT SOBEL 

Back in 1999 when Dr. Gary Alt was touring the state to sell the new deer management program, he advised the people attending his seminars that the objective of this new initiative was “Healthy forests and healthy deer.”  

In order to accomplish this objective, Dr. Alt recommended that the overall deer herd be reduced substantially to allow our forests to “regenerate.” He also recommended that “antler restrictions” be adopted in order to allow mature (genetically superior?) bucks to do a majority of the breeding, thus enhancing the overall health of the herd. 

Unfortunately, Dr. Alt failed to mention that his underlying assumption – that both our forests and our deer herd were in poor health – was based on his “opinion.”  

Right from the beginning, a few people – this author included – thought the initiative was fraught with inconsistencies and thus, perhaps, nothing more than a ruse for an “Agenda” that wasn’t being discussed.  

How, for instance, could Dr. Alt suggest antler restrictions as a way to allow mature bucks to do a majority of the breeding while his agency was permitting 300,000+ archers to target these bucks for six weeks prior to and during the peak of the rut? 

Furthermore, didn’t the deer biologist know, as any member of the Pennsylvania Deer Farmers Association could have told him, that genetic characteristics (even the “health”) of whitetail deer are influenced more by does than by bucks? 

And finally, according to information provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, only eight percent of the “EasternForest” (which, just to be clear, includes Pennsylvania) is in a “sucessional,” i.e., regenerating, stage. In other words, the problem, for a majority of our bird and mammal species (besides and including the whitetail deer), is the overabundance of healthy “mature” forests.  

To those who recognized these inconsistencies, it came as no surprise when, thanks to the hard work and diligence of Mr. John Eveland, evidence was unearthed that proved the deer herd was not – and had not been – in poor health. And, wonder of wonders, this evidence was authored, not by Mr. Eveland, but by the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) itself.

According to a nine year study conducted by the PGC’s own deer biologists (that, incidentally, began the year the new deer management program started and encompassed all the Wildlife Management Units), the embryo counts for all those years averaged between 1.51 and 1.61.  

Importantly, according to this same report, in order to be classified as “unhealthy,” the embryo count would have to be less than 1.1 while anything over 1.5 indicates excellent health. 

So much for the “opinion” that our deer herd was unhealthy.  

Strike one! 

But then Mr. Eveland unearthed documents that proved Pennsylvania’s Forests were in excellent health as well. And, as with the condition of the deer herd, this evidence came - again, not from Mr. Eveland but - from one of the biggest forest managers in the state; the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). 

According to a 2006 report prepared by the DCNR, 89% of their regenerating forest land showed no impact at all from deer browsing, 7% showed light or moderate browsing and only 4% of their total forest land was “heavily or severely browsed.”  

So much for the “opinion” that our forests were in poor health.  

Strike two! 

Given the evidence Mr. Eveland has unearthed to date (and, fortunately, published on the internet at www.acsl-pa.org), it’s hard to imagine how the PGC’s sitting Board of Commissioners could allow this debacle to continue. 

Now comes word, though, that Mr. Eveland has come up with one more piece of evidence and, just as he did with the “health” issues, he’s using the PGC’s own “Annual Harvest” data to refute the PGC’s - or are they the DCNR’s? - illogical arguments for continuation of the program. 

Without giving away Mr. Eveland’s punch line (because his latest report hasn’t been officially published yet), just fill in the missing words from this old adage, “Figures never lie but …..”   

And that should be strike three. 

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: Mr. Eveland’s “Assessment of the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Estimated Annual Deer Harvests” from 2000 to 2011 will be available soon at www.acsl-pa.org)