One More Day Before The Wisconsin Deer Season Starts.
Our foresters have been out and about this week trying to get a few projects completed before the forests fill up with orange people carrying guns.
It is good to see that the roads are filled with people heading north toward their cabins and hunting grounds indicating plenty of interest.
Though one thing does concern me in that the snow is deep and the temperatures are cold which if history rings true will equal a low harvest of deer this year.
When the going gets tough all but the hardiest hunters may just stay in the cabin much of the season and put off tromping through the forest to do their duty of keeping the Wisconsin Deer Herd Healthy.
Though animal rights enthusiasts may rejoice at this turn of events, that is only because they do not know the price of this tragedy.
You see it is a well known fact by the wildlife biologists who not only care about the deer, but also take the time to study the needs of the deer, that a low harvest year translates into mass starvation and disease a month from now.
And this tragedy is only compounded when we get early snow depths like we have this year. You see when the snow reaches 18 inches, the deer start looking for a conifer canopy to yard up in and wait out the winter.
The food in these yards is quickly eaten up and then the deer must decide whether it is worth using their limited fat to seek out a new yard or reserve their energy while they wait for spring.
Deer are accustomed to spending some time in these yards and with low populations and or short winters most will survive till spring.
But with a long and cold winter or when populations are too high many will die a slow and lingering death, a death that the folks from peta would rather not recognize or think about.
And the nice thing for my peta friends is that they don't have to think about the results of a poor hunt, unlike the public spectacle of seeing dead deer riding on the vehicles our hunting friends, the deer who will die a cruel death later this winter will do it silently hidden away in a cedar swamp, hemlock stand, or far off pine plantation where few will ever notice them.
So my hunting friends, get out there, brave the elements and save hundreds of thousands of deer from a really cruel and protracted death this winter and take some food home to feed your families too.
picture credits
- http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Photograph_of_a_Group_of_Four_Deer_Feeding_-_NARA_-_2128179.jpg
- http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Photograph_of_Young_Hardwoods_Heavily_Browsed_by_Deer_-_NARA_-_2127747.jpg
- http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Photograph_of_White_Tailed_Deer_in_Winter_Yards_-_NARA_-_2128065.jpg
- http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Photograph_of_Deer_in_Winter_Yard_-_NARA_-_2128306.jpg
