Oh Deer!

You don’t need to travel upstate New York to see a deer.  If you live on the eastern two-thirds of Long Island, you may only need to look out your window at dusk to see a doe or buck grazing in the twilight.  White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is a species of wildlife native to the East Coast and Long Island that has been reported as far west as Eastern Queens in recent years.  In conversations with friends, landscapers, and nursery growers, I find that everyone I talk to has a very strong opinion about deer - opinions which span quite the gamut.  For example, one homeowner on Fire Island that I know keeps a daily log of all the deer that walk in and out of her beach property.  Not only has she named every deer, but she also knows who is related to who and the genealogy of the entire herd.   On the other side of the gamut, at our July 4^th BBQ, we ate venison that was proudly provided by my co-worker from one of his hunting trips.  As we ate, another co-worker recounted when a deer had accidently become trapped inside our fenced research fields, and he had to chase it out with the golf cart, but not before it had trammeled through the property wrecking havoc on our neatly planted experiments. 

These deer stories have helped me realize that there seems to be three distinct ways of thinking about deer – as innocent and beautiful animals to be protected, as nuisance pests that are highly destructive, or as potential trophies and sources of healthy, wild game.  But all too often, these three different viewpoints do not overlap and one opinion is vehemently defended, while the other two are condemned.

Photo: According to the U.S. Department of the Interior (2008), nearly 1.2 million New Yorkers enjoy viewing deer near their home.  Watch Hill, Fire Island

Perhaps we would have room for these different opinions if it wasn’t for the sheer number of deer.  Although white-tailed deer are a natural part of Long Island’s ecosystem, numbers have greatly increased over the last century throughout the East Coast.  New York’s deer population spiked to over 1 million between 2000 and 2002 (DEC 2011).  Removal of natural predators, conversion of dense forest to habitat preferred by deer, and a nearly 40% reduction in deer hunting participation in New York since the mid-1980s are the cause of extraordinarily high numbers of deer in the state.  

This exploding population of deer has created a melee of problems which threaten all three different perspectives on deer.  There are now too many deer to protect all these beautiful animals from winter starvation.  There are now too many deer to economically protect highly valuable crops upon which people depend for their livelihood.  There are now too many deer to protect seedlings in the forest understory from not being eaten and growing into mature trees, forever altering the composition of our remaining forests.  There are so many deer that they are now one of the number one sources of wildlife-related car collisions.  There are so many deer that the risk of Lyme disease is incredibly high.  There are so many deer that hunters are now sometimes given incentives to shoot a female doe rather than a prized male buck (This apparently lowers the population more efficiently.)  In essence, everyone’s opinions about deer are at risk, which makes people cling even more tenaciously to those opinions and beliefs about nature at large.  What began as a simple argument about deer, has snowballed into an embittered battle of beliefs, values, and our relationship with nature.    

Although beautiful animals, there is no way that deer can be considered innocent little Bambis, as they are the source of many very serious environmental, economic, and public health problems.  The Wildlife Bureau of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation continues to seriously address these deer-related concerns.  In June 2011, they published a Management Plan for White-tailed Deer in New York State, 2011-2015.  In this document, the DEC confesses that, “Balancing the deer population with the often conflicting demands of the various stakeholders impacted by deer has been and continues to be a fundamental challenge for deer managers.” (Read the whole report at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/wildlife_pdf/draftdeerplan0611.pdf)

Whatever your opinion is about deer, you can minimize damage to your landscape by installing plants that deer prefer not to eat.  There are no truly deer “resistant” plants, since if deer are hungry enough they will eat just about everything.   That being said, you can pretty surely bet that deer will avoid eating Boxwood (Buxus spp.), Japanese Andromeda (Pieris japonica), Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia), and Catmint (Nepeta x faassenii).  Avoid planting deer favorites, which include Yew (Taxus spp.), Hosta (Hosta spp.), Rhododendron and Azalea (Rhododendron spp.), and Eastern Arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis).  Your other option is to surround your property with an 8-10 ft. tall deer fence.

Photo: 'Walkers Low' Catmint (Nepeta x faassenii), a good plant for deer-prone gardens. 

Photo: 'Brouwer's Beauty' Andromeda (Pieris japonica), a good plant for deer-prone areas.

 

Until wolves are reintroduced onto Long Island or the number of hunters increases dramatically (neither of which seem very likely), we’ll continue to have to find ways of graciously accepting deer as our permanent backyard neighbors.