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Kcci 8 @6

sep0667

sep0667

Land of the Whitetail
We're going to have some bad publicity on channel 8 KCCI on the six o'clock news here in a half hour. Well, not IW, but just deer in general. I saw it on the news last night as well. There's a Xmas tree farm that last night they say had $80,000 in damage from deer last year. I'm sure last year wasn't the first year they have had trouble with deer. I wonder how many people they let hunt on their Xmas tree farm? I would think if they were having staggering amount of $$$ damage that they would consider maybe putting a tall fence around the trees, I'm sure it wouldn't cost 80k:confused: With a declining herd and our outstanding biologist governor this will really help:(
 
http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/th...cle_8fc1ec28-afe9-5447-8a01-189d1ff1a034.html

With all the snow we had up this way last winter this is not surprising. The deer were grouped up into large herds, and when the only thing to eat is what is poking above the snow, the trees don't stand a chance.

I don't think lack of hunting pressure can be pointed at as a fault. During the typical deer seasons the deer are dispursed over much larger areas. When we get a lot of snow, and they find a reliable food source, it ends up being like a college kegger. Word spreads quickly and before you know it the house is packed and the keg runs dry!
 
sep0667 said:
We're going to have some bad publicity on channel 8 KCCI on the six o'clock news here in a half hour. Well, not IW, but just deer in general. I saw it on the news last night as well. There's a Xmas tree farm that last night they say had $80,000 in damage from deer last year. I'm sure last year wasn't the first year they have had trouble with deer. I wonder how many people they let hunt on their Xmas tree farm? I would think if they were having staggering amount of $$$ damage that they would consider maybe putting a tall fence around the trees, I'm sure it wouldn't cost 80k:confused: With a declining herd and our outstanding biologist governor this will really help:(
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My Dad knows a guy who lost 20k a year to Deer. He started poaching them and bragging about it and well, he's in prison now.
 
jw_wildfire said:
http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/th...cle_8fc1ec28-afe9-5447-8a01-189d1ff1a034.html

With all the snow we had up this way last winter this is not surprising. The deer were grouped up into large herds, and when the only thing to eat is what is poking above the snow, the trees don't stand a chance.

I don't think lack of hunting pressure can be pointed at as a fault. During the typical deer seasons the deer are dispursed over much larger areas. When we get a lot of snow, and they find a reliable food source, it ends up being like a college kegger. Word spreads quickly and before you know it the house is packed and the keg runs dry!
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I'm fully aware that deer love to chow on pines in the winter. Back home half my parents 2 acres is pines (wind break) and the bottum half of a lot of the trees are damaged pretty bad. There are multiply Xmas tree farms near me as well being just outside of Des Moines. I shed hunt an old Xmas tree farm near home and such so I'm fulyl aware of the fact that deer love them in the winter. I'm just saying, even prior to having a substantial amount of snow I'm sure these Xmas tree farmers knew deer ate on them in the winter, so why wait until there is a ton of damage to fence the property?

Deer group up in the winter from miles around to find the best food sources, so this event could make it seem like there is a lot more deer in the area than what there really is. And even if there is a lot there that is not the case for the state as a whole and putting this on the news will greatly misinform the general person, that is what I am concerned about
 
I highly highly doubt that much damage was done. Bet my top dollar this is extremely exaggerated. Even at a average full retail price of $50 per tree- there's no way they completely killed 1600 trees in 1 year. Even if they browse- those trees r trimmed yearly and browsing will not do much among 50000 trees. I call bs card here. There's also summer depridation tags for BUCKS and DOES u can kill. Pretty much all u'd need. I was just in a christmas tree farm last weekend and there was no way more than 1% had damage. I'm sure some have more but even on my farm with tree plantings- if I had 50000-100000 trees planted and killed no deer- many would be fine. Pointless complaint because the solution is already available for them: depridation tags and an army that would line up & be ecstatic for permission.
 
Sligh1 said:
I highly highly doubt that much damage was done. Bet my top dollar this is extremely exaggerated. Even at a average full retail price of $50 per tree- there's no way they completely killed 1600 trees in 1 year. Even if they browse- those trees r trimmed yearly and browsing will not do much among 50000 trees. I call bs card here. There's also summer depridation tags for BUCKS and DOES u can kill. Pretty much all u'd need. I was just in a christmas tree farm last weekend and there was no way more than 1% had damage. I'm sure some have more but even on my farm with tree plantings- if I had 50000-100000 trees planted and killed no deer- many would be fine. Pointless complaint because the solution is already available for them: depridation tags and an army that would line up & be ecstatic for permission.
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Not to be rude but you are entirely off base here. Did you read the article and look at the pictures? None of the trees in the pics could be sold as a christmas tree and no amount of shearing could fix the browse damage (conifers, unlike hardwoods, will not resprout eaten off branches). Having nearly 200 deer grouped into a square mile in Chickasaw county is quite likely, especially when we had as much snow as we did last year. Lets put it in perspective: How much grass would you see in an 8 acre pasture with nearly 200 cows in it?

Depridation tags are absolutely not the answer, especially in the summer. I guarantee there is little to no deer browsing done in the summer. They have too much corn and beans to eat. Also, 10 months out of the year the deer in these areas are spread out over a much larger area. What would you think if 95% of the deer in your hunting area wintered a mile away and the DNR issued a bunch of tags to eradicate them?

I am a forester and it is my job to try and grow trees despite the deer pressure we have. I can tell you that no where else in the state is the deer browse as high as it is in north central to north east Iowa. We cannot plant an oak or conifer without caging or tubing them. Anyway, enough ranting. Its just that I see this and deal with this everyday I go to work, and I had to call BS on someone questioning the validity of the topic. Also, like I said, not to be rude and I mean no disrespect.
 
Will always be the conflict between man and nature. Began when the first settlers started moving in from the Atlantic. Nature is always the loser in the end.
 
jw_wildfire said:
Not to be rude but you are entirely off base here. Did you read the article and look at the pictures? None of the trees in the pics could be sold as a christmas tree and no amount of shearing could fix the browse damage (conifers, unlike hardwoods, will not resprout eaten off branches). Having nearly 200 deer grouped into a square mile in Chickasaw county is quite likely, especially when we had as much snow as we did last year. Lets put it in perspective: How much grass would you see in an 8 acre pasture with nearly 200 cows in it?

Depridation tags are absolutely not the answer, especially in the summer. I guarantee there is little to no deer browsing done in the summer. They have too much corn and beans to eat. Also, 10 months out of the year the deer in these areas are spread out over a much larger area. What would you think if 95% of the deer in your hunting area wintered a mile away and the DNR issued a bunch of tags to eradicate them?

I am a forester and it is my job to try and grow trees despite the deer pressure we have. I can tell you that no where else in the state is the deer browse as high as it is in north central to north east Iowa. We cannot plant an oak or conifer without caging or tubing them. Anyway, enough ranting. Its just that I see this and deal with this everyday I go to work, and I had to call BS on someone questioning the validity of the topic. Also, like I said, not to be rude and I mean no disrespect.
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No, I didn't read the article, my bad- I was on my blackberry in the airport for short periods. I just read the article. You are right, I should have read the article before I commented BUT, many of my points remain....

YES, you can reduce the population, it doesn't matter what they are eating in the summer - if you kill them- which is very easy to do with guns in summer, there will be less deer around. Yes, I understand deer poor in during winter, get that.... Shoot them then too. Keep shooting. No one said you have to stop at the end of the summer?!?! You can kill the rascals all the way til February now (I think up there too?) and surely more depridation permits.

Here's the big one... They had EIGHT ACRES planted.... well ya, if I planted 8 acres of ANYTHING and did nothing to protect it, well sure, it's gonna get destroyed. Before I read the article, I assumed they had maybe 50 or 75 acres?? I was wrong- EIGHT. I don't care WHAT you have planted, 8 acres is gonna get wiped out. I feel bad for them, absolutely. BUT, fencing EIGHT acres is NOT that expensive, not that expensive at all and a tiny fraction of what ONE year's damage would be. SORRY- if I would have seen this in a high deer density area, I think I would have seen the hand writing on the wall there. FENCE IT. Have other food in area. Allow a group of gun hunters to hunt it EVERY SINGLE DAY during January- you'll get those deer outta there. I'm just saying- this situation sucks but there's a MULTITUDE of solutions here, some pretty obvious, simple and of low cost. Of course folks worry about deer getting a worse rap because of some of these examples & it filters to their area where folks want them dead when they don't have deer #'s like this. And I agree, this is an extreme case BUT with an extremely do-able and reasonably simple & easy solution.
 
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