Woodlands Management Committee Meeting Minutes
Attendees: Martha Dwyer-Bergman, Bob Dewing, Cliff Miles,
Jerry Uhrig
Administrative
Minutes
Jerry said that the minutes for the last month's
meeting should be up on the website soon.
Goals/Budget
Jerry
proposed that we submit a budget request with funds to pay a competent wildlife
biologist to evaluate our deer management program.
Reports
Deer
September Culling Report
We
are aware of at least two deer being culled so far, one buck and one doe. There is supposed to be a monthly report,
given presumably by NJ State Fish and Wildlife. But we haven't seen a copy yet.
Deer Management Program
There
will be hunting in the Tourne this winter.
Jerry received notice of this in the mail. Shotgun hunting will take place on January 10,
17, 24, 31, and
Deer Management Forum
Report
Jerry
and Lynn attended this workshop. Two presenters that stood out were Gary Alt
and Bryon Shissler, both wildlife biologists with extensive experience in deer
management. A full report on the workshop is attached to the end of these
minutes.
Spay-Vac failure
At the Deer Management forum
workshop, Bryon Shissler informed us that the problem in
Invasives
Rob Jennings gave one of his
excellent, well-attended talks on the problems of invasive exotic plant species
and why native plants are important. There is a native plant garden at the
Pyramid Mountain Visitors' Center.
End of "Cut
and Squirt" Season
The
Cut and Squirt season of invasive removal is almost at the end. This treatment works from late summer through
early fall. After that you can pull them
out by the roots. But herbicide on the stumps is no longer effective.
Invasives Strategizing
Bob
suggested that a good project for the Environmental Club at the High School
would be to start a program to control invasive plant species on school
property. Some of the invasives to be targeted would be multiflora rose,
Japanese stiltgrass, ailanthus, and, of course, garlic mustard. Martha will
contact Patty McElduff, the Community Outreach Coordinator for the high school,
and suggest this idea to her.
Devil's walking
stick
Cliff
brought 2 samples of leaves, one is a Devil’s Walking
Stick sample. The other is unknown but similar; however, it has no thorns.
Weed Wrenches
Jerry
reported that there are now 4 weed wrenches available for use removing
invasives in our woodlands, one of each size.
Garlic Mustard
Garlic
Mustard is out of control in many areas in town, including Halsey Fredrick
Park. December is a good month to begin treating the large patches with
herbicide.
Threats
Pine Shoot Beetle
Cliff
handed out a USDA Alert on this problem. This beetle is a native of Europe,
which was discovered in 1992 in
Other Topics or
Discussion
The
county park commission is studying the possibility of allowing some of the area
at the Tourne Park Rockaway River Access to revert to meadowlands. The plan is
to alter the mowing schedule and observe the changes in species and habitat.
The Park Biologist, Rob Jennings, is looking for volunteers to gather data in
the study. Jerry has volunteered. It is expected that we will have an interest
in some of the data as well as the techniques for gathering and organizing the
data.
New
Trees at Playfields
Jerry
mentioned that there are trees being planted down between the two new
playfields in Halsey Frederick Park using funds left over from a Trails
Committee grant. The Shade Tree Commission did the planning. It is encouraging
to see that they did not use any invasive species.
Clean-up
Demonstration
Bob suggested that it might be
useful to our long-term planning to have a demonstration of the tree cleanup
procedure he described at the Woodlands meeting in March (see March 2005
minutes). He will take the initiative on this.
Attachment
Seminar: Deer In Your
Backyard - How To Deal With the Challenges of
Overabundant Deer In
Your Community
The Ecosystem Management Project and 65 organizations,
including Pennsylvania Audubon, the Nature Conservancy and Pinchot Institute
for Conservation, sponsored a series of seminars around the state of
The speakers were very well qualified both by education
and long experience in wildlife management. Some of the information they
presented at the seminar was based on the Report of the Deer Management Forum.
This is a 340 page document, Managing
White-tailed Deer in Forest Habitat From an Ecosystem Perspective:
Look at the impacts.
Dr. Gary Alt, former Supervisor of the Pennsylvania Game Commission Deer Management Section, explained that the deer herd must be balanced with the habitat. The leading cause of a reduced deer herd is loss of habitat. The greatest mistake in wildlife management is trying to raise more deer than the land can sustain. Vocal members of the hunting community like to see a lot of deer. Instead we should look at the habitat to make decisions about the deer herd.
We need broad-based funding of wildlife management
The present system for wildlife management by the Game Commission is broken. Over-abundant deer are ruining forests and farms. The whole ecosystem is crashing. Decisions are now made in the interests of the 8 percent of the population that are hunters because hunters foot the whole bill. To fix the problem we need broad-based stable funding from all the people.
Deer management influences the quality of our life.
Wildlife management
decisions should be made by agricultural, environmental, and community
interests, not just hunters.
The structure needs to be changed at the state level. Stakeholders are not represented. Only
hunters sit on the Game Commission in
Deer have harmed many people. The agricultural industry is
badly hurt by the deer browse of their crops. Nurseries are impacted when
gardeners give up gardening and when employees contract lyme
disease. People are advised that going
into the woods is a high risk for lyme disease. Deer are the primary host of the blacklegged
tick and there is a correlation between the number of cases of lyme disease and the number of deer. Last year at least 12
people in
The only method that works is human directed culling of the herd explained
Bryon Shissler, wildlife biologist and President of Natural Resource
Consultants. Sterilization is strictly a research program. It is not allowed without a research
partner. The failure of the expensive
and difficult sterilization program in
Bow hunting is not regarded as an effective control.
There are no examples anywhere in the country where bowhunters have reduced the herd to the level sustainable by the habitat.
Mr. Shissler said that if recreational hunters are used to cull the herd, certain precautions are advisable. The hunters should be selected based on skill, attitude and commitment to your goals. Each should be interviewed. They should have continual access to the area. The community should seek to develop a core group of hunters that return year after year. The program should be monitored.
Changes are needed at the state level.
Wildlife management now rests on a species-specific approach. We need to focus on managing deer from an ecosystem perspective. There is scientific consensus that maximum sustained yield (MSY) deer management has allowed deer to have significant negative impacts on natural resources.
Decisions must be made based on science and focused on the quality of the habitat.
States with a successful controlled hunting program view
this as a deer control program, not as a recreational activity. Bryon Shissler
recommended some changes in hunting regulations. Antlerless tags should be given at no cost
directly to the community or landowner.
Exchange of tags between hunters should be permitted. Baiting should be allowed.
“It’s the habitat, stupid.”
Tim Schaeffer, Executive Director of Pennsylvania Audubon,
said that most people don’t recognize what a healthy woods looks like. He
described the effect of habitat destruction on songbirds and said that
The system will not change until we get a groundswell from the grass roots. We need a political solution.
Main points to write to the governor and legislators:
1. Provide diverse, stable funding for wildlife management.
2. All wildlife and stakeholders need to be represented
3. Use science to make decisions based on indicators in the field.
4. Tell them your own personal story.
We need a fresh approach.
Other speakers discussed the suffering caused by deer to
the nursery industry and the farmers. Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Dennis
Wolff spoke about the plight of farmers.
He also advised that there were two confirmed cases of chronic wasting
disease in
We took a field trip to a deer exclosure
Promised Land deer exclosure revealed much recovery of vegetation where trees allowed sunlight to penetrate the forest floor. Recovery was less in shady areas. Outside the exclosure there was a dense mat of ferns and mature trees with virtually no other understory. The report discusses research at many other exclosures throughout the country. Recovery after fencing depends on the length of time of severe browsing, amount of sunlight, the plant species located there, whether herbicides are applied, and other factors.
We hope our notes from the seminar will be helpful to you in understanding the seriousness and impacts of the deer explosion and what we might do about it. Please call us if you wish to discuss this problem.
Lynn and Jerry Uhrig
One Sunset Road
973-335-0878 LynnG8@aol.com juhrig@att.net