AUTHORS: Tricia L. Fry, Midwest Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies; Michael Tonkovich, Ohio Department of Natural Resources
ABSTRACT: Conserving natural resources requires attention to the insults that aim to decrease biodiversity, spread disease, and affect an ecological community. One of these may be the white-tailed deer. When deer populations grow unchecked, they can have significant negative effects on biodiversity. Blossey et al. 2024, suggests that deer management responsibilities in the U.S. should move from state to federal oversight, as states lack the authority to address the broader spectrum of threats posed by burgeoning deer populations including human health and commercial interests, to mention a few. While we do agree with most of the author’s views on the threats that deer pose to forest ecosystems, the connections with human health, the ever-growing human-deer conflict interface, we believe that deer management is much too nuanced for federal oversight. Moreover, states have successfully managed deer for decades and are poised to continue that role, even as new challenges, that require innovative solutions, arise. As agencies struggle with declining hunter numbers, unchecked deer herd growth, increasing CWD distribution, and a growing list of conflicts, hunters are enjoying near unprecedented success rates and harvest opportunities. This sets the stage for a showdown between competing interests. We offer a perspective on the role agencies have in responding to CWD, deer management, and importantly, conservation goals of a more diverse suite of constituents. This is likely to require altering current systems and thinking outside the box to achieve management and conservation goals. Using a systems approach, we propose that agencies can tackle CWD and deer management using assets and expertise within their agencies and looking at deer management from a one health lens.
