What neighborhood residents need to understand is WHO and WHAT is behind suburban deer conflicts. Hunting is on the decline. The National Fish and Game agency came up with a master plan to counter that. Terry Moore, former NYS Wildlife Director told hunters: "We shall attempt to raise the number of deer until we experience high accidents of deer car collisions, depradation of agricultural crops becomes intolerable and the effects of deer habitat result in deterioration to increase the success rate of big game hunters.
[close quotes here?]
One reason for the decline is that hunters don't have time to spend the weekend, hours away, at the hunting cabin. State Divisions of Wildlife, which are state-run hunting clubs, set out to create more hunting opportunities in order to sell more hunting licenses which pays their salaries.
From the ODNR website:
[quote?] Moneys from Ohio sportsmen and women provide 95 of every 100 dollars. The Pittman-Robertson act attaches an excise tax to all guns and sporting equipment.
[unquote?] The collective tax is divided among the states and the biggest portion goes to the state that sells the most hunting licences.
Retaining hunters and hunter recruitment is the ultimate goal.
Wildlife Agencies created "Urban Zones" which serve as a convenience or what's known as the 'fast food of hunting.' Urban zones have large trophy bucks since hunting has never occurred there before. Urban deer are semi-tame, making them easy targets. The other thing hunters complain about is ACCESS.
Urban hunting zones are about client retention. Scores of industry “hunter satisfaction” surveys register hunter demand for ACCESS to more of our public and private lands to hunt on.
Quoted in an article in the Associated Press, Rob Sexton, a vice president of the United States Sportsmen Alliance (USSA) said “one upside of the shrinking numbers is that hunting groups are more motivated to seek remedies, such as ACCESS to more land and less burdensome regulations.”
Scott Peters, (ODNR-Division of Wildlife) goes from city to city presenting distorted facts, propaganda and insisting that killing is the ONLY means of managing human-caused white-tailed deer over-populations as the
Gospel truth.
[improve phrase] Mr. Peters always talks about Solon. He says Solon has spent
[hundreds of?] thousands of dollars on sharpshooters and that's a quick fix but needs to be followed by long-term hunting.
[D's contradiction]
To seal the deal:
Wildlife mismanagement depends upon backroom deals between hunters and the Divisions of Wildlife, aided by the political maneuvering of local politicians,who pander to these same special interests or those that yell the loudest about their tulips. The best interests of the residents, the environment and the wildlife is ignored.
It's time for Solon elected officials to own up to their mistake and to seriously pursue humane and effective solutions to the humane-deer conflict.
I can't figure out how to edit the above. VERY frustrated. I am adding some important info to the above blog. When its edited we can decide where to add it. Here it is:
The goal for the Ohio Division of Wildlife has always been to add Solon to their 'urban zone' hunting list.
From the Herald Sun 2-10-05
Damon Greer (ODNR) acknowledged that sharpshooting is expensive and if White Buffalo kills 600 deer in Solon this year, as planned, the population would rebound in two years unless the city keeps paying White Buffalo to shoot them. For that reason, Greer said, "Solon should allow hunting, as in surrounding communities."
From the Solon Herald Sun 4-21-06
STATE URGES HUNTING TO THIN DEER HERD
David Klunzinger, former director of Public Works and overseer of the deer management plan said, "Ohio has recommended hunting in Solon to thin the deer herd."
From the ODNR Overview report 1-27-07 Appendix A
On a state wide scale deer populations are controlled using 'harvest management' or hunting. By regulating the number of deer a hunter can take and where the deer may be harvested from, the Division of Wildlife can MANIPULATE THE STATES DEER POPULATION UP OR DOWN to meet the harvest manangement goal. Without harvest management we would have no effective way to CONTROL THE GROWTH of an existing or future deer populations.
Conclusion:
Where feasible Solon should consider the use of regulated or controlled hunting in the maintenance phase of the deer management goal for the city. Controlled hunting is a safe and cost effective method that can be utilized on an annual basis to keep the deer population near the desired level.
From the Independence Gazette:
Jason Hadsell (ODNR) said, "Independence has a very large abundant population of deer that is continually growing DUE TO A LACK OF HUNTING PRESSURE. To make a significant dent in Cuyahoga's problem adjacent cities and entities need to implement cooperative PLANS FOR HUNTING."
The ODOW intentionally exploits the rebound effect in order to keep a high inventory of deer for economical reasons. The reason for too many deer is human-caused. The deer are the victims, not the perpetrators.
It is our hope that once the Solon residents understand the rebound effect and who and why is responsible for the urban deer conflicts they will demand that the decision makers discontinue using failed solutions from the dark ages and implement logical, humane, science-proven, long-term, cost-effective solutions
