Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 20:07:22 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: rob gibbs Subject: Re: Sunday Hunting bill MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I don't fully support Sunday hunting for the same reasons many on this list serve don't - worry-free access for birding. However, I think it is important for all birders to recognize that the deer issue is real and does have a tremendous impact on birds. DNR and local jurisdictions (I manage the deer program for Montgomery County) are struggling to try to control deer populations especially in suburban areas. Some researchers go so far as to say that growing deer populations are likely a leading cause (some who have worked the hardest on this issue even hint THE leading cause) of the decades long decline of forest birds. The deer remove the understory vegetation and the birds have no safe place to nest. Their food is also drastically reduced because understory insects have no vegetation to feed on. The result, according to many studies, is forest birds that attempt to nest only to have their nests preyed upon by fox, skunks, opossum, snakes, squirrels, flying squirrels, bluejays, crows....or parisitized by cowbirds. A study conducted by the Smithsonian Institution in Wheaton Regional Park in Montgomery county in the early 90s monitored dozens of woodthrush nests during two nesting seasons. Something like 90% never fledged a single bird due to predation and cowbirds. The reasons are many. Trails that attract hikers that flush birds repeatedly causing them to abandon nests. Trails (this also includes deer trails) also attract the many medium and small predators listed above which tend to use them for easy travel and concentrate their hunting efforts along them. Forest fragmentation divides large forest patches into smaller ones giving access to cowbirds. And finally, large herds of deer remove the understory in the few remaining trail-less, unfragmented areas. A one-two-three punch that has got to be hard on bird populations. Just food for thought! Rob Gibbs Damascus, MD Beth Kantrowitz wrote: >The bill that passed authorized a single Sunday per year for bow hunting and a >single Sunday for guns, ONLY on private property and ONLY in one or two >counties, I don't know which, but definitely NOT Prince Georges or Montgomery. > >Not that I support the current governor in any way, but I caught a brief bit of >the TV replay of WTOP radio's "Ask the Governor" show, and Ehrlich's >justification for the Sunday hunting, to my surprise, dealt with the >human-caused overpopulation of white-tailed deer and hunting as a wildlife >management tool. Nothing about citizens' constitutional right to own guns and >shoot stuff with them. Of course, he could have said that before or after the >bit I caught. > >-Beth Kantrowitz > Hyattsville, MD > bkantrowitz@olg.com > > > > >------------------------------------------------- >This mail sent through IMP: http://horde.org/imp/ > >======================================================================= >To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com >with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey >======================================================================= > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================