I hope I am not bending any rules by forwarding on this letter from Sally Gagne. As many birders realize, drastic reduction
of bird populations happen when deer overpopulate woods. One can "look through" almost every
park forest in Montgomery County, thus seeing how much less food and habitat is available to the birds. I'm sure this is
true in most of the state.
Please contact me or Sally Gagne (not the whole list serve) if you want to part of the solution or have suggestions about this problem.
Suzanne Richman
Bethesda
Sligo Creek Park has been devastated by the overpopulation of deer. The Friends of Sligo Creek's Removing Invasive Plants program is essentially closing down as of this month because too few native herbaceous plants are present to save. It appears that all the woods in the county, sooner or later, will need deer population management if they are to maintain their present biodiversity. We don't deserve to lose our woods, native plants and wildlife!
At present only part of the 34,000 acres of park land is covered by deer management. The holdup is staffing - a third position is needed to share the workload. The Director of Parks, Mary Bradford, is not requesting a new position in the 2010 budget because she expects to hand out RIFs and close vacated positions. A Post editorial said that Montgomery County must find $100 million or cut back the budget even more, and now the figure appears higher.
However, deer browsing effects can be irreversible for uncommon herbaceous plants, and the purpose of a deer management program is to prevent losses in advance. To implement a program five years after it is needed is to get very little "bang for the buck" from the point of view of maintaining habitat.
County Council members may rarely be told by citizens that funding for deer management is a pressing need; it is not mentioned at budget hearings among the myriad requests for humanitarian projects, recreation, etc. Council members need to hear from knowledgeable, responsible observers that woods in the county are at stake, and that despite hard times, all park land needs to be protected this winter and in following years. The result of no control is empty, "ghost" woods." If communities such as Groton, CT can have success, so can we. (Reference for Groton: Connecticut Department of
Environmental Protection, 2007. Managing Urban Deer in Connecticut: A
Guide for Residents and Communities, 2nd ed. Prepared by H. J. Kilpatrick
and A. M. LaBonte. Hartford: Bureau of Natural Resources/Wildlife Division.)
Who in the county is putting their mind to the problem? The Park is not sounding an alarm because, I think, it fears vocal protest, and perhaps also too little support when asking for money from the Council. Knowledgeable birders, botanists and nature enthusiasts walk in the parks and see deer damage but, as after listening to an interesting radio program in the car, the mind goes to other things when back at home.
Residents of our county have every right and obligation to pass the present diversity of publicly owned woods to the next generation. If we fail, it should not be for lack of funding. I suggest that a Coalition to Save Montgomery Woods is needed. Would you like to be involved? We would meet once to discuss the issue, perhaps with invited council members (a few might come). Each of us would also write a letter as an individual, not for any group we represent. The goal would be to make Council members aware that the county is failing the woods over which it has stewardship, that the situation is inevitable without more funding for deer management, and that knowledgeable citizens want our county woods to be in at least as good shape as anywhere else.
I am sending this letter to about thirty knowledgeable individuals whose work or interest is associated with these categories: stream groups, other environmental groups, authors, non-park government agencies; outdoor enthusiasts, and business.
Best wishes,
Sally Gagné
(Writing independently of the organization I am affiliated with)
Removing Invasive Plants Committee
Friends of Sligo Creek
_________________________________________________________________
Your E-mail and More On-the-Go. Get Windows Live Hotmail Free.
http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/171222985/direct/01/ |