Opinion: One writer's breaking point with an unusual enemy that is changing the ecology of Eastern forests

The enemy (Photo by Christopher Furlong, Getty Images)

"I can’t take it anymore! I’ve bought a gun — and I intend to use it." That's the sound of a final straw snapping on political columnist Dana Milbank of The Washington Post. "No, I won’t be standing on my roof shooting at UFOs, though apparently that’s a thing. Nor am I prepping for when the deep state sends the IRS, CDC and FBI to force me to take an AP African American Studies course. . . . I do plan to be an armed vigilante. I will be wielding my gun against a brutal foe — one that destroys our forests, kills our wildflowers, sickens humans and threatens the very survival of birds, mammals, insects and amphibians. I am becoming a deer hunter."

Milbank confesses, "I love deer. My views on hunters come primarily from watching "Bambi." When I was a kid, my family put out a salt lick to attract deer. My heart still leaps when I see a spotted fawn. I’ve never seriously considered owning a gun. . . . Alas, peaceful coexistence with the white-tailed deer is no longer an option. Deer are no longer an adorable nuisance, munching our shrubs and flowers but otherwise minding their own business. They are causing an ecological disaster."

Bernd Blossey, a professor of natural resources at Cornell University, told Milbank: "The entire food web is unraveling. I call deer ecological bullies. Taking house and home and the ability to live away from other organisms, whether they’re birds, other mammals, insects or plants." Milbank notes that The Nature Conservancy argued in 2013 that deer might be "a bigger threat to Eastern forests than climate change, and things have only worsened. Doug Tallamy, an entomologist and wildlife ecologist at the University of Delaware, tells me that white-tailed deer in the East are now 'about 14 times over the carrying capacity,' meaning the ability of the ecosystem to sustain the species."

Milbank continues, "I became aware of the great white-tailed menace when researching the threat that invasive plant species pose to the survival of our forests. Deer gobble up native flora so fast that the plants are disappearing, leaving a vacuum for invasive species (that deer don’t enjoy) to fill. . . . Walk into the forest here, past the edge between field and woods where invasive vines now dominate, and you will find a manicured scene: all mature trees and no understory — none of the seedlings, saplings, flowers and shrubs that once covered the forest floor. The insatiable deer have eaten it all. They eat 3 percent to 5 percent of their body weight in leafy greens every day, Virginia state wildlife biologist David Kocka tells me."

Dana Milbank (2016 photo)

If nothing is done, the harm intensifies. Milbank warns, "Perhaps most ominously, the deer overpopulation prevents the growth of new trees, especially oaks, because they eat seedlings and saplings before the trees can mature. When old trees die, there are none to replace them. That means fewer acorns — the staple that allows bears, turkeys, woodpeckers, squirrels, chipmunks, mice and many other species to survive the winter. . . . None of this is the deer’s fault. They’re doing what they’re supposed to do. It’s our fault for removing their predators, leaving them free to multiply to unnatural levels. And now it’s our responsibility to fix the mess we’ve created."

What can humans do? Milbank reviews some semi-helpful options and then lands on the sort-of obvious: "Hunting. A dirty little secret is that even though gun sales are booming (more than 16 million in 2022), precious few of the purchases are for hunters. The number of hunters has been dropping nationwide for years. 'We’re losing about 3 to 4 percent a year over the last 20 years here in Virginia,' Katie Martin, the head deer biologist for the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, tells me. . . .There are now about 185,000 licensed deer hunters in Virginia, and they’re bringing in a similar number of deer each year — only about 15 percent of the deer population. 'We’re severely outnumbered,' Martin reports. To compensate for the dwindling number of hunters, Virginia has lengthened hunting seasons (from two weeks to several months in some places), and there are essentially no limits on the number of does a hunter can kill."

Milbank concludes, "So now I’ve got my gun. I’ve got my deer stand, 13 feet up in a tree. All I have to do before deer season opens in the fall is learn how to shoot — and, of course, buy a lot of camo gear. . . . I can’t pretend that my hunting will make a dent in the deer population. Experts, such as Cornell’s Blossey, say the real solution is regulated market hunting — allowing hunters to sell the meat to processors or restaurants. Market hunting worked so well in the 19th century that it nearly drove the white-tailed deer into extinction."