Having lived for 25 years in a part of southwestern Connecticut where the deer population has gotten completely out of hand in recent decades, I am very conscious of the need to control that population early on. In a place where many property owners are occasional visitors for much of the year, and may only see one dusk and maybe two dawns per visit for much of the year, and may or may not tour each visit the damage a hungry deer can inflict on plantings, I think those of us who see the problem need to point it out and get moving on a solution.
The challenge is that ovulation rises to meet the food supply. Contraception or reducing the number of females leads, apparently, to increased ovulation. Where twins might have been born, there will be triplets. So calculations must take that issue into account.
When I lived in Connecticut, I found grazing deer increasingly beautiful the farther I was from home. At home, no daylilies, no hosta, no tulips. After a tough winter, they would each take delicate nibbles of even the daffodils, which are poisonous to them, so they only ate the tops, not the whole plant, but each deer took a bit.
Many evergreens and tall shrubs took on the look of lollipops. Twenty-eight years ago, I trimmed back after bloom some forsythia I hoped to get more bloom from. But the deer ate all the new growth, every year. Never got back close to the pre-trimming level of bloom. Nursery stock besides mountain laurel, lilacs, holly, boxwood and andromeda was simply expensive food for the deer. (And I had friends whose neighbors actually put out food for the deer.)
There is the danger of hitting a deer or being hit by one, as one drives. No minor issue.
And for those who spend time outside, there is the issue of Lyme Disease. Its effects can be debilitating, and deer play a role in hosting and spreading the ticks.
Finally, there is the issue of the woods. In southwestern Connecticut, the forests no longer have an understory. There is no next generation of trees. Every sapling gets eaten. Imagine being able to see clearly from one side of Rehoboth Beach's Central Park every car and every person who passes by on the far side.
That will be the medium-term outcome. And when the current generation of trees passes, Central Park will be a grassy meadow or a thicket of brambles. So will the unpaved block of Park Avenue. Is that what we want for Rehoboth Beach?
Let's not let a large deer population get established here ... Judicious control now will save a lot of problems five, 10, 15 years from now, and protect our woods, both in our parks and on individual properties, maintaining habitat for a wide variety of creatures.
Wyn Achenbaum
Rehoboth Beach
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