[R. S. B.]

Winter-feeding of big woods deer populations by any method other than browse cutting is certainly not a benefit to the deer. As others have pointed out it can and often does kill a lot of deer.

During the many, many years that I did winter mortality surveys I found way more dead deer on the survey routes where there was winter-feeding than I found on the routes where there was no winter-feeding. In fact on many of the routes where deer were being fed I found more dead at the end of the winter than I had seen as hunter harvests within the same areas the previous fall. Those facts pretty much convinced me that winter-feeding, at least during some years, kills more deer than hunters do.

Anyone that REALLY cares about deer will stop feeding them and instead start working to create a better natural habitat and food supply for them instead of going out and dumping food for them in the winter.

Dick Bodenhorn

 

[R. S. B.]

Im 42, and this practice in Cross Fork has been going on as long as I can remember. If there is a negative impact, ive never seen it.

Really! Aren’t you one of the once that is constantly complaining about your areas not having as many deer as there had once been?

Did you ever stop to think that the bred does would most likely have a higher fawn survival rate, in the spring, if people weren’t causing them to go through the winter in a nutritionally stressed condition by feeding them food they can’t turn into nutrition? Just because it didn’t kill the adult deer and only killed her fawns wouldn’t you think of that as a negative?

By my way of thinking anything that contributes to deer not gaining weight and instead results in them losing weight and thus producing under weight fawns that die within days of being born would be a negative affect on deer and the future for deer populations.

Dick Bodenhorn

 

[R. S. B.]

..In fact on many of the routes where deer were being fed I found more dead at the end of the winter than I had seen as hunter harvests within the same areas the previous fall.....

and you came to the conclusion that the cause was indeed supplemental feed how? how did you rule out other factors such as increased predation due to the localized food source, disease, etc?

All of those dead deer were checked to determine the color of the bone marrow, which shows whether the deer died of malnutrition. Many of those deer died of malnutrition with stomachs packed so full of corn they couldn’t have eaten any more. And, predation doesn’t cause deer to die of malnutrition even though the predators certainly did scavenge on those deer that died of malnutrition.

The FACT is ALL of the evidence proves that winter-feeding of deer is harmful to deer yet people still insist on doing it.

Dick Bodenhorn

 

[R. S. B.]

Really! Aren’t you one of the once that is constantly complaining about your areas not having as many deer as there had once been?

sure, due to HR. if you have studies proving that supplemental feeding in 2G has hampered reproduction on any grande scale, feel free to point me in that direction!

How many studies and articles on the harmful affects of feeding deer do you want? These many not be specific to unit 2G but surely you are intelligent enough to realize the 2G deer aren’t some superior species to all the other deer around across their range, aren’t you?

http://www.maine.gov/ifw/wildlife/species/deer/feeding_deer.htm

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/deerfeed.htm

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5161807_feed-deer-winter.html

http://www.animalrangeextension.montana.edu/articles/wildlife/deer_tough_love.htm

http://www.farmanddairy.com/columns/feeding-corn-to-deer-could-be-death-sentence/14324.html

Here you can find many more studies and articles on the subject. If you can’t find the evidence from this it is only because you don’t want to and really don’t care about the future of the deer.

http://www.bing.com/search?q=Mortality+f...mp;qs=n&sk=

Dick Bodenhorn

 

[R. S. B.]

How many studies and articles on the harmful affects of feeding deer do you want? These many not be specific to unit 2G but surely you are intelligent enough to realize the 2G deer aren’t some superior species to all the other deer around across their range, aren’t you?

Im hard headed Dick. Sorry? When I start finding dead deer in the vicinity of these feeders, which hasnt happened in all the years ive been around the area, ill grab my camera and look you up. We will document the whole deal and run to Harrisburg with our findings. Deal?

So in other words you are admitting that you are one the people in our society that has NO ABILITY to learn from anything other than what you personally see and feel?

And some people wonder why and what has gone wrong with so many things today. Oh Boy!

Dick Bodenhorn