First fawn of the year
- Thread starter Tamarack
- Start date
T-Max
5 year old buck +
Mortenson
5 year old buck +
It'll have some booner tasting steaks come fall.
Here's a good read on it for anyone interested: https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2021/05/when-it-comes-to-garlic-mustard-doing-less-is-more.html
Not sure about his last suggestion of killing as many deer as possible
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Troubles Trees
5 year old buck +
Interesting read, a bit confusing though as you point out.Here's a good read on it for anyone interested: https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2021/05/when-it-comes-to-garlic-mustard-doing-less-is-more.html
Not sure about his last suggestion of killing as many deer as possible
"Dr. Blossey has long contended that deer abundance and non-native earthworms are the drivers of garlic mustard infestation. Garlic mustard only establishes after earthworms have invaded a site for some years, he says, and although how deer spread earthworms is not yet known, they apparently do, as exclusion plots show."
While they contend that they don't understand how deer "spread earthworms" (are there birds on their backs?) they conclude that "A much better use of our time and energy, Dr. Blossey advises, is to scout sites that aren’t known to have garlic mustard yet, and also to kill as many deer as possible. Especially the latter."
Really? Kill off as many deer as you can because somehow we don't understand, they spread non-native earthworms that create a place that Garlic Mustard grows. "An interesting side note is that if deer were managed to 5-7 per square mile, not only would it drastically reduce the rate of garlic mustard spread, Lyme disease would cease to be a human-health threat (this from Dr. Paul Curtis, the NY State Extension Wildlife Specialist at Cornell University). I say amen to that!" <<--- very enthusiastic lol
TF kind of science is that?
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LOL... well here's something on the earthworms: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/...rising-connection-between-deer-and-earthworms
Full study or whatever on the garlic mustard: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ele.13649
Btw..I do remember one section of woods quite a ways away that was overgrown with the stuff but now isn't so much. If I live long enough I'll probably see it overgrown again..who knows.
Full study or whatever on the garlic mustard: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ele.13649
Btw..I do remember one section of woods quite a ways away that was overgrown with the stuff but now isn't so much. If I live long enough I'll probably see it overgrown again..who knows.
Troubles Trees
5 year old buck +
Sorry to distract from the actual topic of this thread but to avoid another thread to discuss it, that is the dumbest science I have ever read lol I am not debating you Tamarack, nor am I disagreeing with what you're saying. I simply read this stuff and find it preposterous. I go down these rabbit holes from time to time trying to understand.
So they say "deer spread non-native earthworms" in one article, in the actual study they are referring to, they claim “Deer are peeing and pooping in the forest. And that fertilizes the soil and favors earthworms,”. read that twice so you are sure you grasp what they are saying
then they say “And then the deer increase the worms which furthers the damage to the plants, which allows the deer to do even more damage, so it's just like an endless cycle.” Apparently Deer are the only things that poop and pee in the forests so we should kill off most of the deer! Things like bears, Elk and farm animals aren't a problem.
They do say they "fenced off a field (so deer couldn't enter it) and the worms were absent." They also say "The researchers also found a link between earthworms and timber harvesting. They found that worm numbers decreased in areas where gaps were cut into the forest." So if I am the scientist doing this study you would normally need to reinforce or prove your claims by putting deer inside the fenced in area currently devoid of worms (or take down the fencing) to prove that deer are the cause of the existence of these non-native worms. But they don't do that.
I am no scientist but it appears to me that these particular worms require shaded areas free from direct sunlight and nothing more. The deer aren't creating this havoc because they DO live, feed and poop in fields and clear cuts, so to make that connection the worms would also be in fields that deer use. But they don't find them there, so the problem is the forested areas, and to prevent this "endless cycle" the real solution would be to cut down all the trees, not kill all the deer! In the actual study they do acknowledge all this, but it is in their 2nd hypothesis and worded "This is likely due to closed canopies having nutrient-rich tree leaf litter, which serves as shelter and food for earthworms" so we found common sense and might save the deer after all lol
So they say "deer spread non-native earthworms" in one article, in the actual study they are referring to, they claim “Deer are peeing and pooping in the forest. And that fertilizes the soil and favors earthworms,”. read that twice so you are sure you grasp what they are saying
then they say “And then the deer increase the worms which furthers the damage to the plants, which allows the deer to do even more damage, so it's just like an endless cycle.” Apparently Deer are the only things that poop and pee in the forests so we should kill off most of the deer! Things like bears, Elk and farm animals aren't a problem.They do say they "fenced off a field (so deer couldn't enter it) and the worms were absent." They also say "The researchers also found a link between earthworms and timber harvesting. They found that worm numbers decreased in areas where gaps were cut into the forest." So if I am the scientist doing this study you would normally need to reinforce or prove your claims by putting deer inside the fenced in area currently devoid of worms (or take down the fencing) to prove that deer are the cause of the existence of these non-native worms. But they don't do that.
I am no scientist but it appears to me that these particular worms require shaded areas free from direct sunlight and nothing more. The deer aren't creating this havoc because they DO live, feed and poop in fields and clear cuts, so to make that connection the worms would also be in fields that deer use. But they don't find them there, so the problem is the forested areas, and to prevent this "endless cycle" the real solution would be to cut down all the trees, not kill all the deer! In the actual study they do acknowledge all this, but it is in their 2nd hypothesis and worded "This is likely due to closed canopies having nutrient-rich tree leaf litter, which serves as shelter and food for earthworms" so we found common sense and might save the deer after all lol
