Post by snoodslapper on Nov 27, 2008 9:14:55 GMT -5
I thought this was a interesting story. The people who populate this area and utilize the park are mostly limousine liberals and don't understand the consequences of the unbalance of nature.
Deer endanger park in KC suburb
The Associated Press
Published Thursday, November 27, 2008
SHAWNEE — A suburban Kansas City park is grappling with a whitetail deer population that is so large that it could pose a threat to other wildlife, a fragile ecosystem and the health of around 2 million people who visit the park each year.
Shawnee Mission Park, which spans about 1,280 acres and is part of two suburbs in the state's most populous county, possibly has the highest deer density in the U.S., a state wildlife official said.
"They've got 200 deer per square mile. We don't have anything anywhere else near that magnitude," said Lloyd Fox, big-game program coordinator for the Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks. "There's some land owned by KU north of Lawrence with about 33 per square mile. That's about as close as we come."
The deer population has exploded because of the Johnson County park's lush foliage and location in an urban area with no hunters to thin out the numbers.
The overabundance is taking its toll on vegetation, forcing the deer to compete for food and clearing the park of wildflowers that once thrived there.
It is also bringing in ticks that can carry diseases, harmful not only to the deer, but also to humans who use the park.
"It's a catastrophic event, a disease like blue tongue, that I fear the most," said Grant Evans, a 23-year veteran of the Johnson County Parks Department and the park's senior manager. "I hear they go to water to die. We could have deer floating all over the place, 10 to 15 per day."
A sign of the shrinking food supply is that the deer are eating hedge apples, which usually are eaten only as a last resort in the winter.
On a recent park tour, Evans found six deer eating hedge apples within 100 yards of the main park entrance.
Another indication that food is more difficult to come by is that the deer seem to be getting smaller, Evans said.
"The fawns this year look like they're especially little," he said. "They can't weigh 50 pounds, and we had plenty of rain to help things grow."
Fox said the number of ticks has skyrocketed because of the deer population.
"There are photos of fawns with tick burdens enough to cause blindness and death," Fox said. "Those same ticks will get on people that use that park."
That is what raises the danger level for humans, said Bill Maasen, Johnson County Parks Department superintendent. He said he often gets complaints from park users about high tick numbers.
He said Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever — two tick-borne diseases that can cause severe disabilities or death in humans — have been found in the area.
Then there is the problem of deer crossing nearby streets and highways.
But wildlife officials aren't sure how to reduce the number of deer in the park. They talk about the possibility of a highly regulated bowhunt in the park, which has worked well in Kansas City, Mo.
For more than a decade, the Kansas City Police Department and Missouri Department of Natural Resources have been targeting park deer populations.
In Shawnee and Lenexa, it might be difficult to get support for killing deer in a park where people come specifically to see the animals.
"We're very much aware (a hunt) would be a hard sell in Johnson County," Maasen said. "People come out here to drive around and see the deer. It's their Serengeti."
The Associated Press
Published Thursday, November 27, 2008
SHAWNEE — A suburban Kansas City park is grappling with a whitetail deer population that is so large that it could pose a threat to other wildlife, a fragile ecosystem and the health of around 2 million people who visit the park each year.
Shawnee Mission Park, which spans about 1,280 acres and is part of two suburbs in the state's most populous county, possibly has the highest deer density in the U.S., a state wildlife official said.
"They've got 200 deer per square mile. We don't have anything anywhere else near that magnitude," said Lloyd Fox, big-game program coordinator for the Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks. "There's some land owned by KU north of Lawrence with about 33 per square mile. That's about as close as we come."
The deer population has exploded because of the Johnson County park's lush foliage and location in an urban area with no hunters to thin out the numbers.
The overabundance is taking its toll on vegetation, forcing the deer to compete for food and clearing the park of wildflowers that once thrived there.
It is also bringing in ticks that can carry diseases, harmful not only to the deer, but also to humans who use the park.
"It's a catastrophic event, a disease like blue tongue, that I fear the most," said Grant Evans, a 23-year veteran of the Johnson County Parks Department and the park's senior manager. "I hear they go to water to die. We could have deer floating all over the place, 10 to 15 per day."
A sign of the shrinking food supply is that the deer are eating hedge apples, which usually are eaten only as a last resort in the winter.
On a recent park tour, Evans found six deer eating hedge apples within 100 yards of the main park entrance.
Another indication that food is more difficult to come by is that the deer seem to be getting smaller, Evans said.
"The fawns this year look like they're especially little," he said. "They can't weigh 50 pounds, and we had plenty of rain to help things grow."
Fox said the number of ticks has skyrocketed because of the deer population.
"There are photos of fawns with tick burdens enough to cause blindness and death," Fox said. "Those same ticks will get on people that use that park."
That is what raises the danger level for humans, said Bill Maasen, Johnson County Parks Department superintendent. He said he often gets complaints from park users about high tick numbers.
He said Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever — two tick-borne diseases that can cause severe disabilities or death in humans — have been found in the area.
Then there is the problem of deer crossing nearby streets and highways.
But wildlife officials aren't sure how to reduce the number of deer in the park. They talk about the possibility of a highly regulated bowhunt in the park, which has worked well in Kansas City, Mo.
For more than a decade, the Kansas City Police Department and Missouri Department of Natural Resources have been targeting park deer populations.
In Shawnee and Lenexa, it might be difficult to get support for killing deer in a park where people come specifically to see the animals.
"We're very much aware (a hunt) would be a hard sell in Johnson County," Maasen said. "People come out here to drive around and see the deer. It's their Serengeti."
;D
