Deer Control Working in Indiana

"The deer reduction program to restore habitat in Indiana's state parks is working,"  reported Dr. George Parker, a professor of forest ecology at Purdue University. In evaluating the Indiana Department of Natural Resources' (DNR) nine-year program to restore ecological balance in state parks, Parker noted that when deer numbers were controlled sufficiently, habitat recovered.

In 1992, DNR created a Deer Study Committee in response to numerous reports from biologists of excessive browsing by deer. A subsequent vegetation study made it clear that deer were damaging forest understories. A one-day hunt was conducted in 1993, and a year later the Indiana General Assembly passed legislation that required the DNR director to order a hunt in a state park when a species of wild animal does damage (as measured by a biologist) to the ecosystem of that park. Deer herd reductions have been conducted as needed at eighteen of twenty-two state parks since 1995.

Parker recommends that parks should conduct deer reduction at least every other year once the program has reached a maintenance phase, based on deer harvest data. A hunt that produces more than twelve to sixteen deer per square mile indicates additional removal is needed.

Documents and photographs describing the deer control program and comments from DNR staff are available at www.IN.gov/dnr/public/evaluation/index.html.