11-04-24 Too Many Deer

Guest Professor Bernd Blossey, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Cornell University

Across northeast America, overwhelming numbers of native white tail deer, with their voracious and indiscriminate appetites, are reducing forest biodiversity and preventing healthy forest regeneration. While farms and orchards must build high fences to protect their crops, how can we defend and restore our private and municipal properties and the rest of our vulnerable landscape? Environmental scientists, like Professor Bernd Blossey, are working toward solutions. Blossey works in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment at Cornell University.

Born and raised in northern Germany, Blossey graduated from Kiel University with degrees in ecology, entomology and limnology. His main focus areas are assessments of how invasive plants, earthworms and deer impact native organisms, which include plants, amphibians, birds and insects. Blossey directs Cornell’s College of Agricultural and Life Science’s Ecology and Management of Invasive Plants Program and chairs the Cornell Deer Management Committee. His overall objective is to increase the conservation values of all lands through development of best management practices. This particular episode will help listeners see their landscape with new eyes.

INFORMATION RESOURCES

Read the Audubon article about surging deer populations – https://www.audubon.org/magazine/surging-deer-populations-are-crisis-eastern-forests

Watch the Virginia Native Plant Society video presentation: “Too Many Deer” – https://vnps.org/potowmack/events/too-many-deer-with-dr-bernd-blossey/

Try these strategies for reducing garden and yard deer damage – https://dem.ri.gov/sites/g/files/xkgbur861/files/programs/bnatres/fishwild/pdf/deerdamg.pdf

Look at how the town of Bristol, RI, is starting to handle the deer problem – https://www.bristolri.gov/DocumentCenter/View/824/DEM_Deer_Hunting_data_1-17-24

Participate in citizen science deer population observation – https://dem.ri.gov/sites/g/files/xkgbur861/files/programs/bnatres/fishwild/pdf/report-deer-observations.pdf

View a short SciShow video about Why Earthworms are Invasive Species – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx4Ssk8IpaE

Read about DIPG: Eternal Hope Versus Terminal Corruption by Dean Fachon begin to uncover the truth about cancer – https://dipgbook.com/

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