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BY APOLLINE BERTY

In print | April 26, 2007

On Wednesday evening, the issue of deer on campus was addressed in a forum entitled “Coping with the Deer Population in the Crum Woods.” After a brief introduction by Mark Wallace addressing the deer problem in the Crum Woods, Bryon Shissler, president of Natural Resource Consultants, addressed the audience, which consisted of faculty, Swarthmore community members and a smattering of students. Shissler spoke on the optimal way to “manage deer in a safe, humane and socially responsible manner.”

Shissler discussed a wide range of ways to control population numbers of the white-tailed deer, including fencing, euthathanasia, trapping and recreational hunting. Shissler acknowledged that these mitigationi techniques would create an “impact not only on plants but also on a whole host of species.”

In 2001, the Crum Stewardship Committee was formed to maintain the well-being of the Crum Woods, which experts say is increasingly threatened by the proliferation of white-tailed deer in the 170-acre tract of land. “The major impacts the community is concerned with are the health and well-being of the Crum ecosystem and its ability to maintain itself,” Committee Co-Chair Nick Kaplinsky said.

Research has revealed that of the many threats facing the ecosystem, white-tailed deer overpopulation is the most problematic. As a result, the committee held a meeting Wednesday to propose and explore different solutions.

Shissler is one of the authors of the “Deer Management Plan for the Crum Woods of Swarthmore College,” a document commissioned by the college that investigates potential strategies for coping with and curbing the deer population.

“The challenge of overabundant deer and their consequential impacts on these ecosystems is, in large part, the result of human-caused extinction of large predators which controlled and limited both deer numbers and deer impacts through the millennium,” the report states. Shissler discussed the report’s findings with faculty and students on Wednesday night.

After careful analysis of the Crum habitat and its deer population, Shissler concluded that deer should be selectively euthanized by sharpshooters to prevent further ecological damage. The deer affect the Crum negatively by eating all the tree seedlings and thus preventing the forest from regenerating itself.

“If the forest cannot regenerate itself, then there’s not going to be any more forest,” Kaplinsky said. Furthermore, the deer pose a large problem for the Swarthmore community because they are primary carriers of Lyme disease-bearing ticks. “This area has the highest concentration of Lyme disease incidence in the country,” Kaplinsky said.

The deer population is also affecting borough residents and others with proximity to the Crum Woods. “Off-campus people are worried about Lyme disease, and gardens are being eaten up,” College Vice President Maurice Eldridge ’61 said.

The college relies heavily on the Crum Woods as an educational resource, and further deterioration of the habitat will have a negative impact on the students and faculty who rely on it. Kaplinsky pointed out that over 30 courses use the Crum woods in one way or another.

The Crum is also widely used for recreational purposes by both students and members of the wider community, including viewing the plants and landscape, hiking and bird watching, as well as for creative inspiration for art students.

Furthermore, neglect of the Crum Woods’ growing problems - which will lead to the avoidable losses of teaching and research opportunities - could be detrimental to Swarthmore’s “competitive edge in attracting top students and sustaining a strong academic reputation,” according to the Conservation and Stewardship Plan for the Crum Woods of Swarthmore College.

At Wednesday’s forum, Shissler presented different solutions to this problem.

The possibilities include inaction, fencing, trapping the deer, contraception, trapping and use of euthanasia, sharpshooters or multiple methods applied in combination.

According to Shissler’s report, “NRC Inc. recommendations include hiring a sharpshooter to humanely euthanize deer as the most appropriate and effective method to realize the goal of mimicking the population-stabilizing effects of natural predators on deer in order to protect and restore the structure, diversity and function of the Crum Woods.”

“I’m not an expert on deer control, but Bryon [Shissler] is, and he suggests hiring sharpshooters for a wide number of reasons,” Kaplinsky said.

Kaplinsky added that the sharpshooters seemed so far to be the most humane and most effective as well as most cost-effective of the solutions presented. However, no decisions from the college have been made yet, as they await the suggestions from the committee. “The stewardship committee will review the feedback and make recommendations,” Kaplinsky said.

Marissa Lee ‘09 and Nicholas Buttino ’09 have been researching the effects of the interaction between deer and invasive species on native plants in the Crum. "We want what’s best for the Crum, but if [sharpshooters are hired] it will have an impact on our studies," Lee said. “If there wasn’t a deer overpopulation problem our research project wouldn’t exist,” Buttino said.

“No one wants to see beautiful creatures like deer die,” Lee said.

However, at the same time she advocated population control in instances where the abundance of deer “gets to the point where all these mature trees are going to be dying.”

Some students objected to the method recommended in the report as being what they feel is an extreme method for dealing with the overpopulation of deer.

“The issue is complicated because something has to be done, but the idea of using money to hire sharpshooters is bizarre,” Aurora Munoz ‘10 said. "Aren’t we Quaker?"

Though Shissler endorsed sharpshooters as the most effective solution to the problem, his report acknowledges several disadvantages to the strategy. “Poorly run sharpshoots reduce deer numbers initially but fall short of the sustained reduction required for ecological recovery,” the report states.

In addition, hired sharpshooters charge a substantial fee for their services. “Costs for contracted deer removals vary from $100 to $350 per deer, when using off site contractors,” according to Shissler’s report.

Additional reporting by Kaitlin Kyi

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