In this story from today’s Bee the killing of “non-native deer” is recommended to save “native deer” in the ecosystem that is Point Reyes National Seashore.
Much of the history of this policy, to kill animals to protect them, and the management of ‘eco-systems’ originated in Yellowstone Park in the 1960’s during a big elk kill-off that created much controversy, and is written about by Alston Chase, (a researcher with degrees from Harvard, Oxford & Princeton, who chaired the Yellowstone Library and Museum Association, the official publisher of books on the natural history of Yellowstone) in his book Playing God in Yellowstone, and I will draw a couple of quotes from the aptly named chapter in that book: Killing Animals to Save Them:
“In March 1963, the “Leopold Report,” as it came to be known was sent to [Secretary of the Interior] Udall.
“The report gave ringing endorsement to science in Yellowstone and Garrison’s elk policy “As models of scientific research that should be greatly accelerated, …we cite some of the recent studies of elk in Yellowstone.” Reductions, moreover, they urged, should continue. “The annual removal from this herd may be in the neighborhood of 1,000 to 1,800 head…
“Besides these specific recommendations for Yellowstone, the report also articulated a general philosophy of wildlife management, the implications of which, its authors admitted, were “stupendous”.
“As a primary goal”, they said, “we would recommend that the biotic associations within each park be maintained, or where necessary re-created, as nearly as possible in the condition that prevailed when the area was first visited by the white man.
“Managing parks as original eco-systems, they continued, required that “observable artificiality in any form must be minimized and obscured in every possible way.” (p. 33)
With that as background, here is an excerpt from the article.
Targeting the invaders
Park service takes aim at threat to native deer
By M.S. Enkoji -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Thursday, June 15, 2006
POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE -- Herds of nonnative deer that roam Point Reyes vistas from Tomales Point to Stinson Beach are in the sights of the National Park Service.
Introduced during the 1940s and '50s by a landowner looking for exotic animals to hunt, fallow and axis deer now are threatening to starve out native blacktailed deer in coastal Marin County, according to the park service.
The park service's proposed solution: Eliminate fallow and axis deer by medically sterilizing 25 percent of the herd and hiring hunters to shoot the rest.
But the idea of picking off the doe-eyed, willowy creatures is abhorrent to some residents in the small villages dotting Highway 1.
"It's not going to be humane," said Trinka Morris of Save the Exotic Animals.
Outside her home on Bear Valley Road, she has strung up a banner that reads: "Manage, don't exterminate the Fallow and Axis Deer." Green-and-white signs supporting that sentiment have popped up in yards and have been hung on tree trunks along roads near the park.
Residents and some animal rights groups have pleaded their cause at public hearings, citing their own scientific evidence that supports controlling the fallow and axis herds nonlethally, with contraception.
Scientists working with the park service say their plan to both sterilize and exterminate the deer is based on research that will yield results.
The federal plan is expected to be completed in July, and it will take about 16 years to eliminate the deer, said Natalie Gates, a wildlife biologist with the park service.
