The Greenwich Conservation Commission will be hosting a three-part series titled, “Oh Deer! Managing Greenwich’s White-Tailed Deer Population” featuring speakers Dr. Jeffrey Ward, Chief Scientist Emeritus-Department of Environmental Science and Forestry at The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station and Will Kies, Executive Director at the Greenwich Land Trust.
The community is invited join the first of these events on Wednesday, March 12, at 7:00 pm in the Greenwich Town Hall meeting room. This event is free. Registration is required at: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A44ADAA2FABFDC61-54730432-ohdeer
White-tailed deer are a familiar, charismatic part of our community. In recent decades their interactions with humans have become more frequent as their habitat continues to be developed, their natural predators have been removed, and hunting popularity has decreased. As a result, deer populations are pushed into neighborhoods, roadways, and other public and private spaces, as their natural habitat buffer shrinks. This decrease in habitat leads to higher concentrations of deer within an area.
An overabundant deer population can cause extreme ecological damage by negatively impacting native plant communities and landscape plantings in residential areas. Deer can eat 5-10 pounds of forage per day and have no concept of property boundaries. When deer populations exceed an area’s sustainable limit their daily foraging volume can change the structure and diversity of plant communities, leading to a decrease in diversity and abundance of other wildlife species and increase in invasive species. Additionally, in residential areas deer overabundance can impact flower and vegetable gardens and defoliate landscaping. For residents who put a lot of time and resources into their property plantings, and gardens, this can cause frustration.
Managing deer populations to ecologically sustainable numbers can help eliminate the negative impacts caused in residential areas by, increasing biodiversity, supporting a healthy (balanced) ecosystem, and minimizing deer induced frustration to homeowners as well as offering local deer a better quality of life.
For more information, visit https://www.greenwichct.gov/Calendar.aspx?EID=12387
