Resource Management & Research Report Indiana State Parks & Reservoirs No. 08-1 Title: 2008 State Park Deer Reduction Results: 15 Years in Review Author: Mike Mycroft, Chief of Natural Resources Date: 12/5/2008 Abstract: Indiana State Parks began deer reductions in 1993 with a one day reduction hunt at Brown County State Park in an effort to mitigate damage to vegetation by an overpopulation of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Deer reductions have continued annually since 1995 and have included up to 19 parks per year. The decision to initiate reductions at individual parks has been based on a method of vegetation monitoring developed by Purdue University’s Department of Forestry and Natural Resources. Decisions to continue reductions at individual parks are made annually using harvest data such as harvest per effort and harvest per square mile after each reduction. Additional consideration has recently been given to elemental occurrences and status of state rare, threatened, and endangered flora that could be affected by excessive browsing by deer. Though the program has been largely successful helping vegetation recover, challenges persist as we attempt to get most parks onto an every-other-year maintenance rotation of reductions. High percentages of hunters’ drawn that fail to show-up and over selective hunting have been and continue to prevent higher program success.
Introduction White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have thrived in Indiana State Parks since they were reintroduced to Indiana in the middle 20th century. Mild winters and the lack of once present natural predators such as wolves and mountain lions coupled with a decades-long lack of human hunting within protected state park boundaries resulted in excessive browsing by deer that compromised the overall composition, structure and function of most natural communities throughout the state park system. Browse lines and small, malnourished deer were a common sight at most state park properties by the late 1980’s. The first deer reduction hunt was hosted at Brown County State Park on December 4, 1993, with 466 hunters harvesting 392 deer. After a one year hiatus, four parks were hunted in 1995 and 20 state parks have had deer reductions since 1995. Recently, as many as 18 parks have held reduction hunts in the same year (Table 1). The decision to initiate reductions at any one park was made after monitoring the height of three herbaceous species, sweet cicely (Osmorhiza claytoniia), jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), and white baneberry (Actaea pachypoda) at individual parks (Webster et al. 2001). Vegetation monitoring continued after reductions began. Starting in 2002, determination to hunt each year hinged on each park’s annual harvest data. Webster and Parker indicated that vegetation begins to recover once a firearm harvest per effort (H/E) nears 0.22-0.20 and/or a harvest per square mile (H/Sq. mi.) is between 12 & 16 deer. Hunter density has ranged between 1 hunter per 18-20 acres. Parks where