Cal­i­for­nia deer pop­u­la­tions “sur­viv­ing but not thriving”

Deer in Cal­i­for­nia are feel­ing the pinch poor habi­tat con­di­tions cre­ate, reports Matt Weiser at the Sacra­mento Bee.

Sta­tis­tics from the state Depart­ment of Fish and Game shows pop­u­la­tions are nearly half of what they were in 1990, and are con­tin­u­ing to decline due to a vari­ety of habi­tat losses – land con­ver­sion, devel­op­ment, fire sup­pres­sion, clos­ing of migra­tion cor­ri­dors – the list goes on.

“Our deer are sur­viv­ing, they’re not thriv­ing,” said Craig Stow­ers, deer pro­gram man­ager at Fish and Game. “Quite frankly, until peo­ple start tak­ing this seri­ously, we’re going to con­tinue to expe­ri­ence these types of declines.”

Some have blamed declines on preda­tors such as moun­tain lions, but said Randy Mor­ri­son, Cal­i­for­nia regional direc­tor at the Mule Deer Foun­da­tion, a con­ser­va­tion and hunt­ing orga­ni­za­tion, doesn’t but it.

“I believe it’s habi­tat, habi­tat, habi­tat,” he said. “So far, I don’t believe we’re turn­ing the tide at all. I’m con­cerned. Very concerned.”

And rightly so, it seems. Just one more rea­son to keep what we have.

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