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http://www.yellowstonepark.com/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem/
Devlin

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https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm?id=4C81517B-155D-451F-67432F0B1D132A85
Torrie

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Tom Testa could probably qualify as a deer hunting guru.

When he killed a buck during archery season this fall, it marked the 55th straight year the Port Crane man has harvested one in New York state. Even more impressive is when you consider Testa has been partially disabled since serving a stint in the Vietnam War.

These days, however, Testa acknowledges it is more of a challenge to fill his tags - not because of his age or disability, but because he sees fewer deer.

"When I was growing up, if you didn't see 100 deer a day, you had a bad day. Now it's tough to see 100 deer in a season," said Testa, 69. "You can walk in snow for four hours and only see five tracks. I don't think there are that many deer out there."

A lot of hunters share that sentiment.

The regular gun season for deer opens Saturday. While it is still one of the biggest days on the outdoor calendar, many longtime hunting enthusiasts have a harder time getting excited about their prospects.

"We're not seeing the numbers. We're not seeing deer tracks around apples; they are rotting on the ground," said hunter Brian Adessa, of Erin in Chemung County. "I have 57 acres in Erin. I'm not seeing a lot of deer at all. I bet we have 40 hours on stand just in bow season, in good hunting areas, and we're just not seeing the numbers go by us at all when we're out. We've had more deer-less evenings and mornings than in recent years."

Hunters often aim their frustration at the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which is responsible for white-tailed deer management in New York.

But there are several stakeholders who influence those management policies, and satisfying everyone is an impossible task, said Steve Joule, DEC Region 7 wildlife biologist. Region 7 includes Broome, Tioga and Tompkins counties.

"You can't meet the needs of every constituent. If someone wants five deer per square mile, which is below the threshold for a safe level for Lyme disease, and a hunter wants 20 deer per square mile, those two will never meet," Joule said. "If a farmer can tolerate 10 deer per square mile but a forester wants less, there are some viewpoints that can't we reconcile with others. The trick is to get people to see some sort of compromise and common ground."
A difficult balancing act
DEC values public input as it formulates deer management strategies, said Art Kirsch, Joule's counterpart in DEC Region 8, which includes Chemung, Steuben and Schuyler counties.

Citizen task forces in each wildlife management unit help guide those decisions, Kirsch said.

That input includes not only hunters, but also farmers and other landowners, motorists and insurance companies that pay for damage caused by car/deer collisions.

Even as wildlife managers try to balance all of those often competing interests, the overriding concern has to be what's best for the deer and the environment, Kirsch said.

"Science always comes first. The welfare of the herd and habitat always supersedes public desire if that is counter to biology," he said. "We have biological issues and social issues. As far as social issues, we don't care either way if the public decides they want hunting on Sunday or antler restrictions. The things that do have an impact on the health of the herd or habitat are overriding factors we have to take into consideration.

"When the process started, there wasn't as much consideration put on the ecology, and the effects of deer on habitat," Kirsch said. "That is a bigger voice. We realize over 20 years the impact deer can have on the environment, vegetation and other animals."

When it comes to deer management, DEC relies on a couple of tools. Primary among them is the deer management permit, more commonly referred to as a doe permit, or antlerless deer tag.

The DEC allocates those permits by wildlife management unit, based on population and harvest goals for those units.

If the deer population in a particular unit is deemed higher than what the habitat can sustain, the DEC will seek to increase the doe harvest in those units. If the population is lower than desired, the number of deer management permits issued for those units will be cut back.

The agency also relies on hunters to report their successes to give an accurate harvest tally, but even though that step is mandatory, a lot of kills go unreported.

It's not a perfect system, Kirsch concedes.

"You can't please everybody. We try to do the best we can," he said. "We usually hear from folks that are dissatisfied. We have a skewed impression of what the public thinks. One thing we never hear (from hunters) is there are too many deer."

Just because hunters aren't seeing a lot of deer doesn't mean they aren't there, said Paul Curtis, a natural resources professor at Cornell University.

In some instances, it's a matter of access - or lack of access - for hunting, and in others, it's a case of the most savvy hunters knowing how and where to find their quarry, Curtis said.

"Just because he has pocket full of tags doesn't mean (a hunter) will take more deer. They need access to land where deer are abundant," he said. "Some municipalities don't allow hunting at all. That makes it more difficult.

"Of those hunters who got permits to hunt on Cornell land in the last few years, only 18 percent were successful. One out of every five hunters actually filled a tag on Cornell property, out of 1,000 or more hunters," Curtis said. "You're not going to walk into the woods and see a deer behind every tree. A small percentage of hunters who know the land well will take the most deer."
Hunters sound off
From 2010 to 2014, the total number of deer harvested in New York state was up just under 4 percent, to 238,672 from 230,100.

But most Southern Tier counties saw a decline in deer harvest numbers during those same years.

Even within the sporting community, there is no real consensus on how the state should best manage the deer herd.

Some hunters believe New York should emulate Pennsylvania and impose antler restrictions to give more young bucks a chance to mature. Others think hunters should have the choice if they want to shoot a small buck or let it pass.

Likewise, not all hunters automatically blame the DEC if they aren't filling their tags. Other factors, such as fewer hunters afield, also play a role, they say.

"I've hunted over 55 years. I'm hunting some of the farms I hunted when I started with my dad," said Bill Holmes, president of the Broome County Federation of Sportsmen. "We used to hunt as kids and see deer all day long. Today, you may sit up there and see one or two deer. A lot of places, there are deer and a lot there aren't deer. People hunt the same spots year after year. Deer will go where the food sources are. That's one thing. You don't have the hunters you used to have. When I started, we would go up Route 12 the first day, and all you saw was taillights. It was a big procession. You don't see that anymore."

Chemung County Farm Bureau President Ashur Terwilliger, who is a landowner and an avid hunter, said deer not only go where the food is, but during hunting season, they go where they know hunters won't follow.

"They are congregating where they are not being pushed. The deer move to where they think they are safe," Terwilliger said. "I don't think we have an overabundance of deer or an underabundance. They pocket. They develop those sanctuaries. Sullivan's Monument is a deer sanctuary. (The DEC) could better manage areas like Sullivan's Monument and Harris Hill. It's all common sense. They've got to use a little common sense to do it properly."

Still, some hunters believe the DEC could do more to improve access and strike a better balance among the competing interests.

"With all the posted land in New York state now and no hunting access, what does the state do to augment that? Wyoming pays cash per acre for landowners who allow walk-in hunters," Adessa said. "And we don't do anything like that. So you have a lot of private property where no hunting occurs due to negative experiences. The state does little to reach out to those folks and say, 'If you own 200 acres, we'll give you $3 an acre if you left it open to walk-in hunters.'"

Even with citizen task forces, Holmes believes the DEC doesn't rely enough on the people on the front lines when it comes to making deer management decisions.

"I would like to see Albany listen to their biologists a little more. They have a lot more input and knowledge of what's going on in the field than people in offices in Albany," said Holmes, who is also a delegate to the New York State Conservation Council.

Holmes also recognizes there is no one-size-fits-all solution that will make everyone happy.

"All county federations will lobby for different laws and stuff like that, a lot of it to benefit their county or region," he said. "You can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all the time. If I was 25, I would want a trophy buck. Being 70, I want to get a deer when I can. It's tough, no doubt about it."

So the answer to the big question - are the deer still out there - is yes, according to Kirsch.

There may not be a deer behind every bush, but hunters who do their homework and put in the time have a good chance for success, he said.

"It may sound cliched, but we always say hunting is great in western New York. It's the best habitat in the state," Kirsch said. "We say hunting is great every year, but the fact of the matter is it's true. People in general tend to have short memory spans. They may remember back a few years, but statistically, the records show otherwise. These are the good old days."
Follow Jeff Murray on Twitter @SGJeffMurray. Deer harvest by the numbers
Overall deer harvest figures were up between 2010 and 2014 in New York state. While most Southern Tier counties saw the opposite trend, Steuben County still led the state in the total number of deer tagged by hunters.

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DEER SEASON: Too many? Too few? Depends whom you ask

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Tom Testa could probably qualify as a deer hunting guru. When he killed a buck during archery season this fall, it marked the 55th straight year the Port Crane man has harvested one in New York state. Even more impressive is when you consider Testa has been partially disabled since serving a stint in the Vietnam War.

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Gray wolves are killing cattle and family pets in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin, and all residents can do is stand by and watch thanks to a federal judge's ruling.

In December, US District Judge Beryl Howell overturned the Obama administration's decision to take the gray wolf in the Great Lakes states off the endangered species list, The Detroit Free Press reported. Howell's action effectively banned hunting and trapping of wolves in those states.

Farmer Miles Kuschel watched a pack of six wolves surround his cattle on Easter, but decided not to shoot because of the ruling. When he came back, a calf was dead.

"They came, they killed and they left, but they're still around. They just move on to the neighbor's place," Kuschel told Watchdog.org.

Others have had similar experiences.

"There was a big gray timber wolf," Laurie Anderson told Minnesota Public Radio (MPR). "The wolf grabbed Curly by the neck, and headed down toward what we call the West Branch of the Knife River. And I've never seen my little dog again."

Anderson's poodle, Curly Moe, was one of several dogs carried away by wolves in the region around Duluth in April, MPR reported. The wolf attacked when Anderson and Curly went outside to get the mail.
Discover The Only Way Back To True Freedom And Liberty In America
Howell's ruling keeps wolves on the endangered species list, which means they only can be killed in defense of human life. That means Anderson and Kuschel could have been prosecuted for a federal crime if they shot the wolves to defend their animals.
Farmers Are Helpless
"You could be watching your pasture and you could see a wolf killing your cattle, which is like watching someone at the ATM taking money out of your bank account, and you can do nothing to stop it," Charlie Poster, the assistant commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, told Watchdog.org.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service took the gray wolf in the Great Lakes Region (Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan) off the Endangered Species List three years ago. Animal rights groups and environmentalists appealed, and Howell reversed that decision.

That means farmers and ranchers need to get federal permission to shoot wolves they see killing their cattle. It also effectively ended wolf hunting seasons in the three states and wolf trapping in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It also means that property owners have no way to protect their pets from wolves.
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Farmers can get compensation for livestock killed if they take pictures of slaughtered animals and send them to the Fish and Wildlife Service. Unfortunately, that process can take months - and it is getting longer. Poster said his agency is dealing with a back log of claims for compensation for wolf attacks.
Learn About The 'Real Constitution' And What The Founders Truly Intended
Supporters of the judge's ruling defended the decision.

"The wolves needed to go back under federal protection," Jill Fitz, the director of the Michigan Humane Society, told The Free Press. "The courts recognized the basis of the delisting was flawed."

Wildlife officials estimate that there are currently around 2,400 wolves living in 470 packs in Minnesota, and 636 wolves on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. More could be crossing the border from neighboring Ontario. The wolves are getting more aggressive, according to wildlife officials.

"Within the last half a year, we've had I would say probably a spike of wolves that are coming in and going after some domestic animals," Kipp Duncan, a Minnesota conservation officer, told MPR. Duncan knows of at least five dogs that were attacked and eaten by wolves. He knows of at least one case in which a wolf killed a dog chained to a house.

On average, around 100 farm animals and five dogs a year are killed by wolves in Minnesota. Duncan thinks the wolves are getting more aggressive because the population of their favorite food - deer - has decreased.

"I think it's a function of wolves being hungry and not finding as much food as they normally do in the areas they normally forage in," John Hart of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Service Program told MPR. "So they're moving to where the deer are, which happens to be where the people are."
Do you believe gray wolves should be listed on the endangered species list? Share your thoughts in the section below: Do You Know How To Truly Protect Your Home From Criminals? Read More Here.
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He Watched Wolves Attack And Kill His Livestock, But Could Do Nothing Because Of A Fed Court Ruling - Off The Grid News

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Gray wolves are killing cattle and family pets in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin, and all residents can do is stand by and watch thanks to a federal judge's ruling. In December, US District Judge Beryl Howell overturned the Obama administration's decision to take the gray wolf in the Great Lakes states off the endangered species ...

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Main Question: explanation: In our opinion managing the predator (wolves) is our main question because its not what or how the wolves effect the ecosystem and the Elk but how we can control the wolves

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Main Question: explanation: In our opinion managing the predator (wolves) is our main question because its not what or how the wolves effect the ecosystem and the Elk but how we can control the wolves

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The challenge is to find a way to mange the wolves and the way they change there surroundings so the question is what can we do to keep the population and ecosystem balanced. Torrie

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what happened to the ecosystem after the wolves were brought into the ecosystem?  Michael

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What changes did the landscape experience when wolves were introduced into the ecosystem? Torrie

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Is there more brush/shrubbery because the deer/elk population decreased?  Torrie