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Amen Aleta, and not only garden and crop damage--but also wholesale destruction of the native forest understory. Forests exist here at all thanks to natural regeneration; mature trees drop seeds to the forest floor, seedlings arise and wait for their turn to become part of the overstory when the forest canopy opens after a windstorm, for example.

At present, the forest floor is virtually devoid of seedlings! The deer have polished them off very thoroughly--firs, cedars, madrones, and others. It's one of the easiest meals a deer can find, especially when the ground is snow-covered. The consequence will be evident a (human) generation from now, when gaps left by fallen and removed trees fail to be refilled naturally--and with that, the urban forest will become just a memory.

The only way to reverse that: reduce the numbers of deer currently well above carrying capacity of the land.

From: Deer people: Hearts, minds need to change | Letter to the editor

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