Recommended program for maintaining white-tailed deer within the habitat carrying capacity of state parks and nature reserves

• The deer reduction program to restore habitat in Indiana's state parks is working. Eight parks have deer populations reduced to levels that habitat can begin to recover. Nine other parks have had successful deer reductions, but are not yet at levels to allow recovery of habitat (see attached Table 1 in Acrobat Reader format). Five parks have had no reduction to date.
• As the program moves into the maintenance phase and park habitat recovers, it is important to establish a procedure for the long-term maintenance of deer populations within the capacity of their habitat. Vegetative condition will not be a good indicator of deer number in the maintenance phase.
• Data on the number of deer removed from parks is correlated with the recovery of habitat. Parks that have had deer removed for several years have a reduction per effort (R/E) rate approaching 0.20 R/E, and a deer removal rate of 12-16 deer/square mile of park habitat. Habitat is recovering in these parks.
• Deer have a great capacity to expand their population without repeated control. At present the data indicates that parks should have a reduction at least every other year to prevent a large increase in deer number and subsequent damage to habitat.
• Therefore, the recommended program is to use the data collected for each park on deer removed in a given year to determine whether a park needs another reduction the following year. Any park in which the R/E exceeds 0.22 or the number of deer removed/square mile exceeds 16 should have a reduction the following year. Parks not hunted in a given year would be hunted the following year.
• Under this program 13 parks would have a deer reduction in 2002 (see attached Table 2 and 3). Four of the five parks (Ft. Harrison, Mounds, Prophetstown, Summit Lake) that have not had a reduction, need evaluation to determine when a reduction program should be initiated. The fifth park that has not had a reduction (Ouabache) should be considered for a reduction in 2002.
• This procedure would allow the annual decision on deer reduction in each park to be made in January. This would allow parks to be hunted in a given year to be published in the Division of Fish and Wildlife's Hunting and Trapping Guide to save time and money.