Phyllis, I'm afraid I still don't really understand.  To me, it  seems 
obvious that killing wolves so that human hunters will have more  caribou and 
moose to hunt is very different than killing deer so that  many species of 
orchids, lilies, butterflies, songbirds, and herps  won't decline or even 
disappear.  In certain parts of the  East Coast where deer hunting is not 
allowed, some wildflower  species haven't been seen for decades, and low-nesting 
songbirds can no  longer nest.  In some parts of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania 
that  have too many deer, native plant communities are being  decimated.  The 
only plant species that can survive to  reproduce are those unpalatable to 
deer.  
 
I grew up near a state park in southeast Michigan where an  anti-hunting 
organization prevented a much-needed deer hunt for years.  By  the time a 
sharpshooter was finally hired, there were two hundred deer  per square mile, 
fourteen species of wildflowers had completely disappeared from  the park, 
many other wildflower species were barely hanging on,  and songbirds, 
butterflies, and other animals were seriously  suffering.   Aldo Leopold was right in 
saying that a mountain lives  "in mortal fear of its deer" because of what 
deer overpopulation can do.   So do other ecosystems.
 
I don't want that level of deer damage in Iowa.   Some  of it is happening 
here already.   
 
I respect and greatly appreciate what you do for conservation.   However, 
if you are saying that we shouldn't kill deer in Iowa, then yes,  you and I 
will have to respectfully agree to disagree on this  one.  Best wishes --   
 
ch

Cindy Hildebrand
[log in to unmask]
Ames, IA  50010

"A tree is an aerial garden, a botanical migration from the sea, from those 
 earliest plants, the seaweeds; it is a purchase on crumbled rock, on 
ground. The  human, standing, is only a different upsweep and articulation of 
cells. How  treelike we are, how human the tree." (Gretel  Ehrlich)

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