To the Editor:
Council President Roger Berliner was “right on” when he stated the need for a cooperative effort to deal with the expanding and destructive deer population in his recent letter you published (March 7-13, 2012). Deer are wildlife pests that roam freely throughout the county and are not confined by National Parks, normal fences or neighborhood yards.
The National Parks, state and county agencies all need to come together with a coordinated broad-based approach. The Gold Mine Tract is just a small area of the county and a managed hunt there will have little effect on the much larger issue of an invasive deer problem throughout the county and state. In fact such a narrow effort could have an unintended result of moving more deer out of the Park area increasing deer densities in our neighborhoods.
Decades have gone by and the deer population has expanded to untenable numbers that can no longer be reduced by hunting strategies alone. County residents complain as deer ravish their landscapes, suffer incidents of Lyme disease and experience deer/auto accidents. Residents and the media should all be shouting to our officials to act now to save our trees, plants and birds. It will take decades for the environment to recover.
The media can continue to be helpful by pushing for more integrated ideas and broader based strategies to save our cherished environment.
Frank Lostumbo
Potomac