{"id":265348,"date":"2010-02-02T02:32:27","date_gmt":"2010-02-02T07:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a8474a02970b"},"modified":"2010-02-02T02:32:27","modified_gmt":"2010-02-02T07:32:27","slug":"sharpshooters-employed-to-thin-out-the-deer-population-around-marylands-camp-david-retreat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/265348","title":{"rendered":"Sharpshooters employed to thin out the deer population around Maryland’s Camp David retreat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Camp.david\"<\/img><\/a> Government sharpshooters are taking aim at hundreds of white-tailed
\ndeer in the national park surrounding the Camp David presidential
\nretreat in western Maryland.<\/p>\n

The move to reduce the deer
\npopulation comes after nearly three decades of research and opposition
\nfrom animal-rights advocates.<\/p>\n

Acting Park Superintendent Sean
\nDenniston said the hunt in Catoctin Mountain Park began Monday
\nafternoon and will continue most weekday afternoons and nights through
\nmid-March. Large sections of the park will be periodically closed, he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n

\n Park officials say the operation is intended to cull an
\noutsize herd that has devoured so many saplings and low-hanging tree
\nbranches that the health of both the forest and the deer have suffered.<\/p>\n

The estimated deer density of 123 per square mile is about eight times
\nthat of healthy forest ecosystems, Denniston said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/br> <\/p>\n

There has
\neven been concern about the security and seclusion of the presidential
\nretreat hidden within the 5,770-acre park, a former park superintendent
\ntold The Associated Press in 1997. One of the park’s functions is to
\nserve as a buffer for Camp David.<\/p>\n

Denniston said the deer management plan is separate from Camp David operations.<\/p>\n

\nThe shooting will be done by three U.S. Agriculture Department
\nsharpshooters, because public hunting is banned in the park. Denniston
\nsaid he expects them to kill 200 to 300 deer this year.<\/p>\n

A plan
\napproved in April projects the extermination of more than 2,000 deer
\nover 15 years to reach and maintain the desired density.<\/p>\n

However, Denniston said the measure of success will be forest growth, not deer density.<\/p>\n

\n"The indicator of whether the plan is successful is when we get to the
\npoint where the forest is showing healthy regeneration," he said.<\/p>\n

\nThe park service said it will donate the meat to the Baltimore-based
\nMaryland Food Bank, which expressed gratitude for the gift.
<\/br>
<\/br> The
\nHumane Society of the United States has advocated non-lethal measures,
\nincluding contraception, to reduce the herd size. On Monday, John
\nHadidian, the group’s director of urban wildlife programs, predicted
\npark managers would have difficulty justifying the killing.<\/p>\n

\n"The park service has goals and objectives and the question now is, is
\nit reasonable to believe they’re going to meet those goals and
\nobjectives?" Hadidian said.<\/p>\n

— Associated Press<\/p>\n

Animal news on the go: Follow Unleashed on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Photo of Camp David \/ Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Government sharpshooters are taking aim at hundreds of white-tailed deer in the national park surrounding the Camp David presidential retreat in western Maryland. The move to reduce the deer population comes after nearly three decades of research and opposition from animal-rights advocates. Acting Park Superintendent Sean Denniston said the hunt in Catoctin Mountain Park began […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}