For deer, a siege ahead at Valley Forge park

Officials at Valley Forge National Historical Park said yesterday that they would begin shooting massive numbers of deer, possibly as soon as next month, rejecting a Villanova activist's proposal to shrink the herd through contraception.

Park managers also said that the growing number of deer would require them to shoot more animals than originally expected - 500 the first year, 500 the second, and between 250 and 300 in years three and four.

That would reduce the herd 86 percent.

"We've done a good and honest job of evaluating all the alternatives, based on the best available science," said Kristina Heister, the park's natural resource manager.

But others say the park has rushed toward a lethal option, ignoring other, more humane possibilities.

Priscilla Cohn, a Pennsylvania State University professor emerita who runs Pity Not Cruelty, a wildlife group, made a formal proposal to park officials in late August in hopes they would cancel the nearing winter kill, the first of four annual sharpshooting operations.

She suggested fencing portions of the park so the deer couldn't eat saplings and plants, and dosing female deer with contraceptives so they would not reproduce. And she offered to pay for the whole thing - $125,000.

Yesterday, Valley Forge administrators announced they had received permission from the National Park Service to proceed with the shoot, reducing a herd they believe has grown big and destructive. In an accompanying statement, within which they got the name of Cohn's group wrong, administrators described her plan as far too small and limited.

They said they had earlier considered using fencing and contraceptives to control deer, but learned that such an effort would be arduous, requiring far more resources than Cohn suggested.

The plan to shoot deer at Valley Forge, site of the Continental Army's 1777-78 encampment, has generated national publicity and local controversy. Friends of Animals, an advocacy group, has held vigils at the park, demanding that the deer be left alone.

Valley Forge administrators say the hunt is needed to slim a herd that is damaging the park, gobbling so many plants, shrubs, and saplings that the forest cannot regenerate. They say the park already has lost what biologists call the forest understory, the ground-level layer of vegetation.

The shooting would be conducted by federal employees or contractors firing high-powered, silencer-equipped rifles, mostly at night, aiming at deer lured to areas baited with apples and grain.

The park wants to reduce a population now estimated at 1,277 to between 165 and 185.

Heister said the first shoot would take place between November and March. The park will not release the specific dates, for "safety reasons," she said.

Asked if the dates were being kept secret to prevent demonstrations, Heister said: "Protesters are welcome at any time, as long as they have the appropriate permit. Generally, those activities do not take place at night."

Efforts to contact park Superintendent Michael Caldwell were unsuccessful.

After the initial four-year hunt, officials plan to maintain the smaller herd through contraceptives and additional shoots. They estimate that shooting deer will cost between $2 million and $2.9 million during the next 15 years.

Cohn, a philosophy professor who has studied and written widely on animal ethics, calls that "a tremendous waste of money."

All funds for her proposal would be provided by Pity Not Cruelty. It would eventually lower the deer population to the levels desired by park managers, she said.

"I'm not convinced there are really too many deer, but I'm taking them at their word, and saying, 'OK, here's my offer,' " Cohn said.

One problem with shooting deer, she said, is that a big reduction in numbers causes females to breed at a younger age and to give birth to more twins and triplets, a herd-survival response.

"You can kill a third of the herd, but by the following spring, you're back up to the levels you were before, or a little ahead," Cohn said. "That doesn't happen with contraception."

The $125,000 would pay for 1,000 doses of porcine zona pellucida, known as PZP, an immunocontraceptive with a documented history of reducing animal herds. The funds also would cover training three people to fire dart guns at female deer.

The darts introduce the contraceptive and simultaneously mark the deer, so shooters know which animals have been dosed.

In her proposal, Cohn also offered to pay to install reinforced deer fencing at four 10-acre plots where park officials say the understory has been wrecked.

But Heister said that in studying less lethal alternatives, officials found they would need to fence 140 to 210 acres, not 40. And at a minimum they would need 1,148 doses of contraceptive, not 1,000.

Even with those measures, plants outside the fences would continue to be eaten. And contraception would take years to have an impact, she said.

Valley Forge officials have repeatedly questioned the effectiveness of contraception. A recent park summary flatly stated that "reproductive control would not reduce deer density significantly." And yesterday's announcement said that future contraceptive efforts could take place only once "an acceptable agent becomes available."

But scientists who study the issue say that agent already exists, and offer a simple answer to those who doubt its efficacy:

"It works," said Allen Rutberg, an expert on contraception in wild deer, and who conducts research at the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. "It's more of a political and regulatory fight than a technical issue."

The bottom line: If PZP is introduced to a female deer, she won't have fawns for a period of time, he said.

Rutberg coauthored a seminal report on immunocontraception of deer published last year in the journal Wildlife Research. In five years, the study showed, contraception caused a 27 percent drop in the herd on the grounds of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland. A dramatic decline also was documented at Fire Island National Seashore in New York.

In the Philadelphia region, deer and people have been pushed together as housing and business development moves into woodlands.

For the deer, Valley Forge is a 5.3-square-mile forest sanctuary, one surrounded by houses, hotels, and the giant King of Prussia mall. The park draws more than one million visitors a year, though at times it can seem like deer outnumber people.

Between 1997 and 2007, the herd grew from 772 to 1,023, peaking at 1,398 in 2003, a park study found. The herd stood at 1,277 last spring.

Park managers considered four plans to handle the deer, early on identifying sharpshooting as the best alternative. It promises a quick, dramatic fall in the deer population so vegetation can recover faster, they say. Officials earlier announced plans to donate all deer meat to local food pantries.

"It's been clear to me that they wanted to kill the deer," Cohn said. "Unless we're capable of getting public opinion behind us, and getting politicians behind us, they'll go through with it."