I received an email from linsgrls2@aol.com back in December:

I know you call this a sport, I call it a sin. How you can look into the eyes of these beautiful creatures, knowing they may have a family and kill them and post these stupid pictures like you are heroes with bragging rights?? It is awful, hope your family is safe, I know you love them very much and go out every day to make sure they have food and shelter. I guess I will never understand the need to kill. I just can't imagine the poor young ones that are left behind in even more danger now that you have killed their parents. I guess we are all in danger when people are out in the woods with guns and bows. Hope you stay safe. Have a wonderful holiday...

The sad truth of the matter is this is how a lot of people feel. Hunters are a minority these days, especially in the suburbs where people are so far removed from the outdoors and hunting, that they simply don't understand it. Unfortunately, it's the vast majority of the non-hunting population that doesn't understand what really happens in the ecosystem around us.

Rarely do these people, many living in suburban areas, step foot off of a paved surface. They know little about the natural world around them, and look at the cute little deer in the forest when in reality those cute little deer are in the midst of creating such an imbalance of the ecosystem that in many cases the damage done by deer will never be reversed. They're not stupid people - they are simply uneducated about the wildlife around them.

So here are 5 facts about deer and the need for hunters to manage the population:

1. There are natural limits to the number of deer that a given parcel of habitat can support. When deer exceed the carrying capacity of the land there are more deer than quality forage and winter habitat available.
2. There are over 60 deer per square mile in the suburbs of Westchester. The carrying capacity is around 20 deer per square mile. If the population was reduced further to 15 deer per square mile then the deer would be able to reach their full potential.
3. Deer have no natural predators. Coyotes rarely take down healthy deer, instead they prey on weak deer suffering from malnutrition and those with serious injuries.
4. Severe overbrowsing by deer alters the plant species composition and distribution, disrupting the local habitat. Overbrowsing also destroys song bird habitat and kills forest regeneration.
5. Hunting helps reduce the number of deer/vehicle collisions and the spread of Lyme disease.

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection put together an Evaluation of Deer Management Options in 1988 and concluded that hunting was the most viable solution to controlling the deer population.

"Fifty years of research and management experience have shown regulated hunting to be an ecologically sounds, socially beneficial, and fiscally responsible method of managing deer populations. Options routinely suggested as alternatives to regulated hunting area typically limited in applicability, prohibitively expensive, logistically impractical, or technically infeasible. As a consequence, wildlife professionals have come to recognize regulated hunting as the fundamental basis of successful deer management."
-CT DEP, Publication No: DR-11

Over 20 years later wildlife agencies are still coming to the same conclusion - hunting is the best way to keep the deer population within the carrying capacity of the land.