White-tailed deer have been a part of Eastern North American landscapes for close to 2 million years, and their populations and associated impacts to their environment undoubtedly have fluctuated over time with changes in climate, predation, and vegetation. White-tails were described by the first European settlers in southern New England as one of the most abundant large mammals; however subsequent overhunting and habitat loss greatly reduced the deer population, and throughout much of the 19th and early 20th century, they were rare in the region.
One of the most visible changes over the past 30 years in southwestern CT and elsewhere in the region is a dramatic upturn in deer populations. Benefiting from forest fragmentation, hunting regulations, and the elimination of large carnivores, deer have become abundant once again in CT woodlands, influencing herbaceous layers and tree regeneration and changing the appearance of forest understories. Much of the evidence of deer impacts to CT forests, however, remains anecdotal rather than empirical, complicating deer management discussions.
We are assessing the impacts of white-tailed deer to forest understory vegetation on properties across southwestern CT using approaches that manipulate deer activity levels and capture natural variation in deer activity. These methods include:
- experimental deer exclosures
- observational studies on properties with discrete hunting histories
- long-term monitoring of properties where deer management has recently changed
View the proposal.
Collaborating landowners:
We collaborate with a number of municipal, private, and state landowners on our research projects including:
- CT DEP
- Town of Redding
- Redding Land Trust
- Town of Wilton
- The Nature Conservancy
- Town of Ridgefield
- Aquarion Water Company
- the Connecticut Yankee Council
- other individual landowners
