admittedly with a considerable delay econonmical considerations took over also in the bavarian state forest. whilst savings on staff costs and less supervision and support of private forest owners pretty quite strictly follow advices of a management consultancy, the admittance of does and deers remains pretty much regulated according to pre-democratic governing principles: as the hunters demand a high yield of antlers, the protective function of the forest in the mountains has to be achieved with expensive measures.
here the young trees are protected with plastic casings to make sure that the expensive seedlings reach a stage where their tree tops are out of the does’ teeth reach. almost no discussion about this here in bavaria as the hunters’ lobby managed to embrace the majority of our parlamentarians.
and what is true, should (read: most often is) beautiful 🙂
Deer are a plague here in southern New England. It is impossible to garden without an eight-foot high fence. Dangerous collisions with cars are daily events in every town. Of course this is because humans are invading the space the deer used to have to themselves with exurbs expanding into formerly rural land.
I am curious about the “antlers” mention. Here, whatever “Joe-Bob” jokes might be made about deer hunters, they universally do want the meat, not just a trophy.
As it happens I’m vegetarian, but I’ve been sorely tempted to inquire whether I can shoot the damn things on my property and donate them to a soup kitchen or homeless shelter.
Here in bavaria, deer are only a minor source of human/animal problems, their number is comparably small next to towns. At the borders of the villages roes are a threat to gardening, too.
But the hunters here do never hunt for meat, at least they would not admit it. Hunting has a different function as it was for centuries a privilege of the gentry. Now its organized under state administration, and whoever is in really is “in”. Kind of insider relationship club that informally influences decisions. The antlers are kind of proof that you are in the club, and every year there are shows organized on local level where you show all the trophys from the last hunting season. Ah – and never try to shoot a trophy like a twelve pointer if you don’t have a permit for this.
The main problem for the whole society now is the threat the high numbers of roe, deer and chamois in the mountains form for the young trees. 30 year old beech trees sometimes only reach 1 m height as the top buds are eaten up every year. So the forests become sort of senile and the avalanches just start in the forest, between the old stems, as there is no understorey to stop the motion of the snow.
The administration’s answer now are expensive protection measures for streets and for young trees, instead of allowing effective hunting measures and inviting interested hunters from all around.
But in bavaria you could shoot a roe in your property if it is properly fenced and you have a hunting permit…
Thanks for that explanation about the status of hunting in Bavaria–fascinating! I never would have guessed that cultural difference.
Bavaria was always special…
Seriously, we kind of have similar problems here in Sweden. Hunting is far more common than in Bavaria, on an average weekend the male half of the population of any given city is either hunting or fishing. And consequently the population especially of moose is far higher than the natural carrying capacity of the forests. With similar consequences as the ones Markus showed in his photos. So much for forests as something “natural”…