{"id":4902,"date":"2024-04-15T13:07:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T13:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?post_type=purduetoday&p=4902"},"modified":"2024-08-03T20:32:18","modified_gmt":"2024-08-04T00:32:18","slug":"deer-impact-toolbox-provides-guidance-for-indiana-forest-landowners-and-managers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2024\/Q2\/deer-impact-toolbox-provides-guidance-for-indiana-forest-landowners-and-managers","title":{"rendered":"Deer Impact Toolbox provides guidance for Indiana forest landowners and managers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.<\/strong> \u2014 In collaboration with\u00a0The Nature Conservancy<\/a>,\u00a0Purdue Forestry and Natural Resources (FNR) Extension<\/a>\u00a0has developed the Deer Impact Toolbox, a comprehensive set of resources designed to help landowners and managers understand, monitor and effectively mitigate the impact of deer on Indiana\u2019s forest ecosystems. Comprised of four publications and two how-to videos, the toolbox offers insights into deer monitoring techniques and proven strategies for minimizing their impacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDeer impact the forest in a variety of ways, through the plants they eat and browse,\u201d said Jarred Brooke<\/a>, extension wildlife specialist. \u201cWhen deer become overabundant \u2014 there are more deer than there is food on the landscape \u2014 this can have a negative impact on different aspects of the forest, such as the plant or wildlife diversity, tree regeneration and growth, the number of invasive plants and the structure of our forests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now accessible to the public through Purdue FNR Extension\u2019s website<\/a> and the Purdue Education Store<\/a>, the Deer Impact Toolbox equips landowners and managers with the knowledge needed to take control of their land management practices and make well-informed decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first publication, \u201cIntroduction to White-tailed Deer Impacts on Indiana Woodlands,\u201d<\/a> delves into the significance of deer impact and its various effects on the forest ecosystems, provides insight into differentiating deer browsing from other animal browsing and showcases a visual graphic of the impact levels, ranging from low to very high. Additionally, the publication outlines a five-step approach to effective deer impact management: understand, identify, monitor, manage and evaluate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the introduction, the toolbox offers three publications that elaborate on these steps. \u201cUnderstanding White-tailed Deer and Their Impact on Indiana Woodlands\u201d<\/a> provides in-depth knowledge on year-round deer behavior, from their dietary preferences to the underlying causes of negative impacts on woodlands, and includes a questionnaire designed for assessing deer impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMonitoring White-tailed Deer and Their Impact on Indiana\u201d<\/a> recommends a range of deer and deer impact monitoring methods, including deer pellet surveys, trail cameras, records of which plants deer browse and twig aging, which is highly recommended for Indiana woodlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen monitoring deer impact, you can\u2019t always tell the level of browse just by looking at the number of deer in the landscape. You also need to monitor your woodland plants over time to really understand what overall impact deer are having to plant diversity, as well as forest regeneration,\u201d Brooke added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final publication, \u201cManaging White-tailed Deer Impacts on Indiana Woodlands\u201d<\/a> offers an overview of available control methods, spanning from population control strategies to the implementation of physical barriers and repellents, while equipping managers and landowners with the tools needed to evaluate the efficacy of these interventions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Deer Impact Toolbox is tailored to Indiana and its neighboring region, Brooke highlights its versatility. \u201cSome of the resources inside the toolbox \u2014 like the one that helps landowners and managers monitor what level of deer impact they are having \u2014 were developed by other universities in other states, so some tools could be applied more broadly, especially in the eastern United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The informational videos \u201cMonitoring Deer Impacts on Indiana Forests: Accessing Vegetation Impacts of Deer (AVID) Plots\u201d<\/a> and \u201cMonitoring Deer Impacts on Indiana Forests: Ten Tallest Method\u201d<\/a> are available on Purdue FNR\u2019s Extension\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>, offering a visual demonstration of some of the monitoring techniques highlighted within the toolbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To spread awareness about the monitoring and management methods mentioned within the Deer Impact Toolbox, Purdue FNR Extension will be hosting a forestry field day at the Herrmann Reserve, near Redkey, Indiana, on April 27. Learn more about the event and reserve a free spot here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on the Integrated Deer Management Project, a multiyear research project led by the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources<\/a> in partnership with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources \u2013 Division of Fish and Wildlife<\/a>, which works to combine deer population and habitat information with public attitudes toward deer to enhance white-tailed deer management in Indiana, visit: https:\/\/ag.purdue.edu\/department\/fnr\/researchindeer\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agriculture News Page<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 In collaboration with\u00a0The Nature Conservancy,\u00a0Purdue Forestry and Natural Resources (FNR) Extension\u00a0has developed the Deer Impact Toolbox, a comprehensive set of resources designed to help landowners and managers understand, monitor and effectively mitigate the impact of deer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":7375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"department":[6,138],"source":[29],"purdue_today_topic":[],"coauthors":[163],"class_list":["post-4902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","department-agriculture","department-extension","source-purdue-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7772,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4902\/revisions\/7772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4902"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=4902"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=4902"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=4902"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}