Identifying Capacity for Local Community Participation in Wildlife Management Planning: Case 2: White-tailed Deer Issues at Valley Forge National Historical Park
Leong KM and Decker DJ. 2007. Identifying Capacity for Local Community Participation in Wildlife Management Planning: Case 2: White-tailed Deer Issues at Valley Forge National Historical Park. Human Dimensions Research Unit Publication Series. 07-3. Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University. Ithaca, NY
This project, supported by a cooperative agreement between Cornell University and the National Park Service (NPS), studies human dimensions of issues related to white-tailed deer and their management in the Northeast and National Capital Regions of the NPS. The research project consists of three phases. During Phase I, interviews were conducted with NPS natural resource managers and staff to describe the deer situation in northeastern parks and develop an approach for subsequent inquiry. In Phase II, interviews with public participation practitioners were completed to determine how public participation and civic engagement methods fit within NPS wildlife management. Phase III involves two types of studies with specific parks: Phase IIIA, interviews with local community residents, and Phase IIIB, a mail survey of local community residents. This report details Phase IIIA research conducted at Valley Forge National Historical Park (VFNHP), in southeastern Pennsylvania. Interviewees identified multiple contributing factors to controversy about deer management at VFNHP, including: concerns about primary impacts from deer, concerns about deer themselves, and concerns about potential management actions. Important primary impacts from deer included deer-vehicle collisions, vegetation damage, and wildlife viewing opportunities. In addition, interviewees identified characteristics of deer that they believed resulted in these impacts: population size/density, home range and movements, and behavior. Finally, concerns about potential management actions included how long it would take to see effects and the geographic scale of management necessary to reduce primary, as well as collateral, impacts.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Leong, Kirsten; Decker, Daniel
- Date of Issue
- 2007-03
- Publisher
- Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University
- Units
- BRD , MIDN , NRSS , VAFO
- Keywords
- Deer, Human Dimensions, Mammal, Mammal General, Mammalia, Odocoileus Virginianus, White-Tailed Deer, Wildlife Management