Deer Management

South Carolina Deer Management; How to stabilize and improve our deer herd’s quality and quantity

1 Aug 2012

Professor

EH 1020 English Composition II

August 1, 2012

South Carolina Deer Management; How to stabilize and improve our deer herd’s quality and quantity with updated laws

For South Carolina outdoorsmen, the topic of how to manage the state’s deer herd can cause some very heated debates. These debates range from how to, when to, and even if we need to manage our deer herd. In South Carolina, it is also a hot topic as to; who or what is to blame and or the need to even have the discussion about South Carolina deer management. The time is now to change the South Carolina deer hunting laws for better deer management. Specifically, South Carolina’s current liberal deer harvesting laws of one buck a day is to blame. The over exploitation of the liberal one buck a day law, allows and even encourages some hunters to kill any deer they wish no matter the age. This liberal harvesting of deer has created the old saying avid hunters have heard many times, “if it’s brown it’s down”. We can quickly make a positive influence to our South Carolina deer herd by changing our outdated deer harvesting laws. Adding to South Carolina’s deer herd decline is the over population of coyotes and the vast pine plantations in South Carolina.

Coyotes often hunt and feed on new born fawns that can’t defend their selves and fawns are an easy prey for a pack of coyotes. If you are an avid hunter and spend the first part of the South Carolina deer archery season in the lower counties of South Carolina, you will come across the carcass of a fawn, which has been slaughtered by a pack of coyotes. Additionally the pine plantations of South Carolina have also contributed to the decline in our deer population. There is no nutritional value in pine trees for deer. These pine plantations have significantly reduced the amount natural habit for the deer herd in South Carolina....