White-tailed deer herds have increased in size during the past two decades in many areas of the United States. There are several causes for this:
1. Urban sprawl results in deer-friendly landscapes with few predators.
2. Deer like environments that are a mixture of open fields and woods. Human activity has actually increased their preferred habitat in many areas.
3. Hunting usually is not a viable management option in suburbs, resulting in decreased mortality.
4. Our crops and ornamental plants provide high-quality, concentrated forage.
Deer affect people in many ways, including serving as a reservoir for Lyme disease, involvement in tens of thousands of deer-vehicle collisions every year, crop depredation, and nuisance activity in gardens and landscaped yards. They even affect biodiversity through intensive browsing of the forest understory in some locations.
