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BY MINH-DUYEN NGUYEN

In print | Published November 19, 2009

After several postponements, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has given Swarthmore College permission to proceed with its deer cull in Crum Woods. As a safety precaution, the College plans for the deer cull to take place during winter break when few students will be on campus.

To guarantee the safety of Swarthmore students and the surrounding community that uses the woods, the College has taken several provisions. First, the cull will be conducted by licensed sharpshooters working with the Pennsylvania Game Commission in areas pre-approved by the college. There will be “No Hunting/No Trespassing” signs posted to delineate areas where the cull will take place. Finally, the cull will be conducted in areas of the Crum Woods less used by the general public.

In concurrence with changes to the PGC regulations that specify that all private landowners and municipalities must allow hunting to occur with any cull, the College will be designing a controlled hunt. According to Maurice Eldridge ’61, Vice President for College and Community Relations, plans for an archery hunt are nearly completed.

This year’s deer cull will be the first in a series of many to keep the deer population down. The Crum Woods Stewardship Committee will continue to regulate the deer population and measure the restoration of the Crum Woods’ ecosystem.

“The cull will have to be repeated; intervals will be determined over time as the monitoring of forest rebound is undertaken,” Eldridge said. “The problem identified persists until we begin to address it; the effects of the over-population will take some years to reverse.”

The unmitigated growth of the deer population came to the attention of the College’s Crum Woods Stewardship Committee when the Natural Lands Trust and Continental Conservation issued a report in 2003 that detailed the degeneration of the Crum Woods ecosystem due to deer over-consumption of native plant species.

A report issued by the consulting firm, Natural Resource Consultants, in 2007, recommended the College use sharpshooters to reduce the deer population to a more sustainable number.

While the firm looked at other methods including controlled hunting and contraceptives to reduce the deer population, they concluded that these methods would cause safety and health risks.

In a statement issued by the College’s Crum Woods Stewardship Committee, the committee determined that “the most humane, forest-science-based, and socially responsible way to manage the deer population in the Crum Woods is to cull the herd.”

In the fall of last year the College applied for permission from the PGC for a deer cull in Crum Woods. However, changes in PGC regulations delayed plans for the deer cull last winter.

At the time the College applied to the PGC for a permit for the deer cull, regulations specified that only municipalities were required to apply for permits. As a nonprofit, the College was not yet required to obtain a permit.

However, in deference to future changes to regulations, the PGC advised Jeff Jabco, Co-Chair of the Crum Stewardship Committee, to apply for a permit.

Changes to regulations were not enacted until the PCG published the new regulations in the Pennsylvania Bulletin in the spring of 2009.

As a result, Swarthmore’s application to the PGC could not be considered until new regulations had been officially enacted.

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