MSU begins study of whitetails' impact

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Checking a deer exclosure are (l-r) MSU deer specialist Stephen Demarais, MDWFP research coordinator Dave Godwin, MSU graduate student John J. Phillips, and USFS technician John Furr.

Mississippi State scientists are embarking on a 20-year study of the white-tailed deer's impact on native vegetation and other animals.

The university's Forest and Wildlife Research Center is co-sponsoring the effort with the state Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, United States Forest Service, Weyerhaeuser Co., and Anderson-Tully Corp.

"With a deer population of 1.75 million in Mississippi, the goal of our study will be to determine the effects of overabundant deer on the forest environment and on habitat quality for all wildlife species," said MSU deer specialist Stephen Demarais.

Demarais, an associate professor of wildlife and fisheries, and MSU wildlife biologist Bruce Leopold will lead a team of graduate students in the investigation.

Data already is being collected in and around exclosures, areas of five to eight acres surrounded by eight-foot-tall, high-tensile mesh fencing.

Baseline data were collected earlier this year and will be resampled over a two-season period every five years, he added.

The MSU team will measure deer impact both on native plant populations and timber resources.