The Maritimes' disappearing deer
- Thread starter Rob
- Start date
No different than Alberta. We have logging and associated spraying of herbicides. Our whitetails were flourishing till a couple of rough winters put the crimp on them and they won't take long to rebound. whitetails are a very adaptable animal, if your deer are disappearing, better look a little deeper.
Grizz
Grizz
There's not too far deep to look, one company, irving cuts down all the hardwoods, plants hybrid spruce and sprays to kill off all new natural growth. You see miles and miles of barren plantations with nothing but a few squirrels. In the past few years the government has even given them the rights to cut previously protected deer wintering areas.
No food and no sheltered wintering areas = no deer
Now this is something worth protesting and fighting for. It's too bad we as hunters, conservationists and environmentalists couldn't come together to combat or at least express our displeasure about this issue. It could possibly have an impact, maybe.
Dusty
That's just a phase. Once the trees get a start, the vegetation grows back, excellent wildlife habitat, especially once the trees get some size. Great place to hunt.
Grizz
longbranch*
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Victoria,BC.
Good point. Throw in some harsh winters and heavy poaching. I hunted there for a week back in '93. Didn't see a live deer all week.
Having worked there previously and having a birds eye view (literally), all I can say to the anti-Irving protests is What your spewing is pure BS. Yes, there have been some older growth mixed areas that have been cleared. There have been stands of pure softwood blocks also cleared. This is not done at random, or by some conspiracy, it's a very well thought out forestry management plan in action, with extreme care and due diligence taken for the environment and the next generation. Everything that is cut is replanted. Everything. With a substantial amount of investment put into seeing the block regrow, survive and replenish. Yes, herbicide is applied. It's done with very advanced, gps tracked, guided, and only activated when a number of factors are present, in quanities no more than nessicary, as it all costs money,...big money to do. This has to be done to suppress hardwood growth, as its naturally aggressive nature would outpace newly plant softwoods. As for barren tracks of land cleared with no life, that's also BS. There are some places plaster rock area like this, but none Irving ground. Previous failed companies are to blaim for this, and the government for not making sure they comply.
As for no more hardwood wintering areas, that's also BS. What there is, is less of ithe easy to access (closer to cities and towns) areas to those stands. This was done for strategic regions. Easy access means building roads. This is expensive to do and maintain. Allowing people access cost more money with no payback (from a business perspective). So those previously accessible hardwood stands were gated. Unlike with government, if you cost Irvings money, you get cut off, period. People abused the system, and are being locked out because of the nitwits.
There are thousands of acres of hardwood stands still remaining in NB, trust me, I've seen them at my favourite time of year and the leaves of colour don't lie. What is lacking, is people willing to make the trek to get to them, as vehicle access is almost none existent; they are in more remote parts of the province, almost untouched, and they are beautiful. There are some roads near, but none directly to them; direct access was not made for a reason....but they can be accessed. Heaven forbid anyone having to work to go hunting; the days of driving around with your buddies half cut in a half ton shooting out the door need to come to an end. The hardwood is there, and the deer population is there as well. But the anti Irving people prefer to ignore this type of information, and focus on the 5 acres in their backyard that didn't grow back instantly after it was cut.
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Maritime Storm
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Riverview, NB
1. The province of New Brunswick pays for this herbicide spraying program, because they are the land owner not Irving, look into it. 2. The Jack Pine & Black Spruce replanting is the exclusive tree planted on those tracks in SE NB, where Irving doesn't have the province spray they can regrow to a wildlife sustainable forest, where they do spray nothing but they pine & spruce grow and very little can live there. I know because I've grown up in near plantations. One track near my home has a power line that seperates and sprayed vs a none sprayed replanting, I can hunt on one side, nothing lives on the other. Irving builds great logging roads and does maintain them, if we could stop the spraying program they may actually be doing some good for the woods in this province.
Ditto. Same here in the northern parts of the province. Funny how someone from Alberta knows so much about our forests, wonder whom they work for.
MIRAMICHIER
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Miramichi,Nb
Deer have been dropping off in our area Renous Plaster Rock where we hunt for the last 10 Years,everybody has a theory mine is the Winters you have 1 bad winter they might recover 2 or 3 in a row odds are not good, around the House this year seen Moose,no Doe's or Fawns that is not a good sign.Just my view.
Except in these cases they spray herbicide a few years after they replant and kill off everything except their planted spruce, which are planted tightly enough that they dominate and block out light to anything nearby. You can go for miles along these old cuts and the only time you will see anything besides a spruce is along the edge of the road in the ditch.
Ditto. Same here in the northern parts of the province. Funny how someone from Alberta knows so much about our forests, wonder whom they work for.
Sounded just like the irving billboard signs "we plant millions of trees every year". It's too bad they plant foreign import trees and kill off the native trees. It's like maritime said, when you come up on those plantations of hybrid spruce, it's a wasteland.
Well - Years ago (early 70's) I worked the summers doing geochemistry in NB. This meant a lot of walking through the woods. We came across a lot of areas that had been logged previously by Irving. Big signs were posted along the logging roads saying the land had been logged and replanted about 15 years before. We'd jump out of the truck, start to traverse into the woods. All was good for the first couple of hundred yards - a mixed forest of softwood and poplar. Then you'd come to a moonscape - the land was a mess - covered in slash, with no tree planting. Streams had deteriorated into swamps.
Of course, Irving knew that the govt inspectors would only check close to the edge of the logging roads...
Of course, Irving knew that the govt inspectors would only check close to the edge of the logging roads...
Ditto. Same here in the northern parts of the province. Funny how someone from Alberta knows so much about our forests, wonder whom they work for.
Most of the logging around here is done by a company originally from New Brunswick.
Grizz
