White-tailed Deer Monitoring Protocol for the Heartland Network Inventory and Monitoring Program

Long-term trends in deer abundance provide one measure of assessing their potential as a problem for a park. Documenting long-term patterns in deer numbers allows one to evaluate correlations with changes in vegetation (e.g., through restoration of the cultural landscape). With this information resource managers can more effectively identify and potentially mitigate damage caused to vegetation communities and endangered plant populations by deer. Monitoring data also helps managers assess safety risks from collisions and disease transmission. Long-term monitoring of deer numbers is critical in evaluating any population control measures a park may implement.