Duke Forest kicked off its 18th annual deer herd reduction program Monday, closing parts of the Duke Forest Teaching and Research Laboratory until Dec. 12.
The program is operated in conjunction with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission’s Deer Management Assistance Program to manage the overabundance of the local white-tailed deer population, which can serve as a threat to forest regeneration and wildlife habitat stability.
Deer populations have grown significantly in North Carolina, largely due to repopulation efforts conducted from the 1940s to the 1970s. Humans also eliminated many top predators of deer throughout North Carolina, adding to the increase…