From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2013: (Actually published on November 20, 2013.)
Deerland: America’s Hunt for Ecological Balance & the Essence of Wilderness by Al Cambronne • Lyons Press (246 Goose Lane, Guilford, CT 06437), 2013. 263 pages, paperback. $18.95.
Opens Al Cambronne, “We live in Deerland. The U.S. now has over 30 million deer, a hundred times more than a century ago. They routinely disrupt entire ecosystems. They ravage our gardens and suburban landscaping, and every year they kill and injure hundreds of us on our highways…Still, deer are magical. Their mere existence makes the woods feel wilder. They signify far more to us than just meat, antlers, or a graceful, mysterious creature slipping through the shadows…We commute farther and borrow more so that we can live beside them. If money remains, we buy vacation homes where we’ll see even more of them. A few of us happily spend two or three years’ salary for a small piece of untillable land on which we can hunt them…Regardless of how you may feel about hunting, in many parts of America we now have a very real problem with too many deer. In some of those places, hunting is a big part of the solution. It’s also, some would argue, a big part of the problem.” Read more
