Deerland

Starred review from April 1, 2013
Wisconsinite writer and photographer Cambronne (Gut It, Cut It, Cook It) examines every facet of America's multibillion dollar deer hunting industry, covering a wide array of topics that will prove fascinating even for veteran hunters. With 30 million deer populating the U.S., and towns like Duluth, Minnesota, overrun, methods of downsizing the herd vary from contraceptive programs, relocations, and planting of unappetizing vegetationâall to little avail. Hungry deer cause extensive agricultural loss and rampant forest damage. Yet venison and big antlers equal big bucks. There are people who produce small farm fields especially for deer, while outfitters, suppliers, realtors, and hunters are otherwise involved in an almost unending array of moneymaking activity. Cambronne also addresses topics like high winter fawn mortality, Lyme and wasting diseases, modern "trail cam" ubiquity, manufactured scents, administration of damage claims from farmers, lollipop trees (deer-browsed young trees shorn of all but top-growth), and even camo corn (an earth-colored kernel, used as bait, that blends into the landscape). Deer management is vital and one challenge is to convince the public of over-population. For many these are emotional issues of individual livelihood as well as ecology, and Cambronne offer much to ponder.

April 15, 2013
A little over a century ago, there were only 300,000 whitetail deer in the continental United States. Today that number has exploded a hundredfold, leading to deer-related problems, including environmental damage, Lyme disease outbreaks, and more than a million car accidents per year, with averages of $1 billion in vehicle damage and 200 deaths. In this often unsettling and occasionally wry overview of the country's deer dilemma and some of its unheralded benefits, veteran wildlife journalist Cambronne delves deeply into the deer industrial complex and looks at the many proposed solutions for restoring a healthy ecosystem between human and herbivore. Beginning with a summary of the deer species' many Darwinian fitness advantages, Cambronne then dissects the deer-hunting culture, including the billions spent on gear and even on real estate for good hunting grounds. He also profiles lower-income hunters dependent on venison for sustenance, drivers traumatized by deer run-ins, and wildlife biologists conducting deer birth-control experiments. Highly recommended for anyone concerned about sharing our land with these paradoxically gentle and destructive creatures.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)