Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: West Virginia
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

The long-term resilience of forests in the face of climate change depends on ensuring that there is adequate seedling and sapling regeneration. In the northeast United States, the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is an abundant herbivore that can have widespread effects on forest vegetation communities. Because the abundance of deer can affect forest regeneration, being able to accurately monitor deer populations is critical. However, estimating the density of deer in areas of interest can be challenging because of the variety of methods that exist to collect and analyze deer population data, each of which has benefits, limitations, and sources of bias. To develop future management plans related to tree regeneration, the National Park Service is seeking to optimize regional deer monitoring efforts. We will support these efforts by helping the National Park Service develop a consistent, efficient approach to deer population monitoring, while aiming to minimize costs and complexity of monitoring, in addition to creating a decision-support tool to help managers plan future surveys and analyze data. This project is a collaboration between the National Park Service, West Virginia University, and the WV Coop Unit.