The Regeneration Myth: a Tale of Two States

By Greg Levengood

This spring, I had the pleasure of hunting spring gobblers in Maryland. My brother Rob, his friend Mike and I spent one weekend scouting and two extended weekends hunting longbeards in some of the finest turkey woods I have ever seen. Mike killed a nice 3-year-old, Rob missed one and your's truly didn't get a shot.

But this isn't a story about turkey hunting. No, it's about forest regeneration and acid rain. We hunted State Forest Lands that were predominantly oak, and I was absolutely amazed by the oak regeneration that was taking place, not only in the recently timbered areas, but in the canopy-covered old growth areas as well. There were seedlings popping up all over the forest floor, along with oak trees of all shapes and sizes growing everywhere.

Now the first thing the critics will say is that the deer numbers are quite a bit lower down there, enabling such prolific oak regeneration to take place. Actually, deer numbers in the area we hunted were greater than what I am used to seeing in the Susquehannock State Forest of Potter County.

It's also interesting to note that the antlerless deer season in this area is but one day long - a single day of concurrent buck and doe hunting on the last day of the firearms season. Unlike Pennsylvania, they are protective of their public-land deer herd.

No, there's only one variable I can think of that could explain this dramatic difference between regeneration there vs. Pennsylvania, and it has to be the quality of the soil. In the Green Ridge State Forest where we hunted, the average rainfall is the lowest in the state. Not only do they get very little precipitation, they get no acid precipitation. You see, Maryland isn't located downwind of the prevailing westerly winds that carry the coal-burning residue from the power plants in the Midwest, which later mixes with and falls upon our forests and waterways as acid deposition.

I'm not a biologist, hydrologist or forester, but the good Lord blessed me with enough common sense to tell me the answer to the question about Pennsylvania's poor oak regeneration isn't rocket science - and it isn't about deer, either. Why is it that people who are far more intelligent than a casual observer like me are not able to see, or perhaps don't want to see, what is so blatantly obvious?

It hit me as I was driving home. Traveling north on Interstate 70 into Fulton County, I noticed a billboard that said "Welcome to Coal Country." It was sponsored by an organization named F.O.R.C.E. (Families Organized to Represent the Coal Economy). I spent the next three hours thinking about the financial impact that the coal industry has on the state of Pennsylvania and why it just might be the sacred cow that lies at the root of our deer controversy.

A little research on the internet quickly revealed that Pennsylvania is the fourth largest coal producer in the United States. According to an article printed in Coal Leader which cited a keynote address by George Ellis, President of the Pa. Coal Association:

"Coal mining is a significant contributor to the state and local economies, generating on average over $2 billion in coal sales, employing 7,700 workers with a payroll exceeding $500 million and creating in additional 77,000 support service jobs with a payroll of about $1.4 billion. In Pa. in 2010, coal production and electricity generation will be responsible for $11.2 to $34 billion in increased economic output and $2.9 to $11.6 billion in increased household earnings, as well as 57,298 to 298,000 additional Pa. jobs. Mining and the infrastructure that supports it are huge consumers of goods and services and are truly wealth creating activities that serve as a significant economic engine that helps drive the regional economy of western PA. Tens of thousands of people in the region owe their prosperity to the presence of active coal mines."

Suffice it to say that the coal industry is no small player in Pa., and most likely contributes heavily to elected officials. In the political cesspool known as deer management in Pa., where deer population densities seem to be awarded to the highest bidder, I'm sure it would come as no surprise to anyone if it leaked out that the coal and timber industries carry the muscle.

It makes perfect sense then why the policy makers would quickly dispense of any talk about acid rain and continue to promote the "regeneration myth."

Folks, we do not have a forest regeneration problem in Pa.; we have an oak regeneration problem. Why is there never any mention of the tremendous black cherry, red maple and beech regeneration we have - all acid-loving tree species that grow prolifically in Pa. and are not a preferred food of deer? To say we have little or no regeneration is totally misleading and contributes to the "regeneration myth" promoted by the kill-the-deer crowd.

We could learn a lot about deer and forestry management from our neighboring state of Maryland. Instead, the powers to be at the PGC and DCNR keep their blinders on, promote false and misleading information about the impact of deer on our forests, and pursue their environmental agenda at the expense of sportsmen.

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