New Culprit Threatens a Park's Rebirth Years After Fire

[TexasTowelie]

photo by: Martin do Nascimento

Greenery has begun to cover the scars of a devastating fire that ripped through 32,000 acres of Central Texas three years ago. Feeding on tinder and trees withered from a searing drought, the Bastrop County Complex Fire burned for nine days, destroying more than 1,600 homes, before it was brought under control.

Also lost to the blaze was 96 percent of Bastrop State Park, a 6,565-acre home to the loblolly Lost Pines Forest and the endangered Houston toad.

As shrubs and seedlings have taken hold in the scorched park, however, park officials face a new quandary. An abundance of whitetail deer, they say, is threatening the new growth. Park officials will soon begin allowing the deer to be hunted, saying it is necessary if the park is to bounce back.

“Before the fire, we had a closed canopy forest where there wasn’t a lot of new plants sprouting that the deer like to eat, so we had a really stable population,” said Jamie Hackett, the park’s superintendent. “Since the fire, it is much more open, and there are lots of things growing. There are new oaks and shrub sprouts. Deer love to eat that, so their population is on the rise, and with that we want to make sure we keep a healthy and balanced ecosystem.”

Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2014/12/01/new-culprit-threatens-parks-rebirth-after-fire/

[shenmue]

1. :(

Sad for the deer.

[Politicalboi]

2. All they have to do is put a sign up

Can't deer's read. Like with the Deer Crossing signs.

[TexasTowelie]

3. !

[Politicalboi]

4. Old Saturday Night Live

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/79/79sdeer.phtml