THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996 TAG: 9610310482
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MEREDITH COHN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 93 lines
Each year the unspoiled beauty of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge draws hundreds of hunters to rustic, wooded spots for a day with nature - and a shot at a deer with a nice rack.
But the rugged terrain can be dangerous, many hunters have learned. In the 18 years since the hunt was started to manage the deer population, men have emerged from the woods with injuries, including a broken back, a broken leg, a foot with a bullet hole and various scrapes and cuts. Some haven't returned until the next day.
``Anyone who gets a deer from here deserves it,'' said Will Haas, a hunter who lives in Southampton County and volunteers at one of four checkpoints where harvested deer are brought to be counted and inspected.
The only time Haas has been hunting in the swamp was two years ago. He followed the directions of a hunter to a site where he claimed to have shot a deer.
``It was so thick there you would have needed a bulldozer to get through,'' said Haas, adding he wasn't sure how the man got the carcass out.
The final session of the special five-week season is today through Saturday. Refuge director Lloyd Culp said about 109 deer had been harvested this season.
Culp said this year has seen ``the smoothest hunt in several years,'' and that the only reported mishap was one man who was lost for several hours. Because his hunting partner was able to tell refuge officials where he had gone into the woods, rescuers had the hunter within ear shot right away, and they used sirens and flares until he reached them.
``He was conscious and he wasn't really hurt, but he was dog tired,'' Culp said. ``That gentleman's rescue was pretty quick, nothing like the overnighters.''
The ``overnighters'' are those who spend the night in the swamp, usually because they wandered too far off the dirt roads and lost their way.
One man a few years ago who was missing overnight, Culp said, walked out of the swamp just as a search and rescue team was gearing up to go in. He had gone to sleep in a tree, convinced he couldn't find his way out in the pitch-black night, and didn't hear calls for him.
A man who fell from his tree stand and broke his back managed to drive his truck to a checkpoint. Culp and five others had to carry a man who broke his leg to the nearest road on a board.
``It was slow going,'' Culp said. ``It took us two or three hours.''
While injuries still occur, Culp said most of the search-and-rescue missions could be avoided if hunters used a compass in the seldom-traveled woods. He acknowledged that the swamp, a federally protected haven for wildlife, is an unlikely place for hunting.
But the number of deer in Virginia has exploded to an estimated 800,000 to 1 million, said Glen Askins, regional wildlife manager and biologist for the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries in Williamsburg.
``Deer have the ability to eat themselves out of house and home,'' Askins said. ``If left uncontrolled they can eliminate large components of habitat valuable to other wildlife species.''
Askins said, for example, that when deer eat all the vegetation up to 5 feet off the ground, they eliminate the nesting areas for 80 percent of the song birds in this part of the country.
Culp said about 1,300 hunters got permits to hunt in the swamp this year, and wildlife biologists are hoping a few hundred deer are harvested.
The season began at the refuge began Oct. 3. Virginia hunters who paid $10 for a permit can shoot up to three deer on public property around the state. The state has allowed two extra deer per hunter this year on refuges.
Last year, 200,000 deer were harvested in Virginia, including about 100 from the Great Dismal Swamp, Culp said.
Culp said it would be impossible to determine how many deer live in the swamp, but that from years of harvesting, biologists can determine the health of the refuge's herd.
The Dismal Swamp was created in the 1970s and the use of hunting as a management tool began in 1979, Culp said. Data is gathered from all the deer brought to the checkpoints, including their weight and age. Biologists also try to determine if stomach parasites exist.
With hunting, the average weight has increased and parasites have decreased, Culp said.
``That confirms we need the control,'' he said. ``Without it, over time, we would see a decline in habitat and the herd's health.''
Culp said he expects to continue the hunts, but said, ``if we could only get the hunters to carry a compass. . . . '' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Refuge director Lloyd Culp said this year has seen ``the smoothest
hunt in several years.''
Graphic
What: An annual deer hunt in the Great Dismal Swamp.
When: The final weekend of the five-week hunt is today through
Saturday.
Info: For more information, call 986-3705.
KEYWORDS: DEER HUNTING by CNB