Chadwick Preserve POI C4 Deer Impact Monitoring Plots

Continue down the Meditation Trail and switchback until it meets the Long Point Trail. Take a right and proceed approximately 25 yards to the Minquas Trail. Continue forward approximately 20 yards on the Minquas Trail and on your left there will be a large wooden post and fence enclosed area. This is the Deer Impact Monitoring Plots, and you will notice a sign within the fence describing the project. A variety of observations in the roughly 36 acres of wildlife sanctuaries owned and managed by the borough of Rose Valley have long been consistent with ongoing severe forest degradation by the white-tailed deer population, which is far higher than it has ever been due to the extermination of their natural predators, including mountain lions and wolves. To test the hypothesis that deer overpopulation is the cause of the observed degradation, a scientist undertook a rigorous, quantitative approach to isolating and measuring deer impacts separately from all other effects on vegetation.

With the help of Scout Troop 272, identical arrays of 95 native small trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants of nine species were planted in these two adjacent cleared plots, matched in soils, topography, and sun exposure, one in which deer and no other herbivores were excluded and one accessible to deer. After 17 months of growth and herbivory, measurements were made of each species’ survival, flowering/fruiting status, stem count per plant, and height of each plant’s tallest stem. Spontaneously growing (unplanted) vegetation was also tallied in each plot so comparisons could be made of species diversity and relative estimated population sizes among native and nonnative invasive species.

The results showed extreme differences between the deer-present and deer-excluded plots in survival and performance of planted “phytometers” and in the composition of unplanted vegetation. Where deer were present, phytometer survival, rate of flowering, and number and height of stems were far lower, unplanted vegetation species richness and evenness were far lower, and dominance by nonnative invasive species was far higher than where deer were excluded.

Latham, Dr. Roger. Deer Impact Monitoring Plots. Notes for the Chadwick Preserve Points of Interest.

Deer Impact Monitoring, Rose Valley Environmental Advisory Council. Invalid date. Accessed September 28th, 2023.

Eagle Project of Andrew Carey, Rose Valley Boy Scout Troop 272. Invalid date. Accessed September 28th, 2023.