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Where Did All These Deer Come From?"A brief history of the whitetail deer restoration progam in Tennessee" by Dennis Goldsby
[ 1940 ~ 1949 ] [ 1950 ~ 1959 ] [ 1960 ~ 1969 ] [ 1970 ~ 1979 ] [ 1980 ~ 1985 ]
I can remember a time when a whitetail deer was something you only saw in one of our state parks and only then if you were real "lucky". Now my kids spot them on their way to school, see numerous deer tracks and sign when they play in the woods and fields behind our home here in west Tennessee. They think nothing of it; they can't imagine a time without "deer" roaming the wilds of Tennessee.
Actually, some folks say we have more deer within the borders of the state now than were here before the Europeans arrived on this continent 500 years ago. But this is a hotly debated subject within the deer research community and I am sure a book could be written about this topic. Here are the two basic arguments shared with me by Bryan Kinkle, an independent deer biologist who works for Woods and Associates, Inc., a wildlife consulting and management firm.
1) More deer now than ever before!
With our current agricultural and timbering practices, we have created far more deer food and raised the carrying capacity much higher than it used to be. Hence, we have far, far more deer now than ever existed before.
2) Fewer deer now than before the European!
So, the bottom line is, no one knows for sure and probably ever will!
What we do know for sure is from the most remote wilderness areas of the mountainous terrain of east Tennessee, to the streets of downtown Memphis (a couple of deer were caught roaming the busy downtown streets of Memphis a few years ago) in the flatlands of west Tennessee, the whitetail deer is everywhere! And this time, the whitetail deer is here to stay, thanks to an outstanding 45 plus year deer restocking effort and sound game management by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
In some areas, such as the very agricultural western part of the state, we probably actually do have much higher deer densities than ever before. In other habitat areas that are long-leaf habitat such as in the east, we have greatly decreased carrying capacity and may have far fewer deer than existed pre-European times. But like I mentioned above, we'll probably never know for sure.
Now, back to where we got all these deer...
From 1940 - 1985, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, then known as the Tennessee Game and Fish Commission, along with several other agencies, TVA and the US Navy (yes, the US Navy), who actually started restocking efforts in the later part of the 1930's, released more 9,000 whitetails onto private and public lands throughout the state with statewide coverage obtained by the projects termination in 1985.
During this time period, from 1940 - 1985, over 9,000 deer were relocated to the state, bred, trapped, and relocated. As many as 400 animals were released some years, and in other years, as few as 100 were released. The vast majority of the deer were released after 1965.
Where did the deer come from…
Truth be known however, at the outset of this restoration project, the majority of the deer came from out of state sources. Most came from the states of Maryland, Michigan, and Wisconsin, while there were also a few deer imported from Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma and North Carolina that were released into what has become our present day Tennessee deer population. These early releases of out of state deer were onto several Wildlife Management Areas where they were bred, trapped, and relocated to other areas of the state.
In 1948, the U.S. Navy released 6 deer obtained from Texas into a fenced enclosure on the Clarksville Naval Base, which we all know now as Ft. Campbell.
Once the deer population expanded on these initial stocking areas, the majority of the deer used to stock the remainder of the state came from these new "in-state" deer resources. AEDC, Ft. Campbell, and Chuck Swan provided the majority of the in-state deer. Other WMA's that were notable in this early in-state re-socking source are Cheatham, Catoosa, and Prinest Cooper WMA's.
Many thousands of man hours went into the success of this program, with activities such as such as maintaining trap lines, darting target animals, transporting and releasing the procured deer into new areas with low or no deer populations. Over the course of the program, the process grew from year to year, one year's knowledge passed on to the next, learning from trial and error as the program advanced.
Capture Methods…
Success at its best…
To view Tennessee deer restoration summaries by decade, just click on a link below...
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Just a few minutes drive down most any country road in the State of Tennessee and your very likely to spot the most sought after big game animal in North America, the whitetail deer. And don't be surprised if you spot one within the city limits of any of the major metropolitan areas in the state. But this was not the case in our not to distant past however. With the European settlement of what is now the state of Tennessee came un-controlled hunting, which proved devasting for the whitetail population in the state. By the early part of the 1900's, only an estimated 2,000 deer remained within the state's borders.
Good question, and one I have heard many rumors concerning. Growing up here in the south western part of the state, just a stones throw away from the Mississippi River bottoms and Shelby Forest Wildlife Management Area, I have heard many old timers talk about the native deer "still down in that river bottom" and they always held to the claim that some were trapped out to restock other areas of the state during the 1960's and early 70's. I am sure other parts of the state have similar type of restocking "tails", be it fact of fiction. But the only documented accounts of "native Tennessee deer" left in the state prior to the restocking program, were an estimated 2,000 deer in the Cherokee National Forest in the Smoky Mountains, more precisely the Cades Cove area. That's it!
As mentioned above, the other agencies besides the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency involved in this restocking effort include TVA, and the U.S. Navy. In 1937 TVA released some 14 deer obtained from the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina onto the Central Peninsula, which is now known as Chuck Swan WMA. Another 190 deer from Pisgah were released into the Ocoee and Tellico management areas in 1936 - 1937.
box traps (this is where the word trap line comes from), many were darted and others
caught in rocket nets. Also some deer were driven off islands on a few major
waterways & lakes and then captured in the water by agency personnel in boats. This
practice was very dangerous as you can imagine, so this technique was used only when
necessary. Most of the darting operations were freelance operations where deer were shot
from vehicles that drove around a capture site.