That's a good read Sean.
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I travel Adam's County quite frequently. Also do some hunting there. Tons of wildlife habitat. A good portion of the county is fruit orchards. It's the 6th largest fruit producer in the country. Michaux state forest is huge. https://www.dcnr.pa.gov/StateForests/FindAForest/Michaux/pages/default.aspx"Wildlife habitat."
Your numbers are pretty much meaningless.
I don't live in PA, I can't see what it looks like there, other than via google map - which is an excellent birds-eye view of the area.
I just read 4-5 articles from diverse sources relating to "loss of wildlife habitat in PA" and they all say the same thing.
Here's a more recent one you may be familiar with:
Measure passed by Pa. House aims to protect state’s wildlife habitat
JUN 20, 2023
"In April, video of a mama bear herding three cubs across a road in Adams County as motorists waited for the family to get from one side to the other went viral, racking up nearly 4 million views.
Scenes like this are becoming more common, as deer, skunks, black bears and other wildlife are routinely forced to navigate the grid of roadways, fences, walls, and other obstacles that have been built amid their habitat and migration corridors over past decades.
Roads and other human-made obstacles have negatively impacted wildlife in a number of ways, reducing their ability to migrate, find mates, establish new territories, and limiting their access to food and water."
Bastian is hoping Pennsylvania – of which about 59% is forested but isn’t contiguous – becomes a model for how states provide wildlife corridors for its species.
“Our hope is this legislation will provide, literally, a road map for government, land trusts, watershed groups and private land owners to look at a bigger vision of what wildlife needs,” he said."
I hope other states follow suit also.
I'll adjust my estimate to 41%
The numbesr are accurate. Whatever habitat loss problem you think we have, doesn't exist, not unless you're going back to the days of William Penn, when 99% of the state was forest. Wildlife lives in and around the woods, and so does most of Pennsylvanians. The deer issue is unrelated to "habitat loss". It's poor herd management."Wildlife habitat."
Your numbers are pretty much meaningless.
I don't live in PA, I can't see what it looks like there, other than via google map - which is an excellent birds-eye view of the area.
I just read 4-5 articles from diverse sources relating to "loss of wildlife habitat in PA" and they all say the same thing.
Here's a more recent one you may be familiar with:
Measure passed by Pa. House aims to protect state’s wildlife habitat
JUN 20, 2023
"In April, video of a mama bear herding three cubs across a road in Adams County as motorists waited for the family to get from one side to the other went viral, racking up nearly 4 million views.
Scenes like this are becoming more common, as deer, skunks, black bears and other wildlife are routinely forced to navigate the grid of roadways, fences, walls, and other obstacles that have been built amid their habitat and migration corridors over past decades.
Roads and other human-made obstacles have negatively impacted wildlife in a number of ways, reducing their ability to migrate, find mates, establish new territories, and limiting their access to food and water."
Bastian is hoping Pennsylvania – of which about 59% is forested but isn’t contiguous – becomes a model for how states provide wildlife corridors for its species.
“Our hope is this legislation will provide, literally, a road map for government, land trusts, watershed groups and private land owners to look at a bigger vision of what wildlife needs,” he said."
I hope other states follow suit also.
I'll adjust my estimate to 41%
Well, you're the only one who thinks so.
That's nice to know.
No, you are.Well, you're the only one who thinks so.
https://ecosystems.psu.edu/outreach...has shown that as,species found in the forest.
I can keep bring up pertinent articles, with research based in PA all day long. The fact of the matter is you have no clue what's going on in PA. Deer are over populated, period. They haven't lost 40% of their habitat.
https://www.alleghenyfront.org/deer...-long-term-survival-of-pennsylvanias-forests/
Again, not loss of habitat...
Again, not loss of habitat...
According to PA House Resolution 87, there is a problem.
While the Resolution's main focus is on preventing animal/vehicle collisions by creating corridors, they also make it clear that there is a problem with dwindling wildlife habitat due to human activities.
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOC...d=0&billBody=H&billTyp=R&billNbr=0087&pn=1038
I'm not going to argue with you over this, I'm sure some of what you say is accurate.
But, I'm sticking with my 41% estimate of wildlife habitat loss that I can clearly SEE on the satellite view map.
Hr 87 is a touchy Feely resolution to make dirt covered bridges for animals over highways. Like all good politicians that want to blow tax money you need a good sob story to get it to go through, or a decent lie.
You can estimate whatever you'd like from the satellite, you're still wrong. There been no 41% loss of wild life habitat. Every thing I posted is 100% accurate, and verifiable. Most of which has the research sighted, with verifiable links. Your assumptions are just that, assumptions.
Loseing habitat, yet the population is still growing, something dont add up with all these statements. The answers are probably to simple to be understood. Deer and Bear are highly adaptable. They can live easily in a urban area as long as there is a adequate food supply. A family builds a new house, what is the first thing they do, they start landscaping. What do deer eat, they eat browse. A deer doesnt get much nutrition from a fully grown tree, cant even reach the leaves in most cases, but those landscape plants, they are just the right height for a deer to nibble on. Then you also have those nature freaks that love to see bambi in their back yards, they throw up a feeder and fill it with grain. All of a sudden you have bambi and its brothers and sisters wandering around between the houses. Deer get along just fine, so well in fact that some towns are hireing professional hunters to reduce the deer populations. Its not a loss of habitat causeing deer populations to be exploding, its the stupid people encourageing the deer to move into their neighborhoods. Clearcutting forests isnt making deer move into the cities. A clear cut forest turns into a deer paradise in under a year. Brambles, little trees, and all sort of browse grows up in the place of those big trees. A big oak might put out a large acorn crop one year and not the next and all sort of wildlife likes those acorns, but that crop of acorns wont last all year and deer have to resort again to eating browse. Of course if a deer can find crops, they will eat them, if they can find a feeder that is constantly being refilled, they will go to it to. I have huge whiteoaks all around my house, one year the acorns are plentyfull, so much so I could fill the bed of my pickup with them. The next year, not so much, I have deer in my yard when I dont have acorns, they make a meal of my wifes flowers. I could remove the trees and still have a deer problem. I know of at least two deer feeders less than 100 yards from my house, those folks keep those feeders full year round. There isnt any acorns on the ground right now but a deer is going to eat, and those feeders just keep pumping out the corn. The food is there and the deer keep coming and the does keep getting bred and the bucks do their thing and the population increases. A clear cut forest and loss of habitat didnt have anything to do with it.
You get it.
They're baaaaack! 
