Informed consent: gaining support for removal of overabundant white-tailed deer on an Indiana state park

Excessive numbers of white-tailed deer have had a negative impact on the ecology of Brown County State Park in Indiana. It was decided in Mar 1992 by the Department of Natural Resources to establish a committee to address this problem. The activities of the committee were hampered by moves by a state alliance of environmental organizations to link deer densities within the park to forest wildlife management practices outside the park. Problems were also caused by lack of accurate information about deer population levels. However, it was eventually possible to remove 392 deer through a one-day hunt.