By RICHARD NEBEL
Los Alamos

This is a response to a recent article in the Los Alamos Daily Post (link) on not feeding the wildlife, primarily the deer. When we first came to Los Alamos in 1980 there weren’t many deer in town. That was true until about 2000. Since then, the population has been going up.

Why is that? The most likely answer is the big fires. Mature forests are not good habitat for deer. Very little grows on the forest floor so large animals don’t have much to eat. However, when a major fire clears out all of the trees, the forest initially comes back as small trees and shrubs. That’s “browse”, and deer love browse. In other words, the food supply for deer in the Jemez has exploded. Consequently, the number of deer in the Jemez has exploded as well.

I suspect that the reason we are seeing more deer in Los Alamos is simply because there are more deer in the Jemez. Just like with the bears, Los Alamos is part of their habitat. Consequently, passing an ordinance making it illegal to feed the deer isn’t likely to reduce the number of deer in town.