Doug Tripp, age 10, of Washington, Illinois, for his question:

Are deer useful or harmful to man?

People have different opinions on the matter. Some insist that the deer are a downright nuisance and even harmful    at least to the old pocket book. Others see the deer as lovely wild creatures who have every right to share our world. In fact, a few of these folk think that a world without deer would hardly be worth living in. In matters of opinion of this sort, it is up to each person to make up his or her own mind. An outsider only can point out facts on both sides of the debate.     

Ranchers who keep huge herds of cattle or sheep need vast stretches of land where their animals can feed. Some of this territory is wild or partly wild, already occupied by nature's animals. Many of them depend on the greenery that the sheep and cattle hope to find. When the deer, rabbits and other wild vegetarians eat up the greenery there is less for the domestic herds. The rancher has less meat to sell and there is less meat for us to buy in the market. Maybe the price goes up.     

This is a serious problem of our times. It explains why ranchers, butchers and people who sell meat tell the rest of us that deer are harmful to mankind. If the wild deer were removed from the scene, there might be more greenery to fatten the sheep and cattle and more meat in the market. People who have gardens in deer country also can come to hate deer when their roses and other flowers and young vegetables are eaten by these beautiful, but hungry, creatures. But a great many other people feel that we should find ways to let the deer keep their rightful place in the world.     

This is the ecologist's point of view    and nowadays, most of us think a lot about ecology. We know that this wondrous planet is our home    but we cannot live here alone, all by ourselves. We must share it with a multitude of plants and animals. They live in the wild, under nature's care. Some are those handsome, salad eating deer that some people say are harmful to us.     

Nature also provides the air and water, the food and everything else we need to stay alive. All we do is change these gifts to suit ourselves. But if we upset the wondrous ways of nature, we shall lose these things. This is what the problem of pollution is all about. We have messed up nature's plans to give us clean air and pure water. Strange to say, these wondrous plans will not work unless we share the world with the deer, plus that multitude of other wild plants and animals.

If we look at just one small nuisance, we can say that deer are harmful. If we want to keep our planet in good condition, we must look at the whole realm of nature. There the deer are needed to prune out surplus greenery, so that leaves can get the light and air they need to provide our oxygen. They also add waste material that the earth makes into new plant food. Their usefulness goes on and on because in the world of nature everything needs everything else. And we need the whole system, including the deer, to live in the sort of world we need and enjoy.