The BPOA is holding a Community Coffee to discuss deer management in Big Canoe in the Mountains View room of the Clubhouse at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 10.
The guest speakers are a pair of noted naturalists who will address the need for deer management, which has been done almost annually in Big Canoe for nearly two decades. Jess Riddle, founder and manager of Green Leaf Ecological Consulting LLC, will cover the current state of forest health in Big Canoe and Odin Smith of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture will present solutions to ongoing issues.
Below is their background information.
Jess Riddle is the founder and manager of Green Leaf Ecological Consulting LLC. With a Masters of Ecology and research experience, he brings scientific understanding to issues. The former forest ecologist and executive director of the environmental non-profit Georgia ForestWatch, he also understands the human side of the environmental issues. His expertise is regularly sought as a speaker on north Georgia’s old growth forests, and he is the author of Georgia’s Mountain Treasures. His connection with Big Canoe goes back to when his grandmother had a timeshare here, and he has recently completed over 300 vegetation measurement plots here.
Dept. of Agriculture’s Odin Stephens addressing deer management at the Chapel in 2018.
Odin Stephens, Georgia State Director, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Odin graduated from the University of Georgia with a Masters of Forest Resources with research focused on white-tailed deer repellents. He has coordinated and implemented wildlife damage management projects for over 17 years. The Georgia WS staff has 28 full-time employees implementing wildlife damage management programs for a variety of cooperators including private property owners, farmers, county, state and federal entities. Additionally, surveillance is conducted across the state to monitor for a variety of wildlife-associated diseases. He spoke about deer management in 2018
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