When I was growing up in central New Jersey, deer were a constant in my family's life. I vividly remember the weeklong firearm buck season with my grandfather's hunt club, culminating in hanging the bucks with all the hunters lined up for a picture after the closing day. I recall racing a large buck on the back of my horse through the woods behind my house one time, and watching does and fawns emerge in late spring in our pastures. But then, I also remember that throughout the year, deer were nibbling on the Christmas trees, corn and soybeans on the family farm. That is, when we weren't swerving to miss them on our country roads or fretting about contracting Lyme disease from the ubiquitous deer ticks.

Deer are one of the most revered and reviled wildlife species in our country. We brought them back from the brink of extirpation and now they run rampant in the perfected edge habitats we've created in our farms and housing developments. They draw the ire of suburbanites whose shrubs are browsed, whose cars are totaled, and who contract deer borne illnesses. They are beloved by wildlife watchers and Bambi lovers. And they draw legions of hunters to the woods each fall ? men and women who obsess over the hunt all year long, and spend billions of dollars in pursuit of the wily whitetail.

DEERLAND, a new book by Wisconsin writer Al Cambronne, takes a close look at this love-hate relationship Americans have with deer. The book, released by Lyons Press in early April, should be required reading for future wildlife managers who will be entering a field where answers aren't always black or white. Throughout their career they will probably have to deal with the conflict of values that has become the hallmark of managing wildlife resources.

DEERLAND opens with an overview of these highly adaptable creatures and the characteristics that have allowed deer to flourish throughout the country. The book focuses on whitetailed deer since they represent more than 80 percent of the roughly 30 million deer in America (just under 5 million are mule deer and blacktails). Whitetails have significant populations in 45 of our 50 states and also are present in much of Central and South America as well as almost every Canadian province. They are survivors, having evolved more than four million years to have acute senses that allow them to evade predators and the adaptability to make the best use of their habitats.

Cambronne then ventures within America's "Deer-Industrial Complex" ? the vast network of businesses that have developed to serve the whitetail hunter's obsession with deer. From optics to trail cams to camouflage and scents, most of the hunting industry's focus revolves around deer. Check out Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops and most of the pages of their catalogs and shelves of their stores are filled with gear for deer hunters. Cambronne quotes a 2011 Outdoor Life interview with Bass Pro Founder John L. Morris who said: "The whitetail deer is the backbone of the hunting industry in America, and not just in the fall, prior to hunting season. In the last decade we've seen deer hunters become year-round customers as they develop land and intensively manage their property."

This transition from seasonal hunter to landowner with yearlong commitments to quality deer management is explored with an in-depth look at Buffalo County, Wisconsin. The rural county, located in the southwestern part of the state, has yielded more record-book bucks than any other county in the country. As a result, real estate prices have skyrocketed as out-of-town investors line up to purchase property for hunt clubs. These dynamics have benefited some of the local community, priced out others, and generally made trophy deer the primary economic engine of the county. In Buffalo County, it's all about bucks and bucks ? of both varieties ? and this sort of deer-driven real estate values aren't uncommon across the country as hunters lose more handshake private land access opportunities and are willing to pay for access or buy their own piece of land.

Cambronne also takes on the practice of feeding deer and the resulting impacts this has on deer populations. Whether using corn feeders for bait, planting food plots, or simply providing a little extra corn for the deer under backyard birdfeeders, people are supplementing feed for deer and managers agree that it is doing more harm than good. Feeding deer changes population dynamics, unsustainably boosts populations, changes their behavior, and affects deer health.

Fed deer become domesticated and habituated to human presence. Although not quite tame, they're no longer wild. When they're fed like cattle, they act like cattle. They don't interact with us normally, and most of all they don't interact with one another normally. Watching deer at a backyard feeder is a lot like that Planet of the Apes scene where laughing apes toss loaves of bread into a cage filled with starving humans. Although it's hugely entertaining for the apes, it provides few insights into the secret lives of humans.

The remainder of the book touches on the many other facets of the complex relationship we have with deer. Cambronne describes the suburban deer invasion with the resulting increase in deer related diseases (my Facebook account today had a picture of my cousin's very sick little girl who is currently fighting Lyme disease) and automobile accidents. He talks about what happens when towns and communities ban hunting and the resulting deer population explosions ? followed by the loss of plant diversity, understory birds and other ripple effects throughout the ecosystems. He outlines the significant impacts to agricultural crops ? and the farmers who get depredation permits, and when those don't help, get compensation for crop loss.

But he also talks about other positive aspects and changing dynamics in the deer-human relationship. Venison provides some of the healthiest red meat that is available to people if they put in the time and effort to hunt it. Venison donation programs allow hunters and farmers to help the hungry by providing thousands of pounds of meat to food banks. In addition, the increase in "adult-onset" hunters and vegetarians-turned-hunters is emblematic of the growing "locavore" movement ? it also might provide a shift in demographics for what has been an aging and declining population of hunters. Cambronne also discusses unique urban hunt programs that are growing to address out of control deer populations in cities like Duluth, Minnesota.

The book is a careful look at the many ups and downs, and twists and turns of deer management. It covers our obsession with, and for some hatred of, the animals that we nearly pushed over the brink just over one hundred years ago ? and the consequences of actions that have once again made them common.

Perhaps most importantly it is a reminder of the complexities of managing wildlife in the twenty-first century. One statement summed this up for me, and is relevant for more aspects of our profession than just deer management. "To learn more about deer management ? I talked with the lead deer managers in half a dozen of America's top deer states. Although the details vary, all of them face the same issues. They don't have easy jobs, and the toughest part of the job isn't managing deer. It's managing people."

For some people there are far too many deer, for others there are never enough. But it's all a part of living here in Deerland.

DEERLAND is published by Lyons Press, a division of Globe Pequot Press, and is available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble.