Here is an interesting article about the results of QDM at Raystown.
Quote:
Commission divulges deer management numbers
By Bob Frye
TRIBUNE-REVIEW OUTDOORS EDITOR
Monday, May 26, 2008
If you want to know how the Pennsylvania Game Commission's deer management program is working, Raystown Lake Recreation Area in Huntingdon County may offer answers.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been hammering away at deer there in an effort to balance the herd with its habitat. It's also been collecting data to measure the success or failure of that effort.
There are some interesting numbers to consider, said Jeff Krause, the Corps' wildlife biologist at Raystown.
Raytown's deer population was estimated at 60 to 80 animals per square mile a decade ago. That had consequences, Krause said.
Timber cuts meant in part to produce habitat failed to regenerate. Desirable trees like oaks -- favored by deer as a food source -- were browsed back, allowing birch and red maple to take over.
To change that, the Army Corps began working to lower deer numbers. Since 2000, it has created additional parking areas for hunters, improved roads and access points, and, most significantly, got heavily involved in the deer management assistance program, or DMAP, which offers additional doe tags for specific properties.
That's put a lot of doe hunters on the ground.
"Counting regular antlerless deer licenses and DMAP tags, we're averaging 58 tags per square mile, which is 10 to 12 more per square mile then are even offered in special regulations areas," Krause said.
Not surprisingly, the result has been a significant decrease in deer numbers. The population is now estimated as 15 deer per square mile, Krause said.
That doesn't mean hunters aren't still finding and killing deer, however.
In wildlife management unit 2G, hunters kill about 2.5 deer per square mile. In unit 4A, the figure is about eight deer per square mile, Krause said. At Raystown, he said, hunters are taking 18-to-22 deer per square mile every year.
That means that while hunters may not necessarily see the same number of deer they might have 10 years ago, they're still shooting plenty of them, Krause said.
Now, by maintaining the herd at its existing size, timber cuts are successfully regenerating, he said. Cuts that were comprised of 23 percent oak seedlings prior to DMAP are 42 percent oak now, for example.
That's going to mean better habitat that will be able to support more deer in the future, Game Commissioner Russ Schleiden of Centre County told Krause at a meeting last month.
"I think what you're saying is that once we get the herd to where it needs to be, and the habitat starts to recover, the deer herd will rebound, too. That's something your data shows, and it's something commissioners have been saying all along," Schleiden said.
I think it is simply amazing that 15 over wintering deer can produce a sustainable harvest of 18-22 DPSM, especially since with a B/D ratio of 1:1.5 there would be only 9 doe to recruit 18-22 fawns and 3 of those would be female fawns that may or may not have been bred. But, I wonder why reducing the herd in 2G to 9 DPSM didn't produce similar results. Can anyone explain this apparent discrepancy?
__________________ In Miss. ,ARs reduced the average rack size of 2.5+ buck across the entire state
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