ANF Report

[bluebird2]

You take the good with the bad.

Some local hunters won't be happy to learn there was a sharp decline in whitetail deer harvest numbers in Warren County and the surrounding areas in 2007.

The bright side?

The deer are getting bigger, allowing for more trophies to be taken.

Deer harvest numbers in Wildlife Management Unit 2F, which contains most of the Allegheny National Forest and the eastern half of Warren County, saw a 22 percent drop last year, including a sharp 33 percent decline in the opening day buck harvest.

U.S. Forest Service wildlife experts estimate that the deer population in the ANF has stabilized at around 14 deer per square mile, thanks to an aggressive management program instituted by the state's Game Commission.

In contrast, deer numbers were at 30 or more per square mile in the 1970s in the ANF. The reduction has returned the whitetail population to something more akin to Pre-European days, when the deer density was estimated to be six to 10 per square mile.

The advantage of having a lower deer population is two-fold, according to ANF wildlife biologist Brad Nelson. The deer are bigger and the forest is regenerating.

"A lot more hemlock and oak seedlings are surviving and growing into large trees," Nelson said. "We're starting to see the shrubs come back."

Prior to the Game Commission's campaign to reduce the herd numbers, whitetail deer were using the plant life in the ANF as a proverbial all-you-can-eat salad bar. According to Nelson, there was a visible "browse line" throughout the national forest evidence that the deer were eating everything they could reach.

"Any time we did a timber harvest, we needed to fence in the area to allow the new trees to develop," Nelson said.

According to Nelson, the Forest Service has stated between 10 to 20 deer per square mile as its target deer population for the ANF in the latest revision of its Forest Plan. "We think right around 15 is where we need to be," he said.

What effect is reducing the deer population having on the deer, themselves?

"The deer are bigger now," Nelson said. "We have some good data on that. The antler restrictions have resulted in larger racks, as well as heavier deer. We had a 190-pound deer taken in archery season in the southern part of the county. Boy, a few years ago that would have been unheard of in this area."

According to Nelson, prior to the Game Commission's campaign to reduce the size of the deer herd, there were more does than bucks in Pennsylvania's woods. "Consequently, we had a lot of deer without a lot of good habitat. We had underweight deer who weren't as healthy as they are today."

Nelson's prediction for the upcoming buck and anterless deer seasons?

"There seems to be a lot of good food out there," Nelson said. "A lot of apples, black cherry mass and acorn mass. There should be some large deer out there. It should make for some good hunting."

So did ARs increase the rack sizes of 2.5+ buck or did it just stop hunters from shooting the small,non-AR legal 2.5+ buck?