germain,you say there's plenty of food but then you say most of the regneration is beech,cherry and maple.Maple is a preffered browse species but the other two are not.What you expect the deer to eat during the winter?The bottom line is,the herd crashedaround here after the winters of 2003 and 2004 because there wasn't enough browse.The habitat is terrible around here and having 38 dpsm is the reason we're in this situation.

I agree that regeneration isn't going to be the same under a close canopy as it is where it can get alot of light.That's all part of forest succession though.As the forest matures,the carrying capacity is greatly decreased for many years until it slowly increases a little once mast begins to be produced.unfortunatly,if all you have it beech,maple and cherry,mast is very limited and the carrying capacity would be much lower.I didn't want to believe it myself Rich but we had way too many deer for too long and now we'll have to live with alot less for quite a while.