I fully understand what the carrying capacity is in all tyes of forest compositions.It's readily apparent that in many areas around here,there is very little for the deer to eat during winter.When an area gets cut,the deer quickly ravage it,destroying most of the good regeneration.That's starting to change now with the herd being reduced.I'm seeing many areas where the stump sprouts are actuallystarting to grow out of the deer's reach.I never saw that before.I live in an area that is extremly overbrowsed because no hunting has been allowed in over 40 years.Fortunately we're changing that this year butthe habitat is some of the worst I've ever seen.I can give you the statistics from our browse impact studies but I know you've already heard them.Basically,there is no browse except for some beech and it's severly impacted.We timbered over 100 acres the last two years and no regeneration is present in those cuts.None.We've done two browse impact surveys with PSU over the past two years to confirm that.This area is an extreme example because we have between 60-90 dpsm and it's been like that for decades.In any event,even with this years mild winter and excellent mast crop,I haven't seen a set of twin fawns yet.I've seen a bunch of fawns over the past week on this property and every one of them have been singles.Most of the does that are with fawns are obviously mature as well.The state of the habitat absolutely effects the health of the herd and recruitment.Again,this is an extreme example but probably not too far off of what many areas where like a decade or so ago.

I don't expect a well developed understory in pole timber but I do expect some regeneration to grow past the deer when an area is cut.Up until recently,that was hard to accomplish around here.I will admit that there are some exception in certain places.Overall though,the regeneration is much better recently.I also expect there to be somewhat of a mid level understory insaw timber.Wall to wall trees with nothing growing but ferns is not good habitat.I realize other factors contributed to this problem than just the deer but it still doesn't change the fact that the carrying capacity is poor.

Ihunt with a rifle and see deerduring that season as well.Every year I have to pass on a few bucks in rifle season because my tag is already filled.Most of my observations are based on what I see during hunting season.Too many factors influence deer movements during that time so I don't think you can fairly evaluate the situation.That's especially true if a guy is only in the woods one or two days.He really has no clue what's out there.My opinions are based on what I see on a year round basis since I live here and spend so much time in the woods.Winter time paints an especially interesting picture.Also,once the end of june rolls around,I have several cameras that I rotateall over the place.I have a pretty good idea ofwhat's out there.Obviously I can't tell you how many deer are in a certain area but I feel I can evalutate the population trends with some degree of accuracy.

It's yet to be seen what the long term effects of attrition will bring to 2G.You may be right about hunters not wanting to return.I don't want to see that happen but if it does,I imagine it will increase the opportunties for those that are willing to still hunt here.Pressure has been way down the last 2-3 three years and I imagine it will be even less this year.Less pressure will almost always equate to less sighting in rifle season.That's a fact that far too many huntersdiscount.